Some B&W Flowers and a Sob Story

[JAS_Photo]

Last week, I had some time between shifts at work and thought I might spend it across the street taking photos of the formal gardens at Beaulieu, a heritage home that has been turned into a restaurant and public garden. Well, I took a few shots in the formal garden and thought I would go up to the gardens near the house to grab a few more. The gardens and the yard are separated by a little iron fence and gate and the gate is about 12 inches high. (30 cm) I go to step over it and my foot gets caught up on the gate somehow that I can not explain and and time stopped while I tottered and was finally unable to maintain my balance. I went crashing down on the cement walkway along with my almost new camera with its almost new 70-300 mm lens. I heard the clink of the lens hood and expected the worst but an inspection showed that only a bit of dust got on the camera. My left leg however was bruised and scraped up pretty badly. The brand new pair of pants I was wearing were non the worse for wear. More than a week later my leg is still swollen and bruised but my camera was saved by the lens hood! Yay!

Anyway, here are a couple of photos I took before the big crash. I must be the only photographer in the history of the world who has sustained injuries in the pursuit of garden flowers. :(