Day 131/365 Grandma's garden

So today I was out trying to take a picture of a bird on the bird feeder when I noticed that my Grandma's peonies were blooming down below me!  The beautiful, bright pink caught my eye, so I decided to walk down below the deck and take a picture of them.  This is the same bush that I took a picture of a while back with the ant on the bud.  Gorgeous! I love, love, love these flowers!


EXIF: 1/160 sec, f 5.6, 84mm, ISO 200

Her irises {or flags, as she called them} were also blooming nicely, so I have a mix of pinks and purples in the back yard.


EXIF: 1/160, f 3.5, 18mm, ISO 200
I was NOT shooting in RAW....crap.  I had the camera in jpeg for the soccer game because I didn't want to edit all of those pics.  I accidentally left it in jpeg and did NOT like losing that control that I have when I shoot RAW.  Those irises could have looked much better if I was in RAW...
I got a new lens for Mother's Day- a Tamron 18-200 lens- this one should be great for Costa Rica!  I won't have to constantly change lenses when focusing on monkeys and volcanoes!  I took these pictures with that lens, and I think it's obvious that it's not extremely sharp.  I'll have to practice a little more with it so that I can get some great pictures in Costa Rica.