At Mary’s urging I bought a $5 amaryllis at Walmart, convinced that it was a bad purchase and would be inferior to the nice ones I usually buy at somewhat greater cost. It bloomed this week and I attach a couple of pics, two of about 100 I shot trying to get a feel for the many features of my new camera. They were chosen mostly to show the repairs I had to make when the flimsy plastic pot tipped because the blooms were so big. There are three 8″ blooms on one stem with another coming and there are at least two coming on the second stem. The first stem fell against the table top and bent at a 90 degree angle. The second suffered a puncture wound. I fumbled in the medicine cabinet, found some adhesive bandage and wrapped the stems using a tongue depressor as a splint. So far the patients are still blooming and seem healthy, though I don’t expect the wounds to actually heal.
They made for good photography practice in the absence of daffodil blooms which are still a long way off in Chicago.
The camera is a FujiFilm HS20EXR and has about a gazillion new things to learn about. The lens is equivalent to 24mm-720mm with two macro settings., one down to a centimeter.
George Dorner