Morning Petunias, RHD Lake View Garden

We had come up to Rangamati for the lake, and the plan that morning was to walk through the RHD Lake View Garden and get down to the water. I made it about ten steps. There is a low brick planter right where the path starts, and someone had filled it with petunias, deep pink going purple at the edges, the whole lot leaning out over the brickwork towards the light.

It was around half nine and the sun was already firm, coming down through the big trees and breaking the path into patches of light and shade. That is what stopped me, more than the flowers on their own. The path behind them went soft and speckled while the petals stayed bright. I had the 18-55 on, so I opened it to 18mm, dropped down until the camera sat level with the top of the planter, and got in close. f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 125. At 18mm you get almost no separation unless you are nearly touching the subject, so I was nearly touching it.

The rest of the garden is still in the frame if you look past the flowers: the white lattice fence, the lamp post, the haze sitting over the hills. This was the same March trip that gave me the sunset over the Kaptai valley three days earlier. Different end of the day, same haze over everything.