Last Saturday, I traveled with my dear friend Victoria to the flower district. Between 6th & 7th Ave along 28th Street, there are scattered flower stores throughout. It was one of the first true days of Spring, and I was in awe at the colors, the vibrancy, and the freshness of the flowers. Even though they weren't quite sprouting from the ground, something about it felt so fitting for how this city does spring. I was fortunate enough to have my camera on-hand from a photoshoot earlier that morning, and couldn't resist getting some tight shots of nature at its finest. Can you tell tulips are my favorite? From a photography standpoint, I was actually quite amazed at how little I had to edit these photographs with Camera Raw. I've recently been shooting both in Manual mode and with Manual Focus as a means of solving the focus issues I've been having with my 50mm prime lens. I've found that I'm much happier with my photos afterward - probably because I'm putting more thought and precision into my settings and how I'm framing the shot. I've included the settings along with each photo below: 
F/2.0 | 1/250 | ISO 100
F/4.0 | 1/60 | ISO 1600 (this was shot indoors)
F3.5 | 1/60 | ISO 200
F2.8 | 1/125 | ISO200
F3.5 | 1/1000 | ISO1600
(Clearly the ISO was a leftover setting and for some reason I decided to compensate with the shutterspeed..the reverse would probably have made more sense)