Captured 10/3/09, at the beautiful San Diego International Orchid Fair, held in the beautiful San Diego Botanic Garden in beautiful Encinitas, California, just north of beautiful San Diego. This is/was the 15th annual Orchid Show and Plant Sale held at this site, participated in and put on by a whole host (28) of orchid vendors. This backlit trio of pics was hastily postworked in order to get it on Rendo as a sample of what will be coming your way in the weeks and months to come. Before I proceed further with the details, I must admit that I'm tired. Yesterday I drove a helter-skelter 83.6 miles down to Encinitas for this annual event, very early in the morning, so I could beat the crowd and get a good parking spot, and then took 542 photos of not only the lovely orchids, but also much of the botanic gardens. The main reason I'm bushed is because much of the 35-acre garden is quite hilly and roller coaster in layout...offering somewhat of a challenge for this decrepit ole boy. And then the partially helter-skelter, partially bumper-to-bumper, drive back home. Since virtually all of the orchid shots were taken indoors, there was a high loss rate due to poor lighting conditions, lousy focus, camera shake, and a flash, which I discovered to my utter chagrin, that is not precisely sychronized with my shutter. Ergo, I've trashed fifty of my orchid shots so far. Sorry about that. I'm still in the process of examining and postwork Photoshopping the rest of the vast array, so it's still in the nascent stage. But wait, there's more! If things work out as planned, I intend to attend another orchid show in a couple of weeks. And, from what I've learned from yesterday, I hope to get better shots at that event, which will be much closer in mileage. So, who needs roses?! Thankx for looking in, and tallyho.