2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Yellow Flower Against Black Background

Amazingly, this picture - with the exception of some sharpening - is completely untouched.  Normally I'd desaturate the color for effect, but the leaves in the background here are naturally black.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Bee on Flower in Profile

This and the pic that will be posted tomorrow are probably my two favorites of the Halifax shoot.  Bees are a little bit challenging to capture; once they land it's necessary to work fast, snapping as many shots as possible before they take off again.  This was the best of about seven taken from a profile perspective of the flower.  Some distracting elements were removed from the background, and voilà - we have a keeper.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Red Squirrel

Not sure how much time we spent in the Dahlia tent, but I went crazy in there and snapped at least 30 unique photos, each with three loud mirror clacks due to bracketing for exposure compensation.  Must've seemed obnoxious, as I was the only one not taking pictures with a phone camera.

Next we ventured to other parts of the park, which featured equally interesting subjects, such as this red squirrel.  Zooming way in, what interested the critter wasn't obvious, but something must have been moving in the root ball that attracted its attention.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Dahlia Boquete

 

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Red and Orange Dahlias

 

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Awesome Red Flowers

Not sure this was a Dahlia, but was under the tent nevertheless.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Red Flower Against Green Background

This pic, likewise, only needed a little sharpening.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Pink Flower Against Green Background

Surprisingly, this picture is relatively untouched...just a bit of sharpening was all it needed.  Made a good candidate for square dimensions, which is why it also made it into the collage published a few days ago:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Flower Used for Promotional Card

Extracted just the foreground flower in this guy, then used it for a promotional card:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Dahlia Varieties

A little collage showing the myriad varieties of the Dahlias - best viewed on a larger screen.