Cottage garden

Having moved (hopefully for the last time!) in March, we are relishing the garden which is well stocked with surprises.  A traditional cottage garden, I am finding great pleasure in just wandering around each morning to discover what's new.  Yesterday, I took out my camera to try out a particular lens - the Olympus Zuiko 75-300 f/5.3-6.7  I have been yearning for the 40-150 f/2.8, but feel that following our house move I had better be sensible!  I was pleased with the differential focus separation achieved with the 75-300 when used wide open, but also the lens is giving me nice sharp rendering of the principal subject.  I never cease to be amazed by the Olympus OMD's image stabilisation system which enabled me to take all of these shots hand held with a lens which is equivalent to a 150-600mm focal length on a full frame camera: for non-photographers who are reading this, there is a convention that the shutter speed should never be less than 1/(focal length), so this first shot would have to be 1/600 or less - it was actually taken at 1/160, or 4 x the time required without image stabilisation

ISO 400 300mm f/6.7 1/160

ISO 400 300mm f/6.7 1/320

ISO 400 300mm f/6.7 1/320

ISO 400 75mm f/6.3 1/500

ISO 400 5/6.7 1/125

ISO400 75mm f/6.3 1/100

ISO 400 156mm f/6.3 1/160

ISO 400 132mm f/6.3 1/80