While I was in the Smokies in September, I took a couple hours to myself and walked down and back up the hill with my Nikon N2000 and my 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 Zoom Nikkor lens, with Kodak Ektar 100 inside. I shot all sorts of things on my walk, but I can seldom resist photographing flowers before I pass them by. I’ve become pretty good at recognizing the flowers I find in Indiana. But Tennessee has some flowers I don’t know.







I expected the oversaturated reds from the Ektar, but not the oversaturated yellows. This 35-70 zoom lens is not one of Nikon’s finer moments, frankly — there’s tons of barrel distortion at 35mm. But shot at 50mm or narrower, it yields some fine bokeh and is sharp enough.