Return of the Drama Queen, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a Drama Queen Poppy, Papaver somniferum, that reseeded itself in my garden. I bought the original Drama Queen from Annie’s Annuals, and photographed the flowers last year.

Early this morning, the sun was glowing through this gigantic and colorful poppy, with a wall of climbing roses behind it. I photographed the Drama Queen up close and personal with my camera on tripod using my new 12-24mm Nikkor (18-36mm in 35mm terms).

This wide angle lens fills a gap in my “portfolio of optics,” falling between the 18mm lower end of my standard lenses (27mm in 35mm terms) and my 10.5mm digital fisheye, which shows obvious curvature. So its great to be able to get up close to a subject with this wide angle lens, like this in-your-face Drama Queen, and still be able to show background. The lens seems to be quite sharp, and I am enjoying learning its characteristics.