Most of the time, my 50mm lens is on my DSLR. It is my favorite lens to use in most cases. And because it is so light, it makes the whole camera easy to pop into my bag and take along with me should I feel the urge to bring it along.

But this week, I kept my longest lens on my camera, which is my 55-200mm lens. My favorite time to use this lens is for taking candid shots of people at gatherings. Well, I didn't really have any gatherings on my schedule, so I had to get a little bit creative for this week of photos.

The tulips have bloomed in my backyard and I just love the color of these! I had taken a photo of them earlier in the day, but the sun wasn't shinning on them yet. So I wanted until a bit later to capture this one. I could have dropped my ISO down to 100 since I had plenty of sunlight. But I love how the front tulip is in focus and the one behind it is slightly out of focus.

On warm afternoons, I love to sit in our backyard with a book and read. It is my way of taking a break in the middle of the day. While I was sitting out there one day, I brought my camera out to see what I could capture with my long lens. These window frames are across the patio from my chair. I focused on the front one and love the bokeh that was created with the sunlight back toward the fence.

Over the weekend, I was able to stop by and visit with some friends at our local Civil War Reenactment. While I was there, I couldn't help but quickly capture a candid shot or two of 'soldiers' outside their tents in the camps. I had to crop this one in a bit because a young lady in wearing modern clothing had just walked into the photo. Then I converted the photo to black and white to make it look a little more 'authentic' to the period.

While at the event, I walked down toward the river and saw that all the lupine was in bloom. Makes me wonder how much longer until the Dogwood trees will be in bloom in Yosemite?

When I stopped alongside this orchard to capture a few photos, I wasn't really sure what I should photograph using the long lens. That is until I saw the bees...do you see him in the middle of the photo? Sure am glad I had my long lens to capture him up in that tree!

One last photo for this week...the front set of hills are about a mile from where I was standing. I even captured a bird over on the right side of the photo above the hills! With all the rain we have been receiving, the hills to the west of us are still so green for this time of the year.

That wraps up this week of photos using my longest lens! What did you capture with your camera this week?