On Saturday, I took some time to smell the flowers… and take their pictures. 
We have a couple of different types of lilies in our yard, plus some phlox and creeping purple bell flower (which might be a weed, depending on how you look at it, but it’s flower is kind of cute).
It was a fun chance for me to get out of the house on a gorgeous afternoon and play with the camera. All of these were taken with my 50 mm lens, so this was more great practice with manual focus. And since it was manual focus, it doesn’t so much work with the automatic “macro” settings on the camera. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get anything like a good close-up shot, but was pleasantly surprised with the results. I will probably want to look at macro-specific gear at some point in the future, since I love taking macro shots so much. But at least I know that I can get some good photographs in that area with the gear that I have.
These are just a few of the photographs I brought back inside with me. I’m just starting to sort through them and edit them. More may get posted later, if I find more stars.
Enjoy!
Wonderful flower photos. I once had the same fascination with macro photography, and so did your Grandpa Effinger. You definitely have a lovely eye, and a gift for capturing it.