It's a cold start to a new week here in East Central Illinois. The temperature here is a frigid 5 degrees with a -12F wind chill and no snow cover. If you're as cold (or colder) than I am, maybe some plant pictures will warm you up. 😃

Of course, there's nothing too new in this batch. If I brought my camera outside it would probably freeze to my eyeball, and I don't think that there's anything worth photographing right now anyhow. Instead, I prefer to stay inside with a mug of green tea while scanning my older slides. Besides, it's supposed to get back up to 55 on Thursday.

I know that a lot of these pictures aren't fantastic. Some are nearly ten years old from the first year that I picked up a camera to try plant photography.

This difference in quality is one of the reasons that the gallery is set up to accept viewer ratings for each photo. When I go out to take pictures, I bring along a list of images and what their overall rating is. Then, if I see something on the list, I can go ahead and try to take a better shot to insert into the gallery. An image's overall rating also determines what order pictures are viewed in, with the highest rating appearing first.

So, if you think of it, rate these images and let me know which ones need to be replaced (but don't be too brutal 😃

Well, back to my green tea and scanner, thinking thoughts of spring. Keep warm!

Christopher Lindsey, gallery maintainer