My most favorite flower is the water lily.  Back before dog photography became my passion, I spent quite a lot of time photographing at the Longwood Gardens water lily ponds in Kennett Square, Pa.  It’s still a place I dearly love visiting, even though I haven’t been there for several years.  I have a small pond in my garden with one water lily plant.  It’s the treasure of my garden even though it only produces 3 or 4 flowers each summer.  They appear for a very short time so photo opportunities are limited.  On top of the small number of flowers, there is also the fact that the blossoms are closed when I leave for work in the morning, open during the day, and closed again by the time I get home.  So unless the flowers are in bloom on a weekend, I don’t get to enjoy them very much.  When I came home for lunch yesterday, I glanced out of the window and there was a beautiful water lily waiting to greet me.  I grabbed my camera and took a few images before heading back to work.  This is one of them – converted to black and white.  The flowers are a very light yellow with a deeper yellow center.  Just lovely!