Ready for Launch

This is a Kniphofia, perhaps better known as a red-hot poker plant.  It had rained last night, and you can still see the droplets towards the top.

 

The water droplets are pretty little mirrors of the surrounding scenery.  As you can see by their reflections, however, the shot would have worked better in natural light.  The ring flash appears as three burn-out spots in each droplet.

This just goes to show what a fine macro lens it is was.

It's sad to think that this may be the last photo taken by by my trusty EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens.  Something in the focusing mechanism -- perhaps a gear -- has failed, and I cannot get it to focus manually or automatically.  I'll be boxing it up and shipping it for repair in the next couple of days.  Looks like it might cost around $100 to fix.