As you all know, the weather in Austin, Texas is slightly different than the weather to which I am accustomed in Illinois.  I’m still getting used to the three seasons here: way-too-hot, not-as-hot, one-cold-week-where-everyone-complains.  We actually saw some snow during the one-cold-week, which was refreshing. But now it’s the end of February: this means that in Texas and on the major league baseball schedule it is time for spring.

I will be selling my Nikon 55-200mm VR lens since the internal auto-focus motor broke.  The repair would cost almost as much, if not more, than buying a new lens.  But while I still have it in my possession, I thought I’d use it (and my D300, of course) to capture some spring scenes from the front balcony of my apartment (yes, I have two balconies).  As you can see from the below images, it’s not completely necessary to have a lens that can autofocus.  Hope you enjoy the “before and after” feature!