Stragglers: The Last Party Guests

Despite all odds—sub-freezing nighttime temperatures and our freak snowstorm last week—this spring violet is still blooming. Though only about 1/2-inch in width, this purple beauty caught my eye on my walk around town today, nestled in the grass next to a parking lot.

This brave Rudbeckia, or Black-eyed Susan, is still blooming, although the cold evenings have narrowed its petals. 

Even a Gerbera Daisy remains abloom in a downtown sidewalk garden, just slightly-the-worse for wear.

Trying its best to resemble a snowflake from the next season to come, this Dusty Miller is surprisingly unfazed by Autumn's cold nights.

Bonus Photos: Experimentation with Low-Light Photography 

The last cut flowers from my garden, Dahlias above, Nasturtiums below, were fading fast, but I wanted to capture their final beauty before they completely wilted. I photographed them last night using ambient light in a fairly dark room, without the use of flash. This technique adds a lot of old-fashioned "grain" to the images, and minimized the fact the flowers were past their peak. It's a cool effect reminiscent of vintage film photography. By lightening them in Photoshop, I was able to bring out more of that grain, or "noise" as it's known in the digital world. I really like the way these images turned out. They're very interesting when enlarged, soft and sharp at the same time.