There are so many great places for photography near where I live.

One of the coolest spots is the Cornell Botanic Gardens.

What makes this location so special as that there is a different magical beauty to behold at different times of the year.

The types of plants and flowers you see might be different on every visit. It all depends on what time of year you show up.

I try to visit at a variety of times over the course of the year or years.

I always want to see as many different things as I can.

But in spring the itch to get there really hits me.

After a long winter of no fresh plant growth to photograph seeing the signs of spring beginning to emerge really gets me excited about the abundance of opportunities there are to behold at the Cornell Botanic Gardens.

In early spring one of their earliest flowers to see are the Magnolia Tree blossoms.

The last few years seem to have been challenging for many of these trees. We have had several years where the weather warms up and then we are hit with a harsh cold spell and this decimates the flower blossoms.

I am hoping that this trend does not continue in the future, but the weather in upstate New York can be quite unpredictable.

Photo details: Nikon D300S. Nikon 60mm f/2.8. Focal length 60mm. ISO 400. 1/500 sec. f/2.8.

Thank you for joining me on the blog today for this burst of purple.

In this image you can see magnolia blossoms before they bloom.