This past winter dragged into mid-March, refusing to disappear and allow life to flourish. I used to love Ohio’s winters as a kid, but as an adult, they’re now my least favorite season. The bitter, persistent cold feels synonymous with a bout of depression that can’t be shaken off, no matter how hard you try.

The one good thing about my ire towards winter is that it gives me a greater sense of relief when flowers finally appear!

Spring beauties (specifically Virginia spring beauties) are among my favorite flowers and a sure sign that spring has returned to my area. Seeing them in the neighborhood forest signals to me that warmer weather is on the horizon, at last.

On Saturday, 3/21/26, I went for a walk in the forest, and beamed when I saw this lovely spring beauty by the trunk of a tree.

What made this moment extra meaningful to me was that I’d gone for this walk when it was safe for me to do so, a few days after having gum grafting (an oral surgery procedure to treat gum recession). Getting through the surgery, recovering, and seeing this flower gave me some much-needed inspiration.

A Sunny Trip in Highbanks

A couple of weeks later, I went for my first visit of the year to Highbanks Metro Park, my favorite photography spot. Towards the end of my hike, I came across a spot teeming with spring beauties! This shot is my favorite picture from that trip.

A gently lit cluster of Virginia spring beauty flowers.

Do you see those unopened blossoms in this cluster? After doing some light research, I think the open flowers were soon closing for the night. Spring beauties prefer to show themselves only during sunny weather that guarantees visits from bees and other pollinators.

In hindsight, I’m grateful I came to this spot at Highbanks when I did. If I’d arrived a half hour later, it’s likely that these spring beauties would’ve been closed up due to no longer being in sunlight.

How fascinating. I didn’t realize until now that despite not being related, spring beauties act like morning glories, which likewise close at night.

Extension Tubes for Tiny Flowers

The trick to photographing smaller flowers, including spring beauties, is to use an extension tube. That’s a misnomer, actually; it’s much more a disc than a tube! It lets lenses (in my case, a 70-300mm telephoto lens) act like a macro lens, allowing them to get closer to small subjects.

Mom got me an excellent Canon extension tube for Christmas, and I’m glad I had it on hand for all of these spring beauty pictures!

When I first started using a Canon camera (a REBEL T3i DSLR) in 2024, I got this lucky shot of the neighborhood spring beauties. Getting more shots of these flowers was one of my goals for spring ’26, and I can say with confidence that I met it!

A brightly lit cluster of Virginia spring beauty flowers.

Extension Tube Ups and Downs

One of the best (to me) functions of extension tubes is that, because they let you magnify smaller subjects, you don’t have to do too much cropping when editing. For comparison, this picture from ’24 is cropped to 1998 x 3456, down from 5184 x 3456. The shot from Highbanks is cropped to 5171 x 3447, down from 6000 x 4000.

I’m an English major, and as one might expect, that means that Math isn’t my cup of tea! But I can tell that I had to crop my ’24 image a great deal, by over 50% on the longer side. In contrast, I had to use very little cropping for the spring beauties at Highbanks.

Alas, extension tubes aren’t without their downsides. While these nifty things do let you get closer to your subject, they create two unforeseen issues:

  1. You lose most of your “infinity distance”, which is a formal way of saying that you can’t focus on faraway subjects, such as birds.
  2. I’ve had multiple occasions when I couldn’t extend my 70-300mm lens to 300mm with the extension tube attached; doing so prevented proper focusing.

As I continue to use this extension tube for flower photography, I’m learning on the fly how to maximize its benefits while working around its limitations. If birds are nearby, I usually leave the tube off for flexibility. If it’s just flowers around me, then on it goes!

The pros vastly outweigh the cons, and I highly recommend getting an extension tube if you’re interested in flower photography. Double-check that it’s compatible with your lens before purchasing, of course!

Planting Competition Hope

I’m happy to share that I submitted this shot to the 2026 International Photography Awards! This is a highly competitive contest, and I knew going in that nothing is guaranteed. Nevertheless, this picture continues to bring me happiness, and I’m glad I entered it into the competition.

If you’d like to see my entry, you’re welcome to click on the link below:

Serene Spring Beauties | International Photo Awards

All Images by Connor Brennan

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