An hour in a sunny afternoon with an Asoka tree

Asoka

I spent a whole hour last Sunday afternoon shooting this tree.  It's the first time I encountered this type of tree, called the Asoka (Saraca Indica).  It was a warm sunny afternoon on winter, in a city park.  I was "walking" my camera -- meaning I took a casual walk without any definite intention or rigid plan, I just need to exercise my body and at the same time I need to exercise my photography mind.  I would usually pick a set of camera and lenses that I feel like, usually trying to use some of the seldom used gears, and head out of the house without a purpose.  And a lot of the time, I return with an empty memory card. 

This time i picked the Sony A55 and the 70-300mm G lens.  Usually, in the city park, there would be too much distracting objects and I deemed that I would need to isolating power of the long zoom (this would be equivalent to 105 - 450mm, in full-frame equivalent).  I trekked the huge city park, through the botanical garden, the zoo and the bird's sanctuary.  It was this tree that caught my attention with its vibrant color.  With the sun shining on this bright orange flowers, the colors are just brilliant -- or is it the typical Sony JPEG? 

I also met a lovely family here, with the little tiring out on grannie's shoulder, and I could not help but get this picture, not exactly a perfect composition, but considering the time I had to shoot this, I would not ask for more.....

Delian