Blooming again

I spotted the strong afternoon light falling on these red flowers whilst watering the garden. I'm afraid I must admit that I've forgotten their name. They are perennial and have been in a large pot for some time. 

It flowered beautifully late in the spring and I recently chopped some of its long stems back. I'm delighted that new growth appeared so swiftly and has flowered. I had only one direction in which to take their photograph and that was looking directly into the sun, but with the fence and a neighhbour's shrubs providing shadow.

I asked a blipper about whether he uses a tripod for some of his photos, and he always hopes not to. I've not used a tripod in ages, except for some archival re-photographing. But actually I do think that it can make me film very differently, and to take more care with the exposure. In fact I approach generally only use it for macro work. Perhaps I explore a little more, even in the garden. Unfortunately my tripod which is excellent, comes from my background in video filming, and as a result it is very bulky though solid, with a very good fluid head. As a result I don't walk far with it!