As you should be able to tell, there’s no common theme for posted photos this week — this is a random week. From the bridge image of the last post I’ve moved to a macro abstract of flowers. ;-)
Just before Christmas last year my wife had purchased a red Amaryllis bulb with the idea of having big red blooms for Christmas. We however were not aware of the extended 6 to 8 weeks gestation period before the first bloom so by lack of any other choice it became our Valentine’s Day Amaryllis. That worked out okay since the flowers are bright red.
With my 105mm macro lens mounded I played around with the resulting blooms for a while this past weekend. The above shot is deep within the bloom where the Filaments of the Anther, or pollen sacs, pass through the walls of the flower. I had a light source placed behind the flower to give bright back lighting and glow for this shot.
Wow, love the colors, Earl! You really got into this image.
Thanks, Monte. Well yes I did get into this image — at least my macro lens certainly did! ;-)
Hey, nice idea with the backlighting! The image has a bit of an abstract feel. Love the color too.
Aswirly, thanks! Yes it does have an abstract feel and I embraced that in the post-processing to push it a bit.
Very nice Earl. I like what you did with the lighting.
Thanks, Mark — the lighting was an experiment that worked out for once.
A fine composition of this close up. Your lighting set-up worked out very well. The glow adds much interest and a luminosity that is very appealing.
Don, thanks. I was pleased with the results.
The back-light made it look like melted steel being poured from the melting pot, very pretty.
This with the amaryllis is something everyone that saved a bulb for the coming year experienced. They are not supposed to bloom at Christmas, but quickly adjust themselves to their default clocks. :-)
Ove, For some reason I hadn’t thought of it as looking like melted steel but now that you’ve mentioned it I can see the resemblance.
Here they do sell Amaryllis bulbs around the the first of November for Christmas blooms. These of course are placed in a vase of water inside to get them to bloom in 6-8 weeks. In our case we waited much too long before purchasing the bulb.
Without the accompagnying text I might well have taken it for a blast furnace – gorgeous, wild, powerful red! Did you have special precautions in order to avoid clipping in the red channel?
Markus, thank-you. After a test shot I did adjust to underexpose the image to avoid clipping the reds and blowing-out the greenish-white area. This allowed protecting those areas while rectify the underexposure in post-processing.
beautiful colors and all good things come to those who wait!
Man, this image just jumps off the screen, the color is amazing.
Thanks, it was a lighting experiment that went right for once. The backlighting shining through the flower gave a glow and really made the color pop.