Closer Abstracts

May 14, 2017

One of my favorite past-times (close behind family) is crawling around outside, seeing what new things my camera has to show of things underfoot. 

It seems each trip is memorable, and often leaves echoes of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's quote "Earth's crammed with Heaven, and every common bush afire with God." 

This picture is the fruit of one such morning, when I came across our first tulip of the year. 

On the technical side, this image is a macro shot (taken at 3x lifesize), with a 3 flash set up (one high and slightly to the right, to highlight the edges; one behind the flower, to the left, to shine through the petals; plus a ring light, as a subtle fill). On the artistic side, contrasting compositional elements (colors, textures, etc.) bring visual interest to an image; in this series, I was playing at using the contrasting elements of sharp and soft focus, along with the flower's graceful forms, to draw the eye around the image.

Ideally, all that stays behind the scenes, and all you see is the beauty of the flower...