Arabesque
Dawning cosmos soft lit by the cool morning light dancing in the wind, swaying softly.
Dawning cosmos soft lit by the cool morning light dancing in the wind, swaying softly.
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Aug, 2016Views
3522
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Awards
Winner in Flowers in the grass Photo Challenge
Member Selection Award
Featured
Contest Finalist in Soft Photo Contest
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
Categories
PRO+
catherinethompson
September 13, 2016
So delicate and beautiful. I enjoy capturing flowers too. Well done.
PRL_NaturesMystique
November 17, 2016
Great & Wonderful thanks! I greatly appreciate your lovely words!
GloriaJDugger
November 17, 2016
Congratulation, on Arabesque being (featured) in the, Hall Of Fame!!!
PRL_NaturesMystique
November 18, 2016
Wonderful Thanks, I am pretty stoked:) I appreciate all of your wonderful likes and awards!
PRL_NaturesMystique
August 04, 2018
Thank you everyone! I greatly appreciate your wonderful comments!!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This Cosmos was taken in one of my gardens that I plant every year. I was very thrilled to have a variety of colors and sizes this year. The white Cosmos were exceptionally brilliant to photograph.Time
I captured this flower in the early morning right before the sun was overhead.Lighting
The light was just coming in over the top of the flower adding a lovely cool glow in combination with the dew that was burning off in the early morning.Equipment
My camera is an Olympus E-5 and the lens I use for all of my macro photography is the Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Macro Zuiko Digital Lens for Olympus Digital Cameras (Four Thirds System). I used natural lighting and the image was captured handheld.Inspiration
I was waiting for an early morning light to capture the white flowers before it became too bright and cause glare and contrast on the white subject. I especially loved the darker background that offered small hints of color from the other cosmos in the garden to enhance the depth of field to the subject.Editing
My choice of camera file is raw. Therefore, I open all of my images using Adobe Camera Raw. I opted for the image to remain as shot and adjusted the light curve to linear instead of medium contrast that the camera had captured. I felt that lessening the light contrast on the flower one step allowed the blue hue to remain that was flashing off of the background leaving the image cool instead of warm lighting to the subject that seemed to be merging the depth of field more shallow to the background.In my camera bag
I am an avid Olympus user. I have never used any other camera brand since I started my photography journey. The E-5 model I presently use is the largest digital camera they have made. I still prefer the full body camera since I shoot handheld and never use a tripod. The extra size of the body offers me great balance in hand and balance in conjunction with the lens sizes. For my upclose and macro photography I use the: Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Macro ED Zuiko Digital Lens for Olympus Digital Cameras (Four Thirds System). For landscape and field work in tight spaces ( those that are not fast wide frame open shots) I prefer my Olympus 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ED SWD Zuiko Lens. This lens also works well on portrait photography and capturing an occasional wild flower or plant while out in the field. For other landscape images and architecture/city photography, I prefer my Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 . And for some large open spaces I will defer to the standard Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens. I prefer all of the Zuiko/Olympus lenses for my four-thirds operating system. They are the most optimum and offer a lighter lens weight in comparison to what I noticed across the market. A four-thirds operating system is slightly different than the average DSLR, in that is offers a smaller camera body and smaller equipment to make travel and hiking easy. I also prefer my equipment for its cold climate ability since it gets pretty cold in the Northeast US during winter, I've managed to be out in sub-zero weather without loss of use or battery failure. One other great feature of my equipment is that is dust and waterproof. I mean very waterproof and you can actually submerge the camera and equipment in water for use or cleaning. The lens glass is superior and offers pristine clarity always. Getting smarter about the camera/lens abilities allows you to choose clarity or softness as you desire, like any other camera combination.Feedback
I've recently embraced the love of flower photography. I do not shoot in a studio and as such, optimum lighting is not always at hand. Timing: as in the times of day to capture flowers would be in the early morning before the sun is directly overhead or in the later afternoon hours as the sun fades off and offers a beautiful soft warm glow against the flowers. Since flowers possess such vibrant colors in such a small area, anything causing reflection and shadow will deflect from capturing your subject to its fullest beauty. As in landscape photography, you may be on vacation and only have a few moments to capture a monumental area, the lighting may not be optimum so you have to make choices to maybe defer to filters to help manage lighting. In outdoor macro photography there really aren't any filters that can offer you a pristine subject to photograph in harsh lighting. Instead, one may want to consider using a diffuser, these great little foldable packs are cheap and weighless to carry around when you want to capture a tiny subject on a brilliant sunny day. In closing: if you love flowers and want to consider photographing them, there is something remarkable about each type and they have intricate systems in their daily life. Some only open in the afternoon and other only in the morning, etc. So becoming familiar with the types of flowers you are surrounded by or the ones you will be traveling to photograph, make sure you are there at the right time to catch your petaled wonder in its best pose. The golden hours of photography do not always apply to flowers and plants therefore, it helps to gather information on what beautiful flora life exists in your locations. My best advice is to have a great macro lens, know how your lens works with your camera in all lighting aspects and know your subject as if it was a pet.
