Thistle

Thistle

The thistle is a weed, and a thorny one at that. Annoying when it grows where you are trying to grow other things, and even more so when you, or a child, goes at it inadvertently.

It is also, once in bloom, a gorgeous splash of color. A flower with personality well up there with roses and tulips, though quite a bit more punk rock than these more established flowers.

This closeup puts the splash of color, the punk rock chic of the thistle up front and center. And in the background, gorgeous forest-y lush bokeh, and another thistle-bud, the potential of more color, lined up. The composition unbalanced, but harmoniously so. The vacuum on the right balances the potential on the left rather than unbalancing the picture, and a composition that could have been lopsided in fact is, well, punk rock.

Isolated flower

Isolated flower

Originally a snapshot, this flower floats in an absolute nothingness, isolated and cut out, almost as if it had been photoshopped. It is the ultimate isolation of a motif — a flower, depicted for its own beauty, and with nothing unrelated even vaguely visible.

As far as moods or messages goes, the flower brings light into darkness by its composition. It splays out, illuminated where nothing else is, spread out and glowing, in warm and inviting colors.

However, as natural as the photograph was, the sheer isolation achieved makes it look very much — too much — like the product of a stock photo shoot, like something that still hasn't been photoshopped into the right shape. Somehow artificial, a feeling reinforced the more you know of digital era photo editing.

What originally happened, though, was that the flower was hanging down in front of the entrance to a house, illuminated by the bright overhead sun. The house was not very brightly lit, and so the rather many stops of luminance difference between flower and backdrop blocks away the backdrop entirely; the dark counterpoint of lighting a white studio backdrop with flashes to a number of stops over your motif to cut it out for easier post-processing.

Butterfly on a thistle

Butterflies on a thistle

Thistle

Rose

Bursting with life

Degrees of desaturation

Me and Susanne could not agree how much to desaturate this picture — so we turn to you all instead!

I champion:


While she prefers:


What do YOU think?

Standing proud

At the Conservatory of Flowers

At the conservatory of flowers

Alcatraz Agave

The south end of Alcatraz is being reclaimed by nature nowadays. As part of this reclamation process, the hilly slopes end up being thorny forests of proud agave.

Pair of pods

Another detail from my grandparents' garden. A pair of proud pods, stretching skywards side by side.

Bee

Bee, originally uploaded by michiexile.

The flowers in my grandparents' garden attract a wealth of bees and butterflies. With a bit of patience, a bit of luck and a long telephoto lens, this could be captured.