Sunday, April 18, 2010

AZALEA

"I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty."
~Georgia O'Keeffe

The azaleas are blooming, and they offer quite an inspiration for macro photography. I have spent much time up close and personal with my azalea blooms. The macro lens affords a passionate view of the delicacy of the azalea. For a full size view, click directly on the photograph.

I was focusing on the pistil and stamens in this shot. The short depth of field gave it a very ethereal look.

This is one of my favorite azalea shots, and I am considering entering this one in a competition. I was using back lighting from the sun in an attempt to get the pollen to sparkle. It worked! I was able to reproduce what my eye was seeing -- the stamens looked as if they had been dipped in silver. I posted this as my daily photo on the SmugMug site, and it was pushed to number 3 out of several hundred photos posted that day. All photographers comment, and the positive feedback determines the ranking.

I liked the way these two blooms were facing each other and the stamens and pistils were intertwined.

This shot really shows the pollen on the flower and the shafts of the stamens and pistil.

Taken from the outside of the bloom.

Deep side view.
Which one is your favorite and why? Leave a comment below.

1 comment:

Je m'appelle Cynthia said...

They are delightful - look like they're "licking" the air!
You certainly have a lot of gorgeous shots to choose from to enter in the contest this year.