Dawn

Sometimes you are rewarded by getting up early.  I think this shows the coloring and the velvety texture of the black pearl.

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90. 2s at f/16, ISO160.

Natural light is incredible, doing unexpected things, making unexpected colors appear and just as suddenly, hiding them.  I think the black pearl is a mysterious flower, hiding itself and its nature.  It gives up bits and pieces to me slowly and only over time.  I have photographed this flower for a month and this is the first shot with which I was satisfied.

In Lightroom, I made the background darker, increased clarity and vibrance, increased highlight, light and dark tones while decreasing the shadow tones.  I increased contrast and overall brightness and added a touch of fill light.  I reset the camera mode to Landscape because I knew it would give me richer colors.  I used a color-priority vignette to further set the flower off.  Then, a bit of cropping, sharpening and some tinting in the shadows and I was finished.

Looking into the Black Pearl

A shot looking into the bloom.  The bloom has a deep velvety texture.  It is dark and brooding.

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90. 2s at f/11.

It has been rainy, misty and foggy here and the blooms are covered in water drops.  Early morning is the best time to photograph them.  There is a certain darkness to this flower that is almost impossible to photograph.  They also seem to get darker outdoors than indoors.

The shots were not particularly easy to process.  I began by cropping the image into a square.  I adjusted the exposure to brighten a bit, increased brightness then added in blackness to make the background dark.  I increased the contrast, adjusted tint, added clarity and vibrance.  Then I went to work on the light tones, adjusted light and dark until they were balanced.  The colors were next; I adjusted the magenta and purple hues and increased their saturation and luminance.  Finally, I added a color-priority vignette and sharpened.  Whew…

I will post another tomorrow.

Erotic Amaryllis

It is Friday and there is a winter storm bearing down on Houston.  There is excitement in the air because any bit of freezing precipitation brings the city to a halt.  If it does snow this afternoon, everyone will head home around lunch.  We don’t have salt down here, instead we sand bridges, which creates a mess and does very little for traction.  No one has snow tires.  At any rate, it might be an early day.

Sometimes with amaryllis, I feel as if I have gotten deep inside them.  The images can be abstractly sexual.  I have mentioned before that flowers must rely on other species to consummate their procreation.  This amazing fact means they must appeal to species in away nothing else does.  Sort of like the ultimate nature orgy.

Amaryllis Erotica

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90.  1/200s at f/2.5, ISO160.  Cropped and rotated, adjusted white balance, increased contrast and clarity.

Amaryllis Galaxy

I have a story to tell about my black pearl amaryllis but it will have to wait.  Business at the end of the year has been busier than anticipated.  That and the demands on my personal time are eating me up.  The next couple of photos were shot at f/2.5 creating a very narrow depth of focus.  The black pearl’s second set of blooms are now appearing.

Amaryllis Galaxy

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90.  1/200s at f/2.5, ISO160.  In Lightroom, adjusted light and color.  Increased contrast and decreased clarity.  Mask unsharp.  It reminds me of when I used to do astronomy.

The Blueness Within

When the blossom first opens, the stamen are cyan/purple.  The flower is emotive, exhibiting an almost painful shyness as it exposes itself to the world.  Flowers are purely sexual creatures but they must remain stationary and they depend entirely upon other creatures to procreate.  I think deep down inside living creatures is a basic comprehension of sexuality upon which the flower depends.  A flower must be appealing in the most sensual way.

 

Blueness Within #1

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90.  5s at f/16, ISO125, Landscape Mode.  Photographed with a white reflector just after sunset.  Changed white balance to Tungsten and then adjusted to maintain the red channel.  This allowed the purple cyan to stand out and I was able to lighten them through both light level adjustment and vibrance adjustments.  The velvety sheen is just apparent on some of the petals.  Make no mistake, the amaryllis is my favorite flower.

 

Waiting for the blossom

I know what you will look like but you still keep your secret.  You intrigue me and ask me to look at you differently.

 

Shadow of Doubt

Nikon D90 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8.  2s at f/16, ISO160, Landscape Mode.  I used the 50 because I wanted to take some shots at f/2.  But I love the lens and it is strong throughout its range.  I attached a Leica Elpro closeup filter, a substantial piece of glass in itself.  In Lightroom, I did a little cropping, adjusted the white balance.  I increased contrast and clarity.  I increased vibrance.  I adjusted the light levels slightly but the Nikkor is excellent at capturing light.  I wanted the bud that was about to blossom to run off into the darkness.

I am a little sad these days and I think my next few photographs will express that.  I am unable to get to people’s journals and I regret that very much.

 

Black Pearl

The black pearl amaryllis is beginning to bloom.  Its petals have gradually deepened in color and I imagine the darkening will continue.  This shot is taken with the narrower side of the bud showing.   The bud itself seems larger than other amaryllis.  More of this over the next few days.  I think it will open tomorrow or Thursday.

 

Black Pearl Amaryllis Bud

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90.  4s at f/16, ISO160, Landscape Mode.  In Lightroom, adjusted white balance.  Increased contrast and clarity.  Increased light, especially the greens.  Adjusted colors to bring out the velvety bud.  Used mask sharpening.

 

 

Bulb Festival

Yesterday, my wife went to the bulb festival.  I had tasked her with finding certain flowers and she came through.  She found a purple amaryllis and a purple passion flower.  Of course, they ain’t nuthin’ yet so here is an older amaryllis photo from…2007.

Amaryllis 141

Nikon D50 with Tamron 90.  6s at f/16, ISO 200.   I can’t remember how I processed the photo.

out of commission

I have been under the weather for the last two days.  I hope to be back on my feet tomorrow.  Until then, an oldie taken with my D50.  This was a 6 second exposure.

Glimpse of J…

Flowers never (never ever ever) fail to intrigue me with how they reveal themselves.  Of all the flowers, I seem to have the closest bond with the amaryllis.  The amaryllis spends an eternity as a bud before it blooms.  This flower was the last one of its pod.  It seemed shy and reserved, unwilling to reveal itself.  Inside, it contained an almost regal purple.  I have had this amaryllis for several years but never noticed the purple before.  Perhaps only in this moment would this bloom’s treasure ever be fully realized.  People are like that.  You wait years and then see something in them that you never knew was there.

D90 with Sigma 24-70 at 70mm.  1/200s at f/10.  Camera in Landscape setting (High saturation, hard sharpness).  F/10 allowed me to get most of the sexual components in sharp focus but the depth of field was small enough to keep the dark parts of the flower dark.  In Lightroom, I adjusted exposure and brightness while bringing out the midtones to give definition.  I increased vibrance and contrast and used luminance shifting to highlight the purple.  At the end, I used luminance smoothing to soften the out of focus portions.