skk74
Ball Dahlia, Denver Botanic Gardens
A single ball dahlia fills the right side of the frame, its tightly packed petals rolled into cups and spiraling out from the center to form a near-perfect sphere. The petals run deep magenta at the base and lighten to pale pink and cream at their tips. To the left, a tight green bud sits on its own curving stem, still closed. The background dissolves into soft green with scattered round highlights, and a blurred dark red bloom shows at the top edge.
Denver Botanic Gardens in the last of the light, shot with the 105mm Micro at f/11. Working that close at 105mm throws the background apart on its own, so stopping down bought depth across the flower without costing me the separation. It cost ISO 3200 instead, which was the right trade... the whole point of the frame is that every petal holds.
The bud on the left is doing the structural work. Without it the frame is a sphere sitting in a green field with nothing to argue with.
Ball Dahlia, Denver Botanic Gardens
A single ball dahlia fills the right side of the frame, its tightly packed petals rolled into cups and spiraling out from the center to form a near-perfect sphere. The petals run deep magenta at the base and lighten to pale pink and cream at their tips. To the left, a tight green bud sits on its own curving stem, still closed. The background dissolves into soft green with scattered round highlights, and a blurred dark red bloom shows at the top edge.
Denver Botanic Gardens in the last of the light, shot with the 105mm Micro at f/11. Working that close at 105mm throws the background apart on its own, so stopping down bought depth across the flower without costing me the separation. It cost ISO 3200 instead, which was the right trade... the whole point of the frame is that every petal holds.
The bud on the left is doing the structural work. Without it the frame is a sphere sitting in a green field with nothing to argue with.