Lit up at dark

I've never seen an orange Christmas cactus, Gigi. Very unusual, at least for me. The color contrasts well with the dark bg. Excellent use of the natural spotlighting. 

Dramatic lighting, good detail and excellent mood to your presentation.  Find the Christmas cactus to be a difficult subject and you've handled it well.

Hi Gigi, a very subtle image - the dark composition works exceedingly well. The soft shadows on the petal let the observer know that the flower is not 'in isolation' as so many portrait flower shots. Great work!

Beautiful, Gigi.  How do you manage the spot lighting like this?  It creates such a wonderful glow.

The sun makes all Dennis. At dawn a ray filters among the leaves of a small tree casting shades on the flower; the lateral-back light enters in the very translucent flower and makes the glow. Thanks for your interest.

Good timing on this! That kind of light disappears in a hurry. I am wondering about the color on this. The downshift from reddish orange to yellowish orange is striking. Is that deliberate on your part, or just a natural shift caused by the light? I like the color anyway, and the image is packaged with care. Good shot!

Phil, the colors are pure, without a cast as you can see in the yellow pollen and the purple pistil. I believe that the shift of color in the petals are due to the great transparency pierced by the sunbeams at dawn.
Thanks Phil for your interest and comment. 

Hi  Gigi     You  utilized the light  perfectly  to  capture the detail and color  of the  cactus   beautifully,   excellent work
Albert Darmo

Gigi: Brilliant lighting and a superb capture. My only suggestion would be to darken the BG areas at the top of the frame. >=))>