Moderator's Musings

There were a number of top notch images this week, most notably shots by Ned Fenimore, Nathan Buck, Michael Lowe, Mike Moats, Mary Smith, and Giuseppe Guadagno. But for me the clear choice this week is Barb Hansen's aptly titled The Grand Finale'. In my opinion this is one of the most striking flora shots of the year. Barb's description of how she did it goes as follows;

In order to try to control how and where to get the light I wanted, I used one of my light stands to hold and place the umbrella. The umbrella is used to direct, and soften the main light source which in this case would be my flash unit. I also used what is called a small soft box that fits over the face of the flash unit to further diffuse the light. Now for the light behind the upper flower I had to get inventive. I taped a small LED flashlight on a pole wedged firmly in the ground, and to cut down on the light I placed several layers of wax paper over the light acting as a diffuser and positioned just out of the frame but behind the flower and onto the bg. Now after all that I took some pics ...several actually, moving the umbrella into different positions to place the light. I got close to what I wanted in camera. I did however fine-tune this in Photoshop ( this is for the lighting on the bg) using Filter>Render>Lighting Effects> Omni. That darkened the outer areas of the bg. I did really visualize this days before I actually took any images. I wanted a sort of old fashioned portrait look and feel to this. Thanks Barb, for sharing your technique and image and thanks to everyone posting and commenting on the best Flora forum on the planet. >=))>

I really do not know what to say except Thank You Bill, this is truly an honor for me. There are so many outstanding floral photographers who share both their technicals skills and artistry every day, to even be mentioned along side them is to me a great honor. I appologize that it took me so long to write this but I messed my back up the other day, and am having a little trouble sitting at the computer for very long. To all my friends in the Floral Gallery a Huge Thank You for your comments, but most important for the inspiration your work has given me.

Congrats, Barb! That image is fantastic! Totally agree with how wonderful the flora forum is.. always a pleasure to peruse the wonderful images there!