Spring time poppies here in the Arizona desert this spring. We were blessed with lots of rain this year, so our desert floor came to life with lots of colors from our wildflowers. I found this patch of poppies up on a bank, so I was able to get down low and shoot up quite easily and capture the underside of the flowers with the sky in the background.
These lovely Daisies were photographed in my backyard one morning with side lighting. The flower was in a pot, which I placed in a partially shaded area. The background was in direct sun light, helping me to create a white background. I only wanted just good detail in the pedals in the front, so I opened up the aperture to f5.6
In post, a conversion to black and white was in Lightroom. To make the flowers in the background appear as though they are fading away into the distance, I added a white vignette plus used the adjustment brush to increase the exposure in some areas just a little bit.
For me, the purity and simplicity of a yellow daisy against a white background is a pleasure to enjoy viewing. Hope you enjoy also. The pedal sticking up is what attracted me to this particular blossom.
A Gazania flower floating in darkness. This image was created by layering the flower over a black layer in Photoshop and then masking out the background of the flower revealing the black layer underneath.
Just a lovely daisy photographed with a black background giving the appearance of darkness.
A Zinnia with just two water drops photographed in our back yard with a textured background from Distressed Textures. I often see flowers photographed where the photographer took a spray bottle or something and added way to many water drops to the flower. Here, I decided to do the opposite and place just two on the flower. I am not opposed to someone adding all the water drops they like to a flower, but I do find I am much more attracted to the images with just a few, or even just one drop of water on the flower. Have a wonderful day.
A verse for the day:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 1:9
An African Daisy to brighten up ones day.
Photographed west of Phoenix one morning in the spring of this year. We had lots of wildflowers this year, one of the beautiful things here in Arizona when we get enough rain. The flower in the lower left is called “brittlebush” and the cactus is the iconic Saguaro. We also have creosote bush in the scene.
Colorful chrysanthemum, lots of lines and details in this one. I just loved the curved pedal on the top.
Photographed with my go to lens on my floral photography, which is the Tamrom 90 mm macro lens. Since I had some distance to the background, I was able to get a good DOF on the flower with an aperture of f7.1. I added just a little bit of texture in the background to give it a little bit of a grungy look.
Ken Mickel Photography 