Chrysanthemum flower.
The name chrysanthemum means gold flower in Greek.
In many European countries Chrysanthemums are associated with death and funerals. In China where most of the varied genus comes from they a linked with trial and adversity.
Where I live they are loved as cheerful and colourful, all year round cut flowers that last a long time and are photogenic - a ready photographic model available in any season :)
Some while ago I starting working on a set of images for Sliders Sunday based on a photograph I took on the old little camera almost five years ago now. I never got around to publishing them, so in the past couple of days I have been finishing them off.
So another set. The usual approach: take one starting image; try mangling in different ways, see if we can reach some interesting but distinctly different endpoint, rinse, repeat.
For this set I largely wanted to avoid using Topaz filters as they are just too addictive - a veritable kindergarten of toys. I sought some different exercise instead, so there is only one Topaz variant.
This set has seven images in it (you can see them all in the Chrysanthemum Set album
www.flickr.com/gp/pixelatedsky/u986f4). In my defence three of them are pretty photorealistic, two in colour and one black and white.
Of course, these mangling sets are an unashamedly selfish pursuit of mine, being that I have most of the fun messing about with the mangling. But it’s always fascinating to hear from you which (if any) you prefer. It becomes startlingly apparent that we are all different, and although that sounds pretty obvious it’s easy for me to forget!
Now I have to say that my wife, my lover, my best friend and my art director have all conspired to speak with one voice (as they so often do). They only like one of them, as far as I can determine (it never does to probe too closely into the intricacies of their minds :) ), and it’s not the one I would have guessed.
The point is to reassure you: my expectation is already set low so even if you don’t like any of them I haven’t far to fall. Always a good place to be :)
I never know which one to actually choose for Sliders Sunday. I have about three and a half favourites in this set, and the one in the top slot seems to change by time of day...
I rather like this one though. I have noticed previously that flowers often look really intriguing in a mirror filter (I first came across this using a free phone app called Mirrorlab). The image is in monochrome to emphasise the shapes and patterns. Can you see a face I wonder...
As usual, I shall post a link to the in-camera original in the first comment so you can see how far we came.
Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image and the series. Happy Sliders Sunday!
[Handheld in daylight.
Processed Photolab for colour and tonal range.
Sharpening and in-painting to tidy up the detail in Affinity.
Converted to B&W in Silver Efex, going for high contrast and structure.
Mirrored in Affinity with (I think) one mirror and choosing the origin and input and output angles to find something interesting.]
