A flower. Of some sort.

I'd love to say it was an osteospermum because that has a certain attractive lilt to it but I'm not sure it is.

It was captured while investigating someone else's garden in September. The image was a bit of a challenge to process - pollen everywhere!

For the Friday Flora group.

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image :)

Tags:   Friday flora flower white yellow macro

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Paeony.

You'd think I'd know better by now:

'Oh... it's Monday already...That means it's Macro Mondays.
I wonder what the theme is [he looks at his feed with all the titles].
It must be "Fill the Frame"! [be patient - his brain is startlingly slow on a Monday morning, as opposed to being just slow the rest of the time].
Nice easy theme. No time left to actually take anything... but I wonder what I've already taken this week that would fit.
Ah this year's paeonies are out...
I then select and process a likely one [well, let's be honest the only one that could remotely be good enough for the task {sighs}...]
Tags it...
THEN I read the group's theme description.
[You'd think he would be more planned by now and at least know to read the theme first, idiot.
Lucky idiot...
this time...'

So then. A white paeony from my garden.

Yes, they're out again. And with the most enormous blooms I've ever seen on them.

And I'm in love.

Again.

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image, and the flower. Happy Macro Mondays :)

(Less than three inches wide.)

[Monopod supported in daylight.
Developed in Capture One.
Processed in Affinity with inpainting to get rid of spots and sensor dust. Sharpened with Unsharp Mask; then with High Pass/Linear Blend which brought out the veins on the inner petals nicely.]

Tags:   nikon z 6 Nikon AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED no person nature romance love Appearance elegant flower delicate Summer leaf bright growth pretty perfection outdoors flora purity beautiful Closeup garden Macro Macro Mondays Macro/Close-up paeony petal Fill the Frame

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Magnolia Stellata.

This little tree is my favourite magnolia with its profusion of bright white, star-shaped (which is what the stellata bit means) flowers. It’s gorgeous.

There is a pink version of the stellata too, but that is rarer and not as pretty in my view.

As I have discovered they are difficult to photograph creatively. My neighbour has one in his front garden and graciously allows me to try each year! The problem is that as a macro the flowers interfere with each other’s long petals, and if you step back it’s difficult to capture the impression of this attractive plant.

This was taken at the end of March just before a sharp frost annihilated all the magnolia flowers in the village.

Magnolias are an ancient family of plants going back to dinosaur times. Originally, it is thought, they were pollinated by beetles. The flower buds have a thick outer cover to protect them from the beasts before they are ready, quite unlike the sepals of modern flowers. Quite obligingly there was a beetle (or two) on this flower, though I think it’s a more modern one :)

Processed for the Smile on Saturday Natural White theme today. It would also work in B&W I think, but as the theme was on the colour white I did it in colour!

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Smile on Saturday :)

[Monopod; natural daylight.
Developed in Capture One reducing clarity to add softness and increasing structure.
Inpainted in Affinity to remove damage; rotated and cropped (which was a tricky decision - went for a widescreen crop on the thirds intersection).
In Nik Viveza a bit of selective work to reduce the dominance of the background, and to add structure to the centre bit.
In Nik Color Efex a compendium of filters including Neutralise White (good for this type of pic), Pro Contrast, Glamour Glow, Blur vignette and light vignette both centred on the business bit of the flower.
Back in Affinity sharpened with USM and a bit of Clarity to get the petal textures back a bit; finally some denoising (an afterthought :( ).]

Tags:   no person flower nature delicate purity outdoors one magnolia summer love petal romance leaf flora growth Blur elegant easter stamen water natural white Smile on Saturday HSoS stellata star

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Another pic of the white lily growing in a pot in my back garden. They really are dramatic flowers when you look at them!

Developed as usual in Capture One taking down the background; sharpened and cropped in Affinity; sharpened and denoise in Topaz Sharpen AI and then Nik CEfex for a dark vignette, a blur vignette and so detail extraction to increase local contrast, particularly noticeable in the petal texture…

Thanks for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Flower Friday :)

Tags:   Closeup beautiful blooming bright delicate elegant flora flower garden growth leaf lily nature no person outdoors petal pollen romance stamen summer Blur love easter

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This white lily grows in a pot in my back garden. It’s a lovely flower and very photogenic.

This is all about the depth of field I guess. It was a bit tricky to get right in a breeze!

Thanks for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Friday Flora and weekend :)

Tags:   100 x: The 2023 Edition 2023 Part A Creative Photography creative photography 100x:2023 dof lily no person one pistil Blur Image 70/100 Still Life anthers beautiful bright color delicate flora flower garden growth leaf love nature outdoors pollen purity stamen summer Freitagsblümchen Flower Friday Friday Flora HFF

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