I’m sorry, but I continue to be fascinated by how easy it is to get a beautiful photograph simply by making flowers the subject of the shot.
And these are special flowers. They are sunflowers—the favorite flower of the lovely and vivacious Wonder Woman, for whom I got them in honor of her 39th birthday. A week ago. Them be some hearty flowers.
I jacked up the contrast and the dark tones using Photoshop, because I like the way it made the dark center bleed into the adjacent petals.
One of my goals when I decided to start a Photo of the Day feature was to become a better photographer, and I believe that my skills have improved markedly—you know, as long as you consider taking lots of flower close-ups and learning how to better tweak photos in Photoshop to mean that you’re becoming a better photographer.
[UPDATE 05.08.09: Since a couple of readers have been kind enough to flatter me by saying that they are now using this photo as their desktop wallpaper, I figured I'd include a link to a hi-res version that everyone can download for free. Full disclosure: yes, I am such a self-promotion whore that I embedded my URL in the image, but it's very subtle ... you know, just like me. Also, if you do decide to download the hi-res version, I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a comment below letting me know that you've done so; I'm curious to see how much interest there is.]
19 Comments
I think you take amazing photos, you and WW both. The fact you know how to tweak a photo is improvement in my book. I hope to get better at the same. MY progress is just starting.
Nice shot, I like how you’ve done the rule of thirds with the centre off centre. Did you mean to do that?
Flower close-ups are really beautiful. Your edits on this in photoshop turned out really well too. I really love how dark the center of the flower is, it makes the petals really stand out. Excellent use of rule of thirds.
So vibrant! I love this.
Great shot and tweak in photoshop!
This is gorgeous. And it also is the new background on my desktop — hope you don’t mind!
Beautiful shot!!! You should be proud!
I liked that picture so much I used it as the background on my computer. Thanks for the bright sunflower shot!
Oh, I love doing that too. Flowers are beautiful and colorful and they don’t wiggle (unless the wind is blowing) or run away. Great shot!
Thanks for the kind words, everybody. I’ve updated the post by adding a link to a hi-res version, if you’re interested.
Jo: Regarding the rule of thirds – Yes, I have been keeping it in mind when practical, which it was with this shot. I didn’t actually measure; I just eyeballed it.
Used as my background, Thanks!
I downloaded it! Thanks a bunch!
The yellow is hopefully going to keep me awake in my ever so glamorous beige cube.
Nice shot, I downloaded it, I was getting tired of looking at my daughter’s cat. Thanks!
I’m staring at sunflowers on my computer now … wishing I didn’t have to be stuck in a downtown office staring at metal buildings all day. These are much prettier! And yep, those are some strong flowers!
(Downloaded the Hi-res)
Add me to the list who find this absolutely stunning and who has it plastered all over her desktop! Thank you!
Love your photos.
What kind of camera do you use?
Love the sunflower photo and have also added has my desktop background! Thank you!
I too downloaded the hi-resolution version of this photo. Have you ever thought of selling some of your pictures? Set up an Etsy shop and make some bucks on the side. Because I, for one, would buy some of them to hang in my home!
Something pretty to look at now! It has been saved as my background. Thanks so much!