Magnolia
Originally uploaded by doug_r

Taken at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, Washington on 27 June 2008.

I'm finding some very interesting floral images using backlighting to highlight the texture and form. This image is perhaps the strongest use yet of that technique.

When this shot was taken it was mid afternoon and so the light was very strong and quite harsh overall but here it worked really well to show the thickness of the petals and the reflected texture on the leaf.

From a technical point of view the highlights are blown out in this image but the strong light was necessary to get the veins on the right leaf to show up.

I did a fair amount of manipulation with Photoshop on this image - but primarily just to balance the colors during the black and white conversion and the usual toning (Platinum - Silver), burning and dodging.