Hooker Easter Daisy

[Jared Gricoskie]

In my ongoing quest to photograph each flower in Rocky Mountain National Park I needed a shot of the phyllary tips to truly identify this species from the Stemless Easter Daisy. The shot came out far more artistic than I intended for a mere identification shot.

D300 sigma 150mm with sigma 1.4 TC and 25 mm Ext tube, f9 1/80, ISO 400 natural light

[John Cooper]

An interesting flower-head Jared with lots of detail.
The lighting though appears a bit harsh, especially on the upper section and BG. Shading the flower would have been one way of controlling the light or using a diffuser between sun and subject.

[Jared Gricoskie]

John,

It was actually shot in diffuse cloudy sunlight, but I over exposed it a bit on the petal tips as I focused on the tiny hairs below, thanks for pointing that out as I completely overlooked it putting the botany before the art. The background is this flower's mate who has already turned into a dandelion like puff ball of seeds.

[Robert O'Toole]

Interesting details and patterns. This isnt something you see everyday!

Agree with Johns comment on the bright area and contrast.

Robert

[Bob Allen]

Ah, a fellow phyllary photographer!

Yep, overexposed in the upper part. But for our botanical purposes, just crop the top down to just above the curled ray floret on the left. Also crop off the left just a tad. That will get rid of the bright upper part of the image, include enough of the rays to give a sense of place, and draw the eye to the ever-important phyllaries.