Earth's little candle

[Bogdan Coltea]

First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is a Willow leafed gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea)
The Romanian name is "Lumanarica pamantului" (Earth's little candle).
I wanted to convey that name in an image, so I used a reflector at the base of the flower to create the "illumination effect".
The background is natural (a shadowed forest interior).

The plant is also known in our folklore for it's healing properties (flue, liver affections, anorexia, etc).
Hope you like it.

Tech stuff: 350D, Tamron 70-300, 1/60, f/8, ISO400

[Anita Bower]

What beautiful little flowers! Fabulous blue. Gentians are magic for me as there is only one place I've seen them growing in the wild.

I'm impressed with the dark background obtained outdoors. I like how the flowers pop out from the backgrouond and how they seem to glitter. Nice composition.

Anita Bower

[Julie Kenward]

This is really exquisite, Bogdan! The composition is perfect - it's simple, has just enough negative space, and really shows off the best parts of the flower. The diagonal stem does a great job of filling the image from top to bottom. You got great definition throughout the plant at the f8 aperture and the black BG just adds fire to the beautifully lit petals.

May I ask what color reflector you used?

[Bogdan Coltea]

Thank you for your kind words.

@ Julie
I used a white reflector, improvised from a raincoat :)

[Ed Vatza]

Happy New Year to you Bogdan.

All I can say is that this image is stunningly beautiful! What a wonderful image you have made here.

[Bruce Murden]

Lovely image Bogdan! You did a great job with a simple but important tool in the field -- a reflector, and chose a great comp and crop. Keep up the great work!

[Bogdan Coltea]

Thank you Ed and Bruce!
I'm really honored

[Mike Moats]

Hey Bogdan, couldn't agree more with the others. The flowers have a nice glow and good details. Well done and thanks for posting.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Bogdan, very nicely done! I just love the "glow" and think you made a very nice composition. Great colors and details as well.

[Aristotle Georgiou]

very nice Bogdan

I like the vibrant colour to this beautiful looking plant. Nice composition, excellent light and good detail.

[Chris Ober]

Definitely a nice glow and portrayal with this one. I think it needs some more DOF to get that top flower and bud more in focus.

[Bogdan Coltea]

Thank you all for the comments.

@Chris
I was thinking about that and initially planed to merge 2 photos for greater DOF.
What kept me from doing that was this "candle" effect I was going for: to subside (from bottom to top) both the light and the DOF.