Blushing Beauty

[Julie Kenward]

Anita, I finally found the name for this tulip - it's Blushing Beauty. This is one of my alternate compositions where I laid them flat on a table and filled the frame with them. I had them outside in natural lighting, no flash.

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
f10 @ 1/60th, ISO 200
Manual mode, pattern metering, Sunny WB
Processed in ACR & CS4; small crop, small levels adjustment, cloned out some spots.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Lovely image Julie. Like the flowing lines of the petal edges. Some lovely texture. Like the way u've extracted good details below & in between the gaps of the flowers (especially without the aid of flash). Very neat & carefully composed frame. Love it.

[Julie Kenward]

I tried flash on this tulip in a couple of different set ups and it never worked well, Kaushik. Something about the sheen of the petals made it bounce and create hot spots that were such a pain to get rid of...I finally gave up and went with all natural lighting.

[John Christian]

Simply beautiful!

[denise ippolito]

Julie, One for your portfolio!! I love the composition and the colors,good details and that touch of sheen at the very bottom is great!!

[Richard Lovison]

Julie,

I love the quality of the light and colors and that you composed on the diagonal. It's a wonderful study of texture and color (beautiful hues of yellow and magenta) though I wonder if the composition would have been stronger without the stem as my eye seems to be pulled by it.

[dawn campbell]

Anita, I finally found the name for this tulip - it's Blushing Beauty. This is one of my alternate compositions where I laid them flat on a table and filled the frame with them. I had them outside in natural lighting, no flash.

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
f10 @ 1/60th, ISO 200
Manual mode, pattern metering, Sunny WB
Processed in ACR & CS4; small crop, small levels adjustment, cloned out some spots.
This is lovely Julie--the tones are just right--bright but not too contrasty, and there remains great texture on the surface. DOF is perfect. I like this--it's a bit unusual. Good thinking on the comp.

[dawn campbell]

Julie,

I love the quality of the light and colors and that you composed on the diagonal. It's a wonderful study of texture and color (beautiful hues of yellow and magenta) though I wonder if the composition would have been stronger without the stem as my eye seems to be pulled by it.
I like the stem there--I think it adds some tension to the composition and a little flash of color. Personally, I would think it would be too uniform without it?

[Bruce Murden]

Jules, just stop it. Too much! You're making me feel guilty for not making more lovely images this spring. Sure, I'd blame it on the delayed onset of spring here in Michigan (but a few days of 80 sure felt good!).

Or, in other words, another winning tulip image!

[Anita Bower]

Jules: Thanks for the name! I love this composition. I like that there are several tulips and that they fill the frame. I like the inclusion of one stem and the diagonal lines. Love the soft curves and colors.

[Ed Vatza]

Jules, you already got all the plaudits here. Beautiful tulip image.

As I look at it, the presence of the stem clearly locks it in as flowers, tulips. Yet in the deep, dark recesses of my mind, I keep thinks, lose the stem and you would have an over-the-top abstract.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jules,
a little late to the party.......but figured I'd chime in. I saw this a few days ago and absolutely loved it! Even after reading all the comments.....my personal take on this is that the stem makes it! Yes it would be a nice abstract too......but my first thought...she laid the bouquet on the table....very clever as the rest of the tulips make for a great BG......just the nice flow and undulations in this really make this a winner all around.....one of your best and my favs!

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks everyone. I did realize as I was looking at this on the table that it would make a great abstract without the stem (and I'm sure I made several of those images as well...) but I wanted you to know it was a tulip so the stem had to be left in - and to me it makes the image. All those soft, swirly colors and then that nice line of green on the diagonal...pulls the eye right down the middle, don't you think? So yes, it could go either way depending on what type of image you like but the goal was not to make an abstract but to show the tulip as it is in all it's glory.

I miss them already...