Night-blooming Cereus

[Cindy Cone]

I spent a lot of evenings this summer taking photos of a night-blooming cactus that had multiple blooms. Each bloom only lasts for one night. I took a lot of other photos,
but this one I purposefully tried for some different lighting techniques, with a lot more contrast and shadows, so thought it would be good to use for this week's theme.
( My main lighting source from the side was headlight beams from a golf cart!) I've worked on different renditions for a few months, so can't remember the exact flow, but it was a combination of Topaz Simplify, Topaz ReStyle and B&W.
I also cloned out distracting elements of other cactus stems and painted the background darker. It's much softer and less-detailed than most things I do. Thanks for looking!

[Judy Howle]

Absolutely gorgeous!! Very good lighting and processing.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Cindy,

Greetings. Interesting look. With the slightly back mainly side lighting there is almost a photo negative appearance. An inverted image looks oddly less like a negative but the light patterns aren't explainable. The result is very eye-catching (both as the OP and inverted), if puzzling. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Paul Lagasi]

I agree with both the comments above, eyecatching and lovely. Very nice composition and lighting, well done

[Cindy Cone]

Thanks so much for your comments, Judy, Michael and Paul. Appreciate it!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Cindy, the lighting looks great and I like the perspective of the shot. These must be beautiful flowers to see in person. Just the fact that they only bloom at night and only for one night makes them rather mysterious.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Cindy, how cool to capture an event like this! I like the softer look of the image and the way the flower stands out against the black background. Very dramatic and interesting.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Love the dark to light, right to left, and the outline of the flower. Really nice Cindy!

[Cindy Cone]

Thanks for your comments, Cheryl, Kerry and Jackie.

i was totally obsessed with the cactus, which was blooming about two blocks from my house. Although each bloom only lasts one night, different buds were growing and blooming on different nights. So, you'll probably be seeing more cactus bloom images over the next few weeks.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Wonderful, I love my night bloomers too, always a fun challenge