Sacred Lotus

[John Storjohann]

Spent some time at the Botanicals yesterday with Jay...the Lotus are nearing peak already...last week there were only about 10 blooms. ISO of 800, f/16@1/125, 180mm macro with 1.4x teleconverter attached. RAW image processed in LR; cropped to create a pano of the Lotus. Used Fractalius on a separate layer and lowered the opacity to 46 percent to bring back some detail and depth; used Topaz Simplify-BuzzSim on a layer with the blend mode set to Saturation and the opacity lowered to 76%.

[denise ippolito]

John, I like the way you framed this. I'm wondering if you have a tiny sliver more room on the bottom. The entire bloom seems like an electric dance of color. Lotus are one of my faves and I never seem to get a chance to photograph them, I can't wait to see more from your day!

[John Storjohann]

Hi Denise; thank you for the comments...I had to reconstruct the bottom sliver I added using Content Aware and Cloning...there were some distracting elements in the original that would have detracted from the final image...enough added? Or were you thinking more?

[Cheryl Slechta]

John, this reminds me of artwork in a Buddhist temple. I love the colors and the fractalius effect - you've got that swirly thing going on again that is beautiful.

[denise ippolito]

John, You did a great job with the addition. I think that it makes the left petal seem more like it's in the image and not teetering on the edge.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi John, lovely blossom and treatment for the image. The fract work is lovely as are the colors too!