Close and Closer

August 14, 2002

I should be working, but since I'm the boss, I am going to continue dabbling in this morning's distraction.

Just outside my window is a hibiscus bush that has put forth an unbelievable display of giant blooms. I took a picture the other day with my film camera and it remains locked away till the roll is finished.

I figured that the flowers might last a couple of days, but after a week of these blooms I decided this morning to bring in my digital for a closer look.There are a couple of things I'd like to mention about the process of taking these pictures.

First of all, cloudy days are good for color. Bright sunlight washes out the depth of color, and you will always get the best saturation on a cloudy day.

Since these blossoms are a pale pink they would lose a lot of color and shading in the blasting sun.

However, if the sun does come out later today I may try and see if I can get a back-lit image, or try and compensate for the sunlight by speeding up the exposure.

It's the final photograph that I really like.

There are a couple of principles at work here, the obvious being that up close and personal can reward you with some spectacular images.

The second is one of composition, in that the lines of the photo take your eye not to the center of the picture, but right of center and keep your eye there.

For photographs, anything smack dab in the middle is not considered a good thing.

It took a while to knock the tiger off the screens of my computers at work. And I must say that it's a rare thing for me to view a set of images, find one, and utter "perfecto."

Larger image here