Evening Boquet

In mid-July, @Steve_Kennedy and I backpacked in Goat Rocks Wilderness. The flowers were very late this year; our choices were a bit slim. The one flowering plant we did find quite a bit of was the Western Pasque Flower (Anemone occidentalis).

I’ve photographed this plant later in the season, when most other flowers are peaking, and by then Pasque flowers have gone to seed and formed fluffy seed heads. (The seed heads are why this plant is also called, “old man of the mountain.” Here’s an example of the seed heads I took in Goat Rocks last year.)

The flowers are interesting to photograph because they tend to grow isolated as a single plant (it’s hard to find a patch of them), and they exhibit nyctinasty and close up late in the day. I decided to try and go with the flow, and centered on a single plant. Even though the flowers are closed, they looked a bit like rose buds to me; an effect I liked. I’m not sure I pulled it off, but sometimes you work with what you’re given.

If I were critiquing this for someone else, I’d probably comment about shadow detail. However, in this case it’s a conscious choice; the darker areas are not really as attractive. (That’s also the reason I crowded the flowers so close to the edge. Again, not sure if it works but that was the reasoning.) In addition, NPN displays this with slightly more plugging of the shadows then the actual version when viewed in Photoshop; I’m not sure why that happens.)

I’d love your thoughts and suggestions!


FUJIFILM X-T30
FUJIFILM XF 10-24mm F4 at 10 mm (15 mm equivalent)
1/4 sec. at f/16 and ISO 160 (11 images blended for DOF)
0.5 sec. at f/16 and ISO 160 (1 image taken 20 minutes later for sky color and alpenglow)

I’ve used Lens Correction to keep Mt. Adams from disappearing into the background, puppet warp to straighten the trees a tad, and cloned out a small contrail in the upper right.

2 Likes

Yeah, upon studying the foreground in this image, I can see why you made the choices that you did. I think your composition and processing has reduced/simplified this down to the key elements, the flowers, mountain and sky. I think you have handled the luminosity of these key elements very well. The arrangement of the flowers into a radial pattern is also very pleasing. With gorgeous light like this on the mountain (Rainier?) and in the sky, I think you made the best out of the foreground that you had to work with.

My only suggestion would be to clone away the two bright spots on the right near the base of the trees.

I love the flowers, and their color is perfect with the BG. All the stacking paid off with lovely colors and detail.

Lovely. And what interesting flowers. The colors are gorgeous; the flowers have just a touch of pink, which links them to the sky.

John, I really like the composition here. You have handled the flowers and light beautifully, and the fog and reds in the sky enhance the image well. My main question is what does this area look like now with the horrific wild fires. I hope you and yours have not been adversely affected by the fires.