These complicated flowers fascinate me. With a little imagination, it looks like an alien being from a Disney cartoon!
Camera Info: Nikon D500, hand held
Lens: VR 300mm f/4E + 1.4x TC
Focal Length: 420mm
Focus Mode: AF-C
AF-Area Mode: Dynamic, 25 points
VR: ON
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/250s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Metering: Spot
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400
Virtually full frame
PP in LR/PS CC 2018, Topaz Detail, Camera Raw filter, TK sharpen for web
I darkened the BG about -0.5 EV. An easy edit in Camera Raw filter. The purpose, of course, is to make the subject pop. What do you think of the result, and I am open to suggestion for any other way of doing this.
What a beautiful flower, Phil. I just love the color, and you really captured it well. I like it the way it is. Only suggestion I could add, would be to try to spot remove those two white spots on the leaf to the right of the flower, to keep our eye focused on the lovely subject. I can see how this flower fascinates you. I am not familiar with it, but I would be trying my best to get a shot like this if I did see one.
do you remember Maypops as a kid? That’s where the Passion flower comes from. Used to love coming up on my sisters and stomping on a Maypop near them. Scared the pturkey out of them!
Sorry. Should have caught the white dots.
No problem, glad I mentioned it. It looks much better to me with the white spots gone. No, I don’t remember Maypops? Maybe we didn’t have them on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. What area of the country did you grow up and and have them? I just love this flower and could just sit and look at your image of it.
Auburn, Alabama—Upper Coastal Plain, Lower Piedmont
That might explain why I am not familiar with Maypops as a flower. Kind of funny, when I was a kid, we used to call our tires on our vehicles “maypops” when they were worn out, as they could pop any time! So that was my first thought when I saw the name. 
Thanks for adding the info about this flower. I appreciate it. I still say it is one of the most beautiful flowers that I have ever seen. I will have to see if I can add it to my garden next year!
Wow, what a beautiful flower. Well done, Phil. Taking out the white dots does help a lot, proving that it takes very little sometimes to cause a large distraction.
