Unfurling

Several of our coneflowers survived the February freeze and I was struck by the symmetry of this new bloom as it opens. All comments welcome. >=))>

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Sony A77II
Minolta 200mm macro
ISO 400, 1/25 @ f16

4 Likes

Wow, beautiful flower, Bill! You captured it perfectly!

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Bill, there’s beautiful symmetry here, and each petal shows its upper colour. I’m a little uneasy about the number of petals, but that’s just my superstition! Lovely shot.

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I’ve taken a few photos of similar flowers, but not like this. You caught it at the perfect time. Agree with Mike about the symmetry - very appealing. You could try bringing up the exposure in the center just a little and maybe darkening some of the under leaves. Really terrific.

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Looks great. And nice that you caught it with the petals still unfurling. That adds some nice bright contrast. A bakers dozen.

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Quite agreeable. The blossom was destined for a square, tight frame.

The leaves below are just enough in focus to have detail, then the image grades down to nothing. The depth is intriguing.

Namaste

Mike, There’s no worry with the number of flowers. The reality is that there are 25 flowers.

Yup, 13 ray flowers, and 12 disk flowers. The ray flowers have the big petals around the perimeter, and the disk are those little yellow dots in the central area.

Just think about a sunflower when the seeds are ripe. Every seed was produced by one flower, a disk flower. Coneflowers are in the same family as sunflowers.

Just another obscure fact that you are allowed to forget instantly.

Bill, what a great image. I love everything about it. I don’t think I have ever seen a yellow coneflower, and definitely haven’t seen them with the petals furled. Very nice.

@paul_g_wiegman Well the disk flowers save the day! Thank you for putting my mind at ease, and in fact the information is very interesting. Mike

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Absolutely striking, with perfect focus and DOF. I was thinking the same thing as @_Kris about a tweak of the lighting but certainly strong enough as presented.

You are still creating beautiful floral photos Bill that I am very glad to see again. All the merits of this image are already been said, I love it.
Coneflower?

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