"Petal Veins"

Chandra,  this is very nice, really like the distance between subject flower and b/g. think would not hurt to clone away insect or blemish below center of flower. nice work.

that's a killer shot. May we get to know how you shot it?

Roger,  thanks for your comments.  I did notice the insect in the bottom of the flower and of course, it is easily to post-process and remove it.  I might just do that - but generally, I like to keep post-processing to absolute minimum and in particular, hate to remove "living" creatures in the frame.  In this case, perhaps better to remove since my intention was to capture the veins as sharp as possible. 

Lalit, I saw this flower in the backyard of a home when I was biking in the greenbelt two weeks ago.  I could not resist the temptation to take a shot - so the next day I waited till almost past sunset and approached the elderly lady in the home for permission to take few frames.  She agreed and I spent some time in the backyard.  I had to position myself and the tripod in the right place (took a long time!) to frame this shot directly looking at the flower petals.  This was not easy due to limited space and I had to be careful not to disturb rest of her garden.  I was fascinated by the colors and the wonderful veins coming out - with amazing yellowish color right at the center of this flower.  Therefore, my primary intention was to capture the veins as sharp as possible.  I used 105mm lens at f/8 and 1/640s for the exposure - rock-steady tripod, additional help with mirror-lock and cable release - it was getting dark so, I bumped up the ISO to 640 - natural lighting, no flash.  It was a windy day so I had to wait for a very long time to get a steady shot.  As you know, even though this takes patience, I like it, since it gives me time to enjoy and take-in the moment. 

thanks for your comments.

Superb shot, and superb explanation. Thoroughly enjoyed both, for a few moments I felt I was in Boise shooting with you. Miss that.

Very good decision for not using flash. The yellow seems to be glowing in the entire picture from the center. A great example where one should break the compositional rule.

May I suggest a few things, since this is a masterpiece?

a. Luminance noise - can you take care of it? You can see it in the upper region of the image.

b. Just a little bit warming, for experiment and comparison sake, the shadows and sky reflections has a blue tint to the image.

c. crop or clone a very small rd petal popping in the image right at the bottom.

Again, this is because this is superb piece of art by the earth and you. Suggestions is just because of my total interest in the beautiful shot!

I have not done this many times, but how about a small rocket blower to take care of dust and little insects like these on macro shoot. Some people also carry small water bottle and sprayer attached.

Regards

+Lalit

Beautiful. I like the way you manage the background so carefully.

Lalit,  thanks for taking the time to give your suggestions.  Such useful inputs and suggestions are precisely what I am always looking for in this site - and unfortunately, get them very rarely.  Thanks!

I will be looking at all your inputs very carefully. 

Luminance noise:  I will review again - that's a great input.

Blue tint:  yes - I did notice that and didn't bother to change WB.  I could play around a bit but I somehow seem to like the blue cast.  Since I spent so much time observing this flower dancing in the wind that day, when I look at this photo, it appears to my eye almost exactly as it appeared to me when I took this shot - for me, that is critical.  Of course, my eye's DOF is far greater - and thankfully I don't see such bokeh's in real life (even though I have to admit, while watching such beautiful creations in nature, our "mind" and not the "eye" creates "bokeh" to forget about everything else except the one we are focussing our attention!)

Blowers/sprayer:  this is a great suggestion - and I do have them in my bag.  Often I forget to use them while taking pictures - in this case, I like the idea of gently blowing the insect off the flower before taking the shot than removing it during post processing.   

I too miss your company and photo trips - will send you a separate email to you on this.  Thanks again for your time!

Chandra, I am really fascinated by the razor sharp detail you have captured in this beautiful flower. Great image! Vishwanath