Cascading Petals

This is one of countless flower images I shot at the Bishop’s Garden while I lived in DC. One of my most favorite places in the world, the garden, which is on the south side of the Washington Cathedral, was just a 5-minute drive from my condo.  During the warmer months, I would trek up Wisconsin Avenue early in the morning to meditate in the gazebo and take pictures. Remarkably, I often had the place completely to myself, watching the butterflies and listening to the bees in the shadow of one of the world’s most magnificent buildings.

This image is the result of quite a bit of play and experimentation in Lightroom. Pulling down the saturation on every hue with the exception of the orange stamens brings a milky quality to this image which is heightened all the more by pushing the histogram into a high key zone. It’s a good example of a shot I could have easily overlooked because the full-color version lacked visual drama. I’m glad it caught my eye the other day and I stuck with it!