Peter Truman Photography

June 14th 2009, a beautiful sunny evening. I sat in the garden looking, thinking about nothing in particular but fully aware of the wonderful evening light that was starting to make the plants in the border glow. Time to pick up the camera and start looking amongst the plants in the border - of which there are many different types. As I often do I edged along with the long macro lens, looking through the viewfinder rather than just hoping my eyes would pick something up. With the sun on them the gently hanging blue bells looked a real treat and I spent some time gazing at them lit up by the warm light. I took several pictures to get a group of the bells in the picture, but then I saw the shadow of the stamen on the petal.

I moved the lens in closer to remove much of the other clutter from the frame and to isolate this flower head. It must have been the direction of the sun and the orientation of this single bell, but none of the other flowers on the small clump we have showed such a shadow. So I moved in a little closer and focussed manually on the petal that had the stamen shadow on it. To ensure the background was not distracting I made sure the aperture was wide open. Resting the camera on the wall I took several shots to ensure I had nailed focus and exposure and this is the result. What I particularly like about this is not just the way the stamen shadow is seen, but the way other flower heads appear to curl round the head.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 180mm f3.5L lens, ISO200, f3.5, 1/200sec. Handheld but resting on a wall.

Photographs Gallery