Living in the Moment

Freckles

Working with live flowers and natural light in a house full of helpful kitties truly emphasizes two things.  1) Live in the moment.  Act on impulse, on instinct, on inspiration, instead of listening to the little dictatorial voice that says "Concentrate on the subject you're working with now.  You can take shots of that other flower later..."  And 2) to not take anything too seriously.

I found a bunch of peony tulips at Whole Foods earlier this week and snatched them up.  Buying flowers in wrapped bunches occasionally yields up fun surprises.  Sometimes bundled in with the standard flowers are blooms of a different color, shade, and pattern.  And such was the case this time.  It took a couple of days for them to open, and when they did I had this amazing peony tulip in shades of purple and pink.  It simply said "Freckles" which is what I named the shot.

Aftermath

With tulips I always like to wait for them to open as much as possible.  It makes the shot more interesting and gives it depth.  It also allows the light to play with the petals.  The downside to waiting is that a tulip at is fullest opening is also at its most fragile, right before the petals fall.

One minute you have an intact flower at its peak...

And the next you've been visited by a helpful curious kitty and you have this...  A pile of petals and a lot of squeaking.

And if I'd listened to the dictorial voice instead of being impulsive and swapping flower subjects I'd've missed the shot entirely.

Link to the higher resolution photo ::

• Freckles

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