One photo a day challenge: Day 304.

I have been fortunate to have many plants that have been surviving well into fall now.

These plants are outside on my deck. And they are just getting absolutely pounded here in upstate New York right now.

So much rain.

However, it has finally stopped raining. I thought this was a great opportunity to get outside and photograph these plants before they are gone.

I typically focus on the flowers. And I did do some of that today.

But today I really spent some time photographing the few cactus plants I have outside on the deck.

Process

Getting in close with my macro lens.

I also added a little bit of artificial light to complement the hazy overcast light of the afternoon.

This particular cactus has a very three dimensional shape. Think pyramid but with the sides hollowed out.

This creates a nice ridgeline to focus in on. Getting in close with the macro lens reveals the texture of the plant.

At the same time it throws the rest of this branch of the cactus out of focus.

Choosing to focus right along this ridgeline also brings into focus the thorns that grow out from thie ridge of the cactus.

The rest of the photos becomes this beautiful soft abstract image of shapes and colors.

The water droplets on the cactus are illuminated from the side with my Lume Cube light. This really sets them apart and they glow.

After editing to select the image I wanted to use in todays blog post I moved on to post processing.

Using Adobe Lightroom. I selected two different presets that worked together to highlight all the parts of the image that I wanted to stand out.

I hope you enjoy this creative rendition of a cactus that I created to share with you today.

Cactus with water droplets
Support: $2.00 / Month

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with KRNaturalPhoto and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from KRNaturalPhoto. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.