September 19, 2009 - Flower on a rainy day

1/25

f8

ISO 800

49mm

RAW

I am sure you have all heard about Atlanta's great flood of 2009 by now. This photo was taken two days before the flood happened. It had been raining for five straight days for a total of about seven inches so far, according to my rain gauge (a large bucket) in my front yard.

My youngest daugher, Tannah, was attending her best friend's birthday party. It was supposed to be at a petting zoo/animal ranch, but the rain had forced those plans to be canceled and the party was now at their home. When I dropped her off I saw their beautiful flowers on their front porch. I got this picture when I came back to pick her up.

The sky was completely overcast (and dark, too, because it was raining as I took this). While kind of gloomy, it offered a very even lighting. I made sure to take this in RAW format so I would have plenty of processing options later on when I loaded it into the computer. And I shot at f8 to have a good depth of field in the photo, which helped more of the flower be in focus.

I pumped up the exposure and contrast in Adobe Camera Raw, while also darkening the blacks a little bit to help keep the background dark. I didn't really like the flower in the background in the upper right, so I burned (darkened) that quite a bit to make the main flower separate from it more.

So what do you think? Overall, I think it is pleasant, but not a knock-out. The overcast skies provided even lighting, but I wouldn't consider it dynamic. I am worried I darkened the background too much and affected the overall mood of the photo. I also didn't have an umbrella as I was taking the photos, so I was a bit rushed (it wasn't a light rain!) and I didn't take my time. Ideally, I would love to find some flowers like this immediately after a storm is over with the sun coming out.

PS &mdash I would really like to know what kind of flowers these are. Anyone know?