This looked so much better in real life and no matter how much I coaxed it in Photoshop I could not recapture enough of the essence to make it work for me. I did however derive a wonderful palette with which to paint my imaginary library.
Is that an anther, a filament or a stamen? I'm not a botonologist but I do know that it takes my breath away. Such graceful, hopeful poise, bestowing substance to the flower as a whole with it's papery, ephemeral petals. (I think they are called petals . . . )
Contrast this with the one before it and it looks like a cartoon. Could it conceivably be the same artist? Is that holy fingerprint upon it? The bulbous joints between stem and bud are so quirkishly exaggerated.
The over-photographed flower? I guess you don't need to ponder long to figure out why . . . at least if you've really opened your eyes. To me it looks like a parable . . . a mystery that could speak in myriad ways.
It is seldom that I take quick photograph and then come back to it and gawk and wonder whether or not I was really there. I took these two shots (above, below) at a florist on one of the downward meandering streets in Darjeeling. My brother-in-law gallantly bought a daisy each for his new wife and his elder sister. The moment was fleeting and full of life and beauty . . . more than I even realized at the time. It makes me wonder how much I really see and it makes me want to pay closer attention in the future.
The sticker on the bottom right cracked me up.
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1 comment:
Austin,
True story: Calla lillies grow in ditches in South Africa & are called pig lillies, because they are so commonplace, unlike the high prices they command in cold northern climates. Once, a S.African tycoon placed the floral order for his daughter's wedding at the finest [read "most expensive"] London (England, there is one in SAF too!) florist's, to be airshipped in time for the ceremony.
You may guess his emotion when the entire ensemble arrived timed right before the ceremony, too late for local changes. It was beautifully composed, but comprised largely of white calla lillies! Does the G-meister have a sense of humor?
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