Last Petal – Ruby Braumann

The bottom of our garden is a patch where my hubby scatters seeds and everything grows in wild profusion. So we often have cosmos there - it keeps re-seeding itself. It's great to wander down there in the late afternoon as the sun slants warmly across the flowers. I have taken umpteen photos there, especially when the bees are busy.

Late October last year, I took my trusty Nikon D80 with my Nikkor 105mm Micro lens affixed, and found this flower, almost spent. The light was beautiful, and I took several photos until, with settings of aperture f8, shutter speed 1/80 and ISO 200, I caught this one. I think I was just hand-holding my camera, so I was lucky to get this so sharp. For me, what makes the photo is the soft, blurred background, the strong shadow on the last petal, and the bright yellow (actual) flowers that seem to float at the top of the composite flower.

Post-processing was minimal - a little cropping and tweaking of levels, contrast and saturation.

As Maartin always says - 'Less is more' - the simplicity of the photograph is what catches the eye.

Ruby Braumann