I think I came pretty close to achieving my vision with this image. In early Spring I'm always struck by the bright Camellia flowers that pile up under the well manicured trees that dot so many front yards around here. The fallen blossoms, red in this case, define a precise circle on the ground under the tree. My pre-visualized image was in color, but I ended up preferring the black and white version. Red is such a difficult color to get right. In the interest of full disclosure, I used a faux IR treatment to darken the color of the petals and lighten the leaves for better contrast. There was a time when I would never have tried something like this, much less cop to it if I had secretly given it a go. Thankfully, I'm much more open to post-visualization these days. The image was shot on the Pentax KP using the older version of the 35mm f/2.8 macro lens. It is one hell of a nice lens. It has the exact kind of mellow bokeh that suits my taste. I know this lens was designed for digital cameras, but I'm itching to see how it renders on film. Stay tuned.
