Yep! I'm Back At It Again

I have long been a fan of still life and flower photography of Alan Shapiro. Some of the ways that he uses light and shadow in his flower images especially are jaw dropping. I have what could only be described as a minimalist photography studio, which is to say non-existent, and I don't own very much fancy equipment. My goal was to create some images of one of my zinnias where the background would be completely black and the lighting would be as dramatic as I could get it using my speed light along with the flash on my camera. The latter acts as a trigger for the speed light that is set at various angles and heights relative to the flower. While I still haven't achieved my goals to the degree I would like, I think I am getting closer. I used manual mode so I could control shutter speed and f stops, but I never could totally get the background to blacken in the out of camera shot. Thank goodness for post processing that did the rest of that for me. With this image I also purposely blurred some parts because I wanted to create an image that was a combination of light and darkness as well as sharpness and softness. I did get a couple more shots that I liked. But one of the great things about photography is that there is always an aspect of work in progress to it, new and different ways to play with light, subject matter, and post processing. I am adding another version of this same image in black and white. It is interesting to compare the two because I think their message is entirely different.