Orchid

Or, Tiny Technicolour Tuesday. The white column in the centre of this little orchid flower is only about 5mm across; the image is uncropped.

Apologies that this is going up so late - it's been a slightly trying day for non-Blip-related reasons with which I won't bore you, and for one Blip-related reason, which is that I was closing down tabs as I listed the various Mono Monday images I wanted to highlight, and just as I was getting near the end I managed to close the one with my unpublished entry on it. So this is a rewrite.

Unclench jaw, and breathe.....

So - Mono Monday. How difficult was it this week?? Even more difficult than last week, is how difficult it was! There were 114 entries, with a wide range of interpretations, and some really great images. I had to go through the seven pages several times just to get down to a long-list of about thirty, and from then on every entry I discounted cost me almost physical pain. So even if I don't mention you here by name, please accept my congratulations and my thanks for contributing to this week's challenge.

My five winners, in no particular order, are:

isbi for "the one with the curvy horn". I love the framing of this, with the tight crop on the cow's face and the horn against the dark dead space.

Hanulli for her peacock butterfly caterpillar. It's a simple, strong image which pleases my eye.

Missycat3 for Violet - I can almost feel the texture of the lovely baby curves in this image.

greg_lovett for Curly top. The strong contrast here really works to accentuate the curves of the seed head.

DoubtfulGuest for her curved building. The angle and lighting here make for a compelling and intriguing image.

I tried to get my list of Honourable Mentions down to a further five photos, but I'm afraid I've failed. I really like all of these:
Miranda1008 for Day's Eyes - beautifully lit.
dbifulco for Heaven Wept - gently lovely.
KangaZu for her curvy gate and curvy squirrel.
hobbs for his teacup handle - simple and pleasing.
Majoayee for Paper curve - an elegant image.
wall for his shell - great detail in this.
Dollykgray for her wrought iron screen - the reflections add extra interest here.

And last, but by no means least, a special mention to davidc for Spirograph. If you had told me before I sat down today to look at these shots that someone would have found a Spirograph, set it up, created some patterns and curves and then photographed the whole thing, I think there's a fair chance that I would have guessed correctly who that person was. And I mean that in the nicest possible way!

If you have time please do follow the mm71 tag and check out all the entries for this week's challenge. They deserve many views!

Right - that's me done. I want to hit publish before I manage to delete this whole thing a second time. If all the links work, frankly it will be a minor miracle - but I will check them and edit if necessary.

Thank you all again. Next week's theme will be Angle, and the tag will be mm72.