Rose in the Dark

So, 'Murphy's Law' is in action...... yesterday when the challenge word was 'light' we had a mostly very dull day; today, when the challenge word is 'dark' we have a bright sunny morning! So the real challenge is getting a dark picture on a bright morning.

Very much the 'kitchen studio' - literally. With one of the last roses from the garden, complete with attendant spider and aphid (both re-located) I set about getting the sun's rays on the rose head but not on the rest of it. The rosebud is on a piece of glass with black underneath (to give some reflection) and behind. The curtains are mostly closed to restrict the sun and a reflector is being used as a block to the light which would otherwise fall on the background. It wouldn't look good on a you tube video! I also had to keep re-positioning everything to take account of the moving sun (yes, I do know it's the earth that moves really)!

I then experimented between my 105 macro lens and the Lensbaby macro kit and ended up with a selection of interesting 'dark' shots. I like this one best of those that show the whole bud (105 macro) and I just needed a bit of Photoshop to accentuate the black background.

NB: The piece of glass is from a £3.30 clip frame from 'Wilko' - great place for cheap photographic resources; I also needed this for yesterday's water drops.