Peruvian Squill

A Peruvian Squill has appeared in our garden this year. No idea how it got there, as it is apparently native of The Algarve. Migratory avians passing above our garden? I hope not, for the bird's sake as the squill grows from a bulb.
To separate the delicate flowering portion of the plant from the busy garden background I shot with a macro lens set to apertures between f8 and f2.8, depending on how much of the plant I wanted to keep in focus.
I resisted the temptation to polarise the shine off the petals as I wanted to highlight the contrast between the light open and darker closed flowers.
A tripod was essential as even the slightest bit of camera shake blurs macro images. I also shot a greycard and balanced in Photoshop, rather than relying on the Nikon's built-in white balance settings, as purples can be awkward to get right.
A small water spritzer added a dewy look to some of the shots.

Sonnet 54

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 

For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 

The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 

As the perfumed tincture of the roses, 

Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly 

When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: 

But, for their virtue only is their show, 

They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, 

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; 

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: 

And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, 

When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

(William Shakespeare) 

The Garden (Part 1)

Life Of Brian

"Blessed be the cheese graters" - that's the line isn't it?
Wivenhoe Photography Group undertook a still life session at the Nottage, using ambient light (primarily the large balcony window there), and someone brought along a cheese grater. I despise cheese, but the way the late afternoon light played over and through the grater made me thing 'abstract'. The lens was a 60mm macro left wide open to blur those dots of light, and, of course, a tripod was essential.
I boosted the colour a little with Photoshop LAB colour, but not as much as you might think.
For the black and whites I applied a lith-style curve.