Flora

I rather like these small and compact flowers. We have some in the garden and they are a magnet for bees and other insects at this time of year. All very natural. 

What isn't natural is this picture, as it is partly faked. The sunlight is actually off camera flash. The shutter speed was chosen to make the background dark, and Photoshop finished off the process.

(I like a bit of black in my pictures, you will find evidence all over the blog: Here's a random example...)

Now you know the secret you can see this one comes from the same neck of the woods, with flash and selective darkening used to isolate the bloom and add impact to the image.

I show all of this to remind us that nothing we see in print is quite what it seems any more. The digital revolution has given us an endless flow of potentially perfect images.

I do wonder if that is a good thing...