Description

This picture was taken in the Bronx, New York during the summer of 1994 in Wave Hill.

Technical Explanation

I'll admit it. Sometimes I just luck out when I take a picture. All photographers do. They have to! But just because you luck out doesn't mean that you got totally lucky. There is skill involved. The skill is in knowing how to create a great picture. How to frame it your shot, how to keep the camera steady, waiting till the right moment, using the right exposure and the right shutter speed. There was a feeling I got when I took this picture that I never felt before. I knew that I had just taken an awesome picture. After taking it, I said to my dad, "I have just taken the most gorgeous picture!"

I really did not know what to expect. I know it would be amazing, but little did I know how amazing it would be! Keep in mind that the only filter I had on my camera for this picture was a polarizer. No star filters, no special effects filters, nothing. Yet what you see certainly looks like it. I've always liked taking my pictures "au natural."

I have this picture hung up in my office at work. When I first put it up, people would walk over to it and say, "Did you take this picture?" Then I'd proceed to ask them exactly what it is that they were seeing. Some people thought it was one of those abstract space pictures that are rendered by an artist. Others just couldn't figure out what they were seeing. What are those stars? That's a flower, but it is coming out the ground?

In case you haven't figured it out by now, it is a picture of a lily-pad flower in a pond. The lighting is unusual because the sun is reflecting off the water behind the flower, and I am eclipsing the sun with the flower. All the little sunbursts of light are little versions of the sun reflecting off the water wherever the lily-pads are touching the water. I don't know exactly why they are causing that affect, but it is a photographers first job to take pictures first, then ask questions later.

Several aspects of this picture were unexpected. The granular look of the water around the suns reflection is really nice. And again, those "little suns" around the leaves is great. I especially like how the leaf at the top of the picture is actually half submerged causing it to look like a pitcher. And on the tip is another one of those suns! One other surprise is that the flower itself has a thin line of light going around the sides. You can't see it in the above picture too well, but if you look at a close up of the flower, you'll see what I mean.

To be sure that I got the picture, I did take a second shot, moving a bit to allow the sun to come through a bit more. You can see my second attempt if you wish to see how moving just an inch or two can totally ruin the affect.

This is one of those pictures that I'd be very proud to enter into a photo contest. Perhaps I will.

The light haze towards the middle of the picture at the bottom is a reflection caused from my scanner when I scanned this image in. I'll have to re-scan this picture to get rid of it. Sorry.