Backlit Tulip

Photography is all about light, and I think one of the most dramatic types of light is backlighting, particularly when the light is coming through or around a transparent or translucent object.  At the end of March I was walking indoors through the small botanical garden near my home (Spring still seemed a long way off, though it should have already arrived) when I saw sunlight streaming through one of the glass walls of the greenhouse.  That is usually a good sign to check and see if there are any flowers that are appropriately shaped to take advantage of backlighting.  There were some freshly blooming tulips, and one in particular was right in the 'beam' of light that was streaming in behind it.  The yellow tulip seemed to be on fire and lit from within.  

The tulip was growing in a window-box of sorts and so it wasn't too difficult to make the photo at 'eye'level'.  I decided to put the focus on the area where the stem turns into flower and let the rest of the bloom simply explode into a blur of yellow flames.

BotanicalsHoward Gflowers12 Comments