Robert's Ramblings

There's a super nova in our garden. A little biological super nova.

Just as a super nova spreads its seeds of matter through the cosmos, so does the dandelion flower.

As kids we loved picking them and just like blowing out the candles of a birthday cake we used to try and blow off every seed with a single breath.

Initially I tried to use a tripod but found it was simply easier to pre-focus the lens and slowly move the camera in and out of focus by hand, firing the shutter and strobes just as I moved through the focal plane. This allowed me to take the image from directly above obscuring the stem.

For lighting I used two strobes, one placed on the ground to the right and facing back up at the dandelion, the other directly to the left. The objective of the lighting was to create a sense of depth through the space of the dandelion.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 210 - Supernova'. 1/200 secs f/32 ISO-160 100mm + 2 x Strobes (off camera)