Water Lilies..have it your way.....a menu of choices for your images..

Today I had an opportunity to process some shots from yesterday, when I had an opportunity to run up to Longwood Gardens in the morning to do some personal shooting around the concrete pools of water lilies. It was a semi overcast morning and pretty good light for shooting outdoors. I always start the morning near the lily pools by getting on the ground and looking for interesting comps, reflections and subjects. I keep an eye out for distracting shadows caused by the little plant marker stakes and the night lights in the pools.  I also play with the effects of the polarizing filter on the water and pay close attention to bugs. When a bee is inside a plant moving around it will move the lily enough that there can be unattractive shaky petals or stamens. I also look for the freshest subjects. If a lily has become a little old its petals will need too much spotting work in the processing. Longwood grooms the ponds daily so they usually are pretty fresh, but all that grooming can leave dirt on the remaining flowers. I also look at how the water circulation ports are creating movement on the water's surface for interesting textures. Shooting for three hours is more than enough to come away with a couple nice  images. The opening image I processed three ways, just to see what it would look like with some special effects of Snapart 2 and a texture overlay combined with the straight shot............The rest are just a few straight shots.