As usual, I went for my morning walk before work. The sun was barely over the horizon when I spotted this lone flower struggling to grow in sparse dirt next to a whitewashed fence. It's not my normal type of subject, but I just had to give this one a try. As part of my post-processing, I wanted to emphasize the poor whitewash job on the fence. It tells you, if nothing else, something about the environment in which this flower is struggling to grow. The flower itself, thanks to a less-than-nurturing environment, is a pale version of what, under better conditions, it could truly be. I tried to capture that feeling as well. It's standing tall, it's in full bloom, but it could be so much more. The gritty feel to the image is intended to convey that overall mood.
Post processing started with a brilliant warm filter in Topaz Adjust. I then adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, and saturation. I added a levels adjustment in PSE, then adjusted each of the color saturations individually to produce the final effect.
