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Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Positively Glowing

A wall near where Anthony has swimming lessons is covered with these purplish flowers. Again, my D700 seems to want to overexpose everything, and I ended up using -2½EV exposure compensation to stop the petals from blowing out. One side effect of the relative underexposure is that it makes the scene look dark (it was in fairly bright shade), but I didn't want the rich colors to be lost (as happened in this flower, due to an effect described in “Why Does “Brightness” Wash Colors to White?”).

Another effect of the underexposure is that the central, lighter portions of the petals seem much brighter, relatively speaking, than they really were, giving a pleasant sense of glowing from within, or, perhaps, from the stamens.

( And is it just me, or do others think that “stamen” sounds like it should be both the singular and the plural? )