Bright Sunshine

I call this photo "eleven a.m." because that's when I took it.  The sun was bright and hot with the ambient temperature pushing 94° fahrenheit.  The lilly blossoms loved it.  Ordinarily, I avoid taking pictures in bright sunlight because everything you see happening here—high contrast and harsh shadow areas can be  problematic.  This is especially true when photographing people.  Digital doesn't always handle high dynamic range well, but in this case I feel I was able to take advantage of it.  My exposure was set at a minus 2/3 on the ev scale (if you don't know how to do that check your camera manual), to hold back blowing out the highlights completely.  This is also a RAW file which allows for a good deal of post-processing latitude in Photoshop CS5.  I could have chosen to tone down the contrast a bit, but decided not to.  This is the way it looked to my naked eye and this is the way I wanted to portray it on the computer screen.  It's an unusual image in that both pads and blooms are at their peak with almost no decay.  The next time you see lillies growing in a pond, look at the pads and note how quickly they begin to deteriorate.