In early Spring flowering trees of many varieties begin blooming. During a hike a couple weeks back I photographed the flowers of one of these trees. I don’t know the specific variety, but I think they’re beautiful, as so many of them are.

The tree, and many others like it, were along the edge of a gravel road. Typically the road is part of a wildlife drive visitors can use to explore a small portion of the refuge by car. But the road was blocked off and only allowed hikers because of a pair of nesting eagles further down the road who have been returning to this location for a number of years. In fact, the road is completely blocked, even for hikers, just a little beyond this point to protect the eagles.

To help the flowers really stand out I found an attractive grouping of them standing against a darker background, a group of trees a bit further back and in the shade. The trees didn’t have many leaves yet so it was mostly a dark stand of tree trunks and shrubs. If you photograph a very light subject, like these flowers, against a very dark background, like the trees, and you expose for the lighter flowers, then the background can be made to go very dark, sometimes almost completely black. That’s what happened here. Later in post I adjusted the exposure to further lighten the flowers and darken the background, but it didn’t take much as most of this happened naturally in camera.

Here is another photograph that shows the flowers in context, with the road leading down towards the eagle’s nest. You can see the darker lines of trees I was referring to. Just a slight shift in perspective, from facing the road and the lighter sky, to facing the dark line of trees, can make a huge difference in the look of the photo.

I hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy.

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