Simplicity

This photograph was taken during my recent trip to Cuyahoga National Park.  Because of recent torrential rains, our focus was drawn away from the water, which was colored a cocoa brown from mud and silt that had run into the river and eroded from its shore.  Not very photogenic! While hiking along the shore, I was drawn to a dogwood tree that seemed to be in the final stages of blooming.  My goal was to make an image based on the idea of simplicity.  Using a fairly wide aperture, I selectively focused on the center of just one flower.  At first, I was concerned that the flower was not perfect, showing early stages of wilting on one of it's petals, but then I decided that this actually added to its appeal.

I liked the image in color, but a toned black and white conversion seemed to better convey the mood I was looking for:

"Dogwood"

Copyright Howard Grill