This was my first ever "magazine quality" shot I ever took. Back in 2008, I had a pinched nerve in my knee that made it very difficult to walk. I had been stuck inside the house for weeks on end. The pain, complete numbness from the knee down, and the ability for my knee to buckle at any given time, made it very hard for me to drive or walk even 50 feet. I decided to go in my backyard and photography some flowers that a commercial building had (our property lines literally touch each other) after a late July storm. I wasn't out there too long and only took about 50 photos before I quit. When I uploaded the photos to my computer, this is what I got. No editing. No touch-up. No change of color. What you're looking at is straight out of the camera, or SOOC for short.
Every time I look at this photo, it still gives me a sense of serenity, accomplishment and awe. You can see every detail in the folded petals, every rain drop and the background is just blurred so perfectly so that your main focus is on one single flower plant. You would think that I meticulously had the right settings, got down to right angle, envisioned what I wanted and hit the button. The honest truth is: this is a snapshot. Yes I said it, a snapshot. I was still in the early stages of learning my camera, and photography in general, so I purposely tried to ruin this shot so I knew what settings did what. And this is what I came out with.
