Floral Starburst

An advert for Kew Gardens appeared in my facebook feed (why??) with a striking photo of an Echinops against a black background with glistening drops of water. As it had been raining, and I have this plant in my gardern I thought I'd have a go at taking my own version.

I then got distracted by the more mundane things in life - like shopping for food for the week - and by the time I "got round to picking up the camera" the sun had dried up all the rain drops, and there was no way I'd get a clean black background without picking a stem and setting up a studio type shot.

In the end, rather than sacrificing a flowering stem I found a broken off seed head which displayed better against a white background, and played with the white balance to give this bluey purple tint, reflecting the colour of the original bloom.