Magnification Essay

The Dramatic Coneflower

It was a spring morning I was sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast; I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful arrangement of Coneflowers in the garden. They were tall and dignified and the most beautiful shades of fuchsia. They look delicate but are tough as nails. The sun's rays were filtering through the trees on this one particular fuchsia colored blossom. I was so intrigued by this play of light on this blossom I had to try and capture it. I grabbed my camera and walked outside to the garden for a closer look. I looked into the camera lens and zoomed in. As I began to focus my camera on this flower with the light filtering through I noticed how each overlapping petal created the illusion of a ballerina's tutu. Each petal is so unique and different from the next with individual soft veining and fluted edges. If you look close enough each little vein in the petal creates the look of valleys. The light bouncing off created beautiful variations of color. I noticed how all the gently curved petals are held together by this huge colorful center, which I realized are actually the flower's seeds. Each seed was so amazing with dramatic colors from deep purple at the base to orange in the middle and pale grey blue at the tip like the very colors of the sunrise on that morning. If you get in even closer to the tip there are little specks of white that remind me of snow on a mountain top.

Just as I was about to take this picture a little yellow bird flew down and landed on the flower's center. I was so startled that I froze and began to watch through my lens how he began to pluck the seeds off the flower. He plucked each individual seed without even disturbing the rest of the flower. I suppose he was having his breakfast too. As quickly as he startled me and landed on the flower he was gone and allowing me to capture my shot. I refocused my lens and took the photo while the sun was still shining on my flower.