Beautiful Blue

This is a Panola … a cross between a pansy and a viola. I planted them last autumn in some pots to give the garden a little winter colour, and they are still going beautifully.

I like to challenge myself in photography, and I try to aim to refrain from cropping where possible, but I know that is not always possible to do, but I managed it here. My aim was not only to capture the heart of the flower and the detail not always seen there in normal naked eye viewing, but also the vivid colours. I refrained from using flash, and captured the image outside of harsh sunlight. In post-processing I altered the white balance slighlty to get close on the original colouring as I had under exposed fractionally. I also reduced any noise, and sharpened using the high pass filter rather than smart sharpen, as I wanted it to be subtle. Double-click image to enlarge.

Panola

© Peter Hillman ♦ 12th April 2020 ♦ Local wood, Staffordshire ♦ Nikon D7200

24 thoughts on “Beautiful Blue”

    • Peter Hillman
      Reply

      Thank you very much, Gary! From what I can gather the hybrid is supposed to cope with the lower winter temperatures a lot better, although we had another warm winter.

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  5. Mike Powell
    Reply

    Beautiful, Pete. I am never sure about the differences between a pansy and a viola, so a hybrid of the two seems mystifying to me. I love all of the attention that you have given to highlight the wonderful details of this flower.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. Steve Gingold
    Reply

    Lovely, Pete. I just photographed one of my wife’s pansies the other day and until then had never noticed those fine hairy stamens that dropped their pollen on the lower petal in your image. We often overlook the common for the unusual and I fell for that with the pansies. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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