A reprise of a recent Flickr post.

Here’s the text I posted with the original photo:

Chaenactis, or pincushion, litters the desert floor. Its dainty top-heavy heads are known to wave in the wind. It’s an inconspicuous little aster. But all so important for the desert tortoise. Studies indicate that pincushion is the number one food for desert tortoises in the Mojave. I can just imagine how many hundreds of these a grown 50-year old desert tortoise has consumed…

Texture by Nasos3.  Files combined and layered in Photoshop Elements 8. Amazingly these two photos came together beautifully with little additional manipulation.  The combination setting was “overlay” for combining the photos.  100% for both photos – flower on top of texture.  Simple is great.

So here’s my homage to one good light, one fast lens and a beautiful lady (eh hem, she’s my wife).  Simple set up in the living room with a blanket hanging from the doorframe.  One off-camera Canon speedlight (580 EX) and a 33″ shoot-thru umbrella.  Canon 50mm prime set at f2.2.  I have a little bounce (small light disk) on camera left to provide some fill.  I think this baby just sings.  And I think my babe is beautiful.  Single umbrella, lovely lady.  I’m a lucky dude!

Continue reading →