For my second installment in this new series, I’m offering a new image that’s a small step farther beyond the “normal” than most others that I’ve posted recently.
I’ve not added anything that was not there when I made the original exposure, but have employed several post-processing tools that allow me to work with and enhance various aspects of the information that my camera recorded. Enough said—I hope you enjoy the result!
krikitarts 
Technically this is well done, Gary. There can be beauty in subjects past their prime.
Actually, the fully-unfolded one was in perfect prime, and the other unfurled a day later (yesterday). It’s the tone mapping that gives them the “fading glory” look, but that’s the effect I was after. The first is now definitely past, but the second is still in full flower. In fact, I just had another look, and I think I’ll revisit it…
Gary, I like this a lot, both for the organic substrate and the diagonal composition – the detail in the Iris petals is wonderful >>> but I for one am interested to know the details of the post-processing. Maybe you don’t want to divulge them and that’s fine – but I’m interested. Adrian
No secrets at all from you, Adrian! I fine-tuned initial parameters in Camera Raw, then tone-mapped the result with Nik’s HDR Pro 2 software, starting with the Structurized 1 preset. I’ll e-mail you the details. I’m happy that you like it!
Very nice work.
Thanks, Raewyn.