The end of a relationship. I imagine that a young man met his sweetheart on the beach that afternoon, flowers in hand, anticipating a romantic evening. Instead, he was a recipient of the "Let's just be friends" speech. Confused, angry and heartbroken, he wandered down the shore, absently dropping the flowers along the way. The end of his hopes and dreams. Wilting in the evening sun and washing away with the tide.
I found this flower bouquet lying on the edge of the water at a lake. This is exactly where and how I found it. No staging or adjusting of it at all. I did have some difficulty getting the flowers to stand out enough from the background under basic rules. That will likely hurt my score a bit, and in hindsight, I could have turned it to get some different lighting. I do however, like the fact that I accidentally found something that fits the topic so well.
I desaturated this a bit, as it was taken close to sunset and the strong reddish tones did not seem to fit with the slightly wilted flowers and the idea I was conveying. I didn't notice until I was looking at the shots afterwards on the computer, but there was a ladybug on one of the flowers. A shame I missed it, I love bug macros.
I had a hard time choosing from two potential entries. The outtake probably had more visual punch and interesting texture, but the idea (The end of the road) is one I expect a few others will also do. The more I thought about this dying flower shot, the more it appealed to me
Pre-challenge note:
I expect this to score only mediocre to mid range, but I am hoping this will be one of those shots that connects strongly with a handful of people. I think the message and connection with the topic is pretty strong, but it's possible that some may not get it, since I'm not showing a physical end point of something. This ought to be an interesting challenge, even if it comes in under a 5.
Post-challenge notes:
Didn't appeal to most, it appears. I thought it told a story, but the voting breakdown tells me that the story did not come across in the few moments that most people give to an image. Only 3 comments, but they indicate that a handful of people did pick up on what I was conveying.
Statistics
Place: 93 out of 146 Avg (all users): 4.7684 Avg (commenters): 5.0000 Avg (participants): 4.6071 Avg (non-participants): 4.8358 Views since voting: 1111 Views during voting: 268 Votes: 190 Comments: 4 Favorites: 0
Wonderful image with a beautiful message that fits the challenge theme exceptionally well. Superb detail, vivid color and excellent depth of field. A winner in every way.
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