The birth of a cuckoo flower by Marianne Dirix

About "The birth of a cuckoo flower"

by Marianne Dirix

About the artwork

In the hamlet Terziet near the famous South Limburg town of Epen is one of the most beautiful nature reserves in the Netherlands. Officially this nature reserve is called the Geul Valley, but in popular speech it is called the Garden of Epen. During one of my photo trips in this beautiful area I saw the budding of a true cuckoo flower. I looked at this event with attention and decided to make a macro photo of it and took my macro lens with me. At the moment you make your image composition through the lens you see every detail and I immediately noticed that a seed fluff of the nearby poplar trees was held by a gossamer spider web. I doubted whether I shouldn't remove this fluff, but because this flower is very common in the Garden of Epen, I decided to leave it in so as not to affect the atmosphere. Through the lens you can see all the structures and textures on a micro level and the petals that came out for a very small piece reminded me of a birth. It was warm on this day and I had already heard rumblings of a thunderstorm. Clouds were gathering in the sky and the wind was picking up. The stalks of grass began to move violently and I had to wait for the right moment in terms of light and the movement of the flower stem and then press the shutter button. The swaying grass stalks in the background give the image composition a nice dynamic suggestion. Post-processing was done in my own recognizable style.