There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic. ~ Anais Nin

Edge of Gold Dahlias in an antique vase photographed against vintage satin curtains.

This week, I dug up the Dahlias for winter. I have the last of them in a vase in the dining room. Winter is coming. There are glorious colors on the vines on the house. I’ll photograph them tomorrow.

I’ve been working hard on launching another of my sites on Blue Weimaraners so haven’t had time to post lately. When I’ve been working hard, I feel a need to post a flower and a quote. It instantly brings a lifting to my spirits. I do hope it does for you too.

I feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of beings, in identifying myself with the whole of nature. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Photograph taken in my studio with a single on-camera flash bounced into a white card. This image captures the spirit of this delicate-colored yet exuberant Dahlia better than photographs I took of the whole flower.

A Dahlia from my garden called Edge of Gold, which is one of the giant Dahlias. I chose to zoom in pretty closely to eliminate any background distractions. I love coming in so close on a flower that you experience it. When we see a flower, our experience of it is heightened. We may smell the fragrance, feel the sunshine, hear the birds singing. Even our very appreciation of it enlarges our experience of seeing the flower. I believe this is why so often when we take a snapshot of a flower, the image’s impact is a disappointment in relation to the impact that flower had on us. To make up for the loss in the other senses involved at the time, we need to amplify the visual aspect.

To further concentrate our experience, I’ve also applied a custom, slightly grunge, frame effect around to anchor the view towards the center.