The Flower Essences series tries to memorialize a distillation of the true sense of a wild flower. That said, I don’t know that anyone would look at the Silky Lupine and say it exudes the essence of a Wish. Unless they laid down on their side, looked up at bluebird sky sullied by a sole wisp of a cloud, and saw a singular stalk wave gently in the wind back and forth across this cloud. Then for that very fleeting moment the most authentic realization of that particular Silky Lupine would indeed be — Wish.

Thus, I set out too capture this perfect, very fleeting moment. The greatest challenge of the composition was to make it look and feel like the cloud was actually drawn across the sky by the flower. I was fortunately able to place the stalk diagonally to the upper right at the far edge of the cloud to give the desired movement to the composition. Mind you it took a number of shots to get the placement perfect. I drew the focus just out from the base of the stalk, to add to the sense of movement as the sprig of flower bends back and up toward the cloud. All this combines to make it seem like we’re seeing the completion of a wave of a wild flower wand.

The whimsy of this photo is at home in a children’s bedroom or playroom. You could also add it to the Flower Essences gallery of your study or bedroom, to remind you to believe in your dreams. For the just conjured cloud contains your Wish. While the infinite blue space at the top of the photo gives room for your Request to float away, and magically be Granted.

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