Description — A lotus flower blooming in the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. The photograph was taken in July 2005.
Camera Nerd Info — Linhof Super Technika V 4×5 view camera, Nikkor-M 300mm f/9 lens, Provia 100F film, exposure 1/250s @ f/9, no movements.
Commentary — “Lotus Sunbeam” might sound like a British sportscar, but I named the image this because the clouds opened up and sunlight hit the flower just as I was taking the photograph. This image is severely cropped from a much larger scene. Although the flower is pretty, the larger scene suffered from bad “bokeh”; a Japanese word used to describe the quality of the part of the photograph that is out of focus. The out-of-focus background in the original image appeared to be a jumbled mess, so I tried to crop most of it out. This was the only open flower that was fully visible in the foreground; other flowers were very distant.
Bokeh quality is said to be dependent upon the lens used; some have better bokeh than others. The Kodak Aero-Ektar, a lens originally used by the military in aerial surveillance, is a favorite among large-format portrait photographers. The Aero-Ektar is said to have good bokeh, but the downside is that it is radioactive due to its thorium glass. Don’t store it next to your film or under your bed.