Claret Cup Cactus

Caret Cup, May 9, 2005
Here is a horizontal shot of a claret cup cactus that I found a couple days earlier than the vertical shots shown below. It has been difficult for me to get the red color as bright as the actual flower was, without also getting the image too dark. I am able to increase the saturation of red, but I need to do more than just that. Learning how to make the images look "real" and match the true colors of nature can be a challenge. I think snow scenes will be a lot easier for me because there is so much white!
I have decided to start attaching my name and/or website address to my images so that people can copy my images and enjoy them, and still keep track of the source.