Saffron stamens rise from wrinkled petal sheets blushed warm by the morning sun.

I passed this same light play last week but without my mobile photography “camera” or iPhone. On this particular early morning, I set out at 6:30am with a mission to catch these mantilleja or mantilija poppies in the act of perking up to the sun.

I used Camera+ to make the capture on my iPhone. I transferred the image to my iPad using Photosync. In Snapseed, I cropped out everything but what captured my attention. I left in some background because the context shows this luminous light catcher is alone. Snapseed’s vignetting filters toned down the too active edges. I used local control to bring up the saturation, contrast and brightness of the stamens and overall control to increase brightness and contrast and adjust the white balance.

There’s always another way to look at it, another mood to express. Here’s my favorite of a few other interpretations:

For another mobile photography post including image editing notes, please see the intriguingly titled Shaved Butter Magnolia Blossom.

Related articles

• Introduction To Flowers (biology6a.wordpress.com)
• Frequently Asked Questions About Saffron (spiceyourworld.wordpress.com)