Flower Photo Competition 3 2013 : Entry Number 714

Another one of our favourites! A rich appearing flower, pictured in black and white. A good example, of how a black and white photo can say so much more, than if the same would be pictured in color. Very well executed and perfectly cropped.

My name is Alex Nichol, and I'm from the North of England. This was actually a test shot using my grandfather's old Helios 44-2 58mm lens on my Canon EOS 450D. I'd always been captivated by the images it made, and wanted to recreate some of the atmosphere I remembered from old pictures - something I've found almost impossible to recreate with any other lens. I barely post-process any of my images (aside from cropping and B&W conversion), and I'm not a pro photographer by any stretch of the imagination!