Le gasp! What's this? A photo submission by me? Yes people, Hell has frozen over.
Actually, it was my mum who took this shot in the back garden. She was going to enter it in a company photo contest and she wanted me to touch it up. It was one of my first major photo retouches and that made me nervous because all I've done so far is illustration, but I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I painted out damaged petals, blurred and darkened the leaves to bring the flower more into focus, adjusted the colour balance to make the purple appear more vibrant, and added a tiny Lens Flare on the stigma to make it glow. I couldn't be happier with the result. The photo has a hyperrealistic quality without looking oversaturated and it made me confident to try other retouches later on. Okay, so I didn't win the contest - that prize went to a Safari shoot - but I'm pretty sure I won... *taps chest*... in here.