I was on a photography trip to Tampa, Florida.  Early one morning I was in a botanical garden.  My attention had been drawn to some agaves and cacti.  I was working with backlit shapes as I framed compositions using leaf edges and spines.

Turning around, I noticed the most amazing flower.  The long and graceful arc of cream white stamens caught my eye.  The shape of its bud and extended bracts were wonderful.  I had never before seen such a flower.  The low angle dawn rays of the sun were lighting it delicately.  It wasn’t an abstraction, exactly, but it was graphic, with wonderful lines, patterns, colors, and textures.  Later, I painted out the background because I like to focus on details of the single subject.