Valentine's Flowers

My mom brought me my Valentine's present today, including some roses and a sunflower. They are beautiful and I love the dark red and bright yellow together. It's nice to have fresh flowers and greenery around the house, especially in the winter. The problem in getting the picture was the lighting. I wanted the natural light, so I picked this location with sunlight from the side but the location along with the dark background. Then I ended up using the flash on this first image, and took some with no flash for the second shot. The trick is in getting the sunflower not to soak up all the "sun" or flash and then setting up for a still shot without the flash. I enjoyed getting back in the photo "groove" with these shots. You can see the difference in color due to the different lighting options.