Daisies, Backlit

India · nature

A cluster of purple-and-white osteospermum lit from behind by warm afternoon light. The petals glow at their tips; the centres go almost black.

Osteospermum — African daisies — are not native to India but they thrive in cool-season Indian gardens, especially in the hills. They are robust, prolific, and unfussy, producing dense crowns of daisy-form flowers in colours from white to purple to almost-black. They are also one of the few garden flowers that genuinely look better backlit than front-lit.

This cluster was growing in a planter on a south-facing wall. By late afternoon the sun had dropped behind the planter and was shooting through the petals from underneath, which turned the purple translucent and lit up the white edges like little neon strips. The dark centres of the flowers stayed almost black by contrast. I shot from below, with the camera angled up into the sun, accepting some flare. There's a specific kind of garden photograph that depends on the gardener and the photographer doing nothing — just letting the light arrive and catching it before it leaves. This was one of those.

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