This photograph was taken on the same morning as several others in this botanical series — at the tulip exhibition in the Průhonice Dendrological Garden near Prague, one of Central Europe’s most celebrated botanical collections. The blooms drew the crowds. I kept finding myself lower down, closer to the ground, where the leaves were doing something far more interesting.
This leaf has not fully opened. Its tip still curls inward, holding the shape of whatever it was before it became a leaf — a scroll, a shell, a hand not yet unclenched. A single water drop sits on the upper surface, and a second rests in the curved hollow below. The background dissolves into dark green, out of focus, so that the leaf floats against it like an object removed from its context entirely.
Shot at f/13 with a 90mm macro lens to hold the curl sharp while letting the surrounding foliage fall away. The colour is muted — cool sage rather than vivid green — and the soft rust at the leaf’s base adds a note of age to something otherwise very much in the process of becoming.
This print works well as part of the Průhonice botanical series, or on its own in any space that responds to natural form and quiet observation.
EXIF data of the photograph
- Camera Model: NIKON Z 7
- Lens model: Tamron SP 90.0 mm f/2.8 Di Macro VC USD
- Date taken: 8. 5. 2026
- Exposure time: 1/250s
- F-Number: f/13.0
- ISO speed ratings: 800
- Focal length: 90mm
- Size of the photo: 5504px x 8256px
