Flower from Cactus (C&C welcome)

[GlenM]

My son has a cactus plant on the windowsill. Normally, it just sits there looking boring and prickly... A few days ago, a small bud appeared, which rapidly turned into a large stem, then flowered last night.

I haven't taken many photos of flowers before, so any advice and comments are welcome!

PS. I know the second picture is not straight! I just added that one to show the scale of the flower against the cactus - I'll straighten it later...

[Sam Smith]

Glen very nice shot, good lighting and great framing.

[Geoff F]

Remember, Glen, that it doesn't matter if the stem isn't straight as long as the pot is level.

White flowers are never easy so those have worked well.

[GlenM]

Thanks Sam and Geoff,
This was also my first time with an external flash, so I'm please that the lighting turned out well. Especially as the flower only lasted a few hours, so no second chances!

And I still think the pot is crooked

Glen

[ScoutR]

Nice shots Glen. #1 is just perfect the way it is and looks wonderful when clicked on and viewed in the lyte box. I like #2 for the context but you are right the pot is crooked and I'm also wondering if it would work to crop the bottom just so the pot runs to the edge of the frame. Right now it looks to be floating and perhaps cropping would ground it.
Just curious, but how large is the flower.

Wendy

[GlenM]

Thanks for the comments Wendy,
The flower was roughly 2 or 3 inches across. It went from being the closed stem to fully open in about 1/2 hour, then started to close and die within a couple more hours.
It didn't give me much time to find a black background, and then work out how to use my new flash!

Glen