Project 52 - Kristianna-Marie (Kris V)

[Kris V]

Here is a B/W conversion - I need Donald's expertise on this! Good? Bad? Mediocre?

[Goldcoastgolfer]

For me i think a little bit of brightness at the bottom of the stem and you've got a real winner. But more importantly - what do you think?

[Kris V]

For me i think a little bit of brightness at the bottom of the stem and you've got a real winner. But more importantly - what do you think?

Not totally happy with it - I'm not really sure if this picture is a right candidate for B/W.
I recently bought a book titled Black and White: From snapshots to Great Shots by John Batdorff.
Gotta study some more .....

[Geoff F]

For me, Kris, that is a difficult angle to get looking good in B&W.

There is too much which is poorly focused, although not your fault, which I find distracting. In particular the rather long stem.

After holding a piece of card against the screen, on the left side, I think that cropping to reduce the stem length tends to increase the interest of the flower. Reducing that distance by around half, or a little more seems about right.

But that means changing the width/height ratio.

[Donald]

... I'm not really sure if this picture is a right candidate for B/W.

I think that's the crux of it. But, sometimes, there's only one way to find out.

I'm not sure that there were enough well-defined lines and shapes to make it a strong candidate for B & W. It feels like one in which colour was an important element and needed to be retained (as you have in your original).

I think Geoff sums it up very well in saying, "... that is a difficult angle to get looking good in B&W."

[Kris V]

Thanks all for the feedback.
I'm almost ready to post week 8 - hopefully tomorrow.

[Kris V]

Week 8:
Our aloe plants are getting flowers.....

[Goldcoastgolfer]

That works Nice and sharp with some nice lighting. I didn't even realise that Aloe plants had flowers!

[Kris V]

I believe this is a species of the swallowtail butterfly family. Does anyone have an idea what the name is?
I know it's not tack sharp, but the darned thing refused to sit still....

[ScoutR]

Hi Kris: nice shot, but don't you wish it would have landed somewhere else? Brings back memories of last year in the backyard chasing butterflies around. It'll soon be time to start that again. This year I hope to have more flowers that are supposed to be butterfly magnets.

Anyway, I'm not sure but I think it might be a Zebra Swallowtail.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/sub.../Zebrasw.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protographium_marcellus

[Kris V]

Hi Kris: nice shot, but don't you wish it would have landed somewhere else?

Yes, but it was not cooperating! I had a chance of about 5 shots, before it took off to parts unknown...
This was the best of the set.

[Kris V]

Not pretty when you accidentally grab those things.....

Model - NIKON D5000
DateTime - 2012:03:12 12:47:41
ExposureTime - 1/180 seconds
ShutterSpeedValue - 1/180 seconds
ApertureValue - F 6.70
ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
FocalLength - 55.00 mm

[FrankMi]

I know it's not tack sharp, but the darned thing refused to sit still....

You may be able to increase your odds of getting a sharp image when a subject like this is moving by using a flash or setting the camera in continuous and fire off 8-10 images in quick succession.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Frank's got a good point - whenever I take photos of bugs these days I've got my speedlight on with the wide angle diffuser in place. It allows me to stop down the aperture, crank up the shutter speed, and still get everything perfectly lit and sharp. That's my secret to taking bugs. Have you got a speedlight you can use?

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Kris, the image has so much going for it, great colour, DOF is great, composition, but the sun/shadow makes for a difficult shot, as Mal said a flash would make a difference or perhaps a different time of day, or even cut off and place in better light. you have to get rid of them anyway

[Kris V]

Thanks all for the feedback.
This picture wouldn't even exist, if I had not accidentally grabbed into a similar batch when I was reaching for something behind the branch they used for their congregation.
Had about a dozen or so crawling on my hand......
here's one more:

[Kris V]

I'm completely and devastatingly loosing my touch......
I took about 200+ pictures of fungus and mushrooms this week-end, and they all came out blaaahh....
These 2 are semi-acceptable.
They are actually of the same mushroom, growing on a fallen tree.
They were taken 24 hrs apart.

Day 1:


Day 2:

[Geoff F]

Mushrooms can be surprisingly difficult to photograph well.

I know that I have shot from every angle I could find; and ended up with just one acceptable keeper. And usually from an angle which I didn't expect to work.

An ant on #2 as a bonus I see.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I think I'd struggle to take a great photo of a mushroom. Did you have a vision of how you wanted to capture it or were just experimenting?

[Kris V]

I think I'd struggle to take a great photo of a mushroom. Did you have a vision of how you wanted to capture it or were just experimenting?

Experimenting - I planned on taking a photo of the same mushroom, every 24 hrs to follow the deterioration for about 5 0r 6 days.
Day 3 found the mushroom gone.....
I'm trying to find a new one