Re: It's here Again.... a few more, just for Manfred!

[James G]

Hi Manfred, can't quite get our Spring over there to you yet, and I reckon here in the Midlands we are a bit behind John up in the North West, but maybe these will keep you going for a while !

#1


#2


#3


#4

[Shadowman]

Nice series, that yellow flower has quite the distortion/odd angle.

[John 2]

Nice set James. I'm not so certain that you are behind us. It's only in the last two days that the buds have begun to burst here. You seem to be ahead of that.

[Manfred M]

Almost 15cm / 6" of snow down. The snow is supposed to change over to freezing rain around midnight.

Some forgot to tell Mother Nature that April Fool jokes are supposed to be done on the first day of April, not over the first week!

[JBW]

Beautiful, what equipment are you using he asks as he contemplates the lens he will be buying.

[James G]

Thanks all,

Nice series, that yellow flower has quite the distortion/odd angle.

John, It's a Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) taken from a low angle at a distance about six feet using my 100mm canon macro. I rather liked the odd angle and nearly lost my wellies getting it since the area was very boggy.

This is a more normal angle from the same shoot

I'm not so certain that you are behind us. It's only in the last two days that the buds have begun to burst here.

John, I think you are a bit ahead regarding the insects. We seem to have had it a bit colder, windier and wetter this last couple of weeks.. it has only just started to warm up enough for hoverflies to appear

Almost 15cm / 6" of snow down.

Manfred, Brrrrr! But you do have Polar Bears over there.

what equipment are you using

Brian, I'm a Canon user. Canon EOS 7DmK2 with Canon EF 100MM Macro (F2.8 IS USM). I also use a Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX flash with this rig to supplement lighting ( particularly with insects), though not for this shot, the plants were in a sunny spot.

[mugge]

James, love #1. The simplicity is so appealing.
Cheers Ole

[James G]

Ole, Thanks,
If I have a formula, (which I don't really ), it's 'interesting' back light, subtle colours, nice contrasts, and as a bonus, the odd insect foraging for pollen to bring it all together that gets my attention.
I do reckon I was pretty lucky to get it all in this shot.

[IzzieK]

All very nice, James--#1 --what is it? Good processing on this one..
#2 is my favourite for the colour and even the distortion gives a good shape. I must be odd, but I like that kind of yellow, the second normal shot is not as colourful;
#3 the corners are a bit of a distraction...can that be removed with the patch tool? Just asking...the composition is great but those.
And last but not the least, #4 -- the added bee is a bonus. I like it. My favourite is still #2...

P.S. I saw my first bee yesterday but I didn't have my camera with me...it is suppose to freeze tomorrow...

[James G]

Hi Izzie,

#1 --what is it?

The tree is a willow (My wife would call it a Pussy Willow) and it is one of our early spring budding trees/shrubs. There is quite a lot of colour change as the buds develop, and in the sun they are spectacular.

I must be odd, but I like that kind of yellow, the second normal shot is not as colourful;

If you are odd so am I
Apart from the 'unusual' angle, which did appeal to me, it was at just the right angle in relation to the sun to have that interesting 'glow'.
I always find that photographing yellow flowers is tricky. In this instance it looked totally blown on the camera. Experience has taught me that when processing the raw capture, toning down the highlights reduces the saturation and restores much of the tone.
When I remember to, I often bracket a group of exposures for this type of shot. Probably a bit lazy of me!

#3 the corners are a bit of a distraction...

I think they could probably be softened, but, the whole image presented a number of problems.
I was looking for a cluster of blossom where I could get good detail/sharpness into the depth of the sprig.
I think that removing or further blurring the corners would have emphasised the out of focus area of blossom centre right ,and I think have unbalanced the image.
Additionally, there was not much I could do about the twig in in the centre of the sprig, which is actually in the foreground and also out of focus and likely to become more 'obvious' if I changed the corner areas.
This makes it seem like I knew exactly what I was doing when I processed the image. If I'm honest I process fairly intuitively, but I was aware of the 'problems' at the time.