Purple Spring Flower - 3 petals plus bug

[xpatUSA]

These come out every year. They close up during evening & night. Color may be out - I was on AWB.



Lumix G1 plus the Leica 45mm macro.

Processed in RawTherapee 5.

Pretty flower - would be grateful for an ID . . .

[xpatUSA]

Color may be out - I was on AWB.

It wasn't too far off - a little too far toward red in HSV. A shot I took an hour later with a Sigma SD14 aided by a Kodak R27 came out a bit more blue:

Pretty flower - would be grateful for an ID . . .

Wife tells me it's a Prairie Nymph, herbetia lahue.

[ST1]

Well seen and captured Ted

[xpatUSA]

Well seen and captured Ted

Thank you, Peter, not too hard to find. Although it looks kind of exotic, they're like weeds up and down the street at present!

Main problem with them is that the slightest breeze gets them a-wobbling on their long thin stems with those big petals. The bug was an 'accident' - in the first shot it's antennae were sticking out from under the petal - then it crawled on top:

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[All3n]

Shot is focused beautifully but it would be ideal if the background wasn't so busy (in my opinion) Thank you for sharing

[JohnRostron]

Nice flower and nice bug. It looks like what we would call a Bush-cricket. Is that what you would call a Katydid?

John

[xpatUSA]

Shot is focused beautifully . . .

Thanks, Jeffrey.

I used a small Giottos tripod but the main factor was the G1's "focus by wire" and 10X magnification in the EVF - a joy to use, especially as the AF greatly preferred the grass for some reason.

. . . but it would be ideal if the background wasn't so busy (in my opinion)

Quite so.

Unfortunately, the background is the same for all the flowers, leaving only shooting distance and aperture to play with. In the end, with the stamens already well OOF, I ended up at f/11 and a little further away than I'd like in order to get reasonable DOF for the petals - and the busy background was the result.

For myself, local flower shots are for recording and identifying flora on or near the property, so I place less emphasis on composition than perhaps I should . .

[marlunn]

Ted, now thats a pretty 'weed' love the young cricket as well - nice. DoF is always a balance and as you say for ID purposes the key features are 'more' important than the overall image. Having said that its good as it gives context as well, maybe clone out the yellow on the right ?

[xpatUSA]

Nice flower and nice bug. It looks like what we would call a Bush-cricket. Is that what you would call a Katydid?

John

Ta John. I googled per your suggestion and it does seem likely, esp. with that dark stripe down the back and those beady eyes.

[xpatUSA]

Ted, now thats a pretty 'weed' love the young cricket as well - nice. DoF is always a balance and as you say for ID purposes the key features are 'more' important than the overall image. Having said that its good as it gives context as well, maybe clone out the yellow on the right ?

Actually, I included the yellow flower deliberately but am beginning to regret it's distracting power.

[IzzieK]

I will be different here Ted, because I love the flower (#1 that is...)because it looks crispy, just like some of the flowers we saw at the Botanical Garden last Sunday. I like the background too and that yellow blurred flower -- it can stay. It is a distraction but when you just concentrate of the flower itself and the bug with it, the background because it is blurred anyway, doesn't really get in the way of view. There! I will have to be careful of my using my hurting finger from typing now... I am going to my cave soon and lick my wounds.

[Wavelength]

beautiful flower; liked it