A big welcome to Shelika.
I too have Dahlias in my garden but they'll begin their growth in April or so.
You caught the flower in a nice angle with a very beautiful background. I like it. Keep up the good work.

Very good contributions Shelika, that last one is interesting especially.
Greg

Dr. Harout
Greg
Thank you very much. I will post more with time.
Shelika
http://tripolia-indianlandscapeimages.com

Nice photos Shelika,

When you have time on your hands, don't forget to upload some more, flowers or other subjects that you like.

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

Welcome to Shelika from me as well A great flower shot, with lovely colour. Thank you for sharing, and I look forward to seeing many more of your pictures.

Aster
Birma
Thanks for encouraging me.
Posting three photos:

1. Snow (Taken on 20th February)
2. Poppy-I (Taken on 19th February)
3. Poppy-II (Taken on 19th February)

Thanks for viewing.
Shelika

1. Snow (Taken on 20th February)



2. Poppy-I (Taken on 19th February)


3. Poppy-II (Taken on 19th February)

Nice soft bokeh background Shelika, we don't ever (and I do mean ever), get a chance of taking a photo of a poppy here, growing poppies is sortof frowned on here for some reason.
Not sure I'm overly keen on the stem in No.2 that transits the scene in sharp relief, but No.1 and No.3 are both cool compositions (imho).
Greg

Shelika, I totally agree with Greg. Nice posting.
Keep posting.

Hi Shelika, I really, really like #3. Great colour and I feel like I could almost touch the petals. I wondered if it was a bit dark to start with, but I love the dark blue background. Poppies are one of my favourites. They are often found growing wild around field edges here in the UK and I have also seen huge fields of them being grown commercially - sadly when I was without my camera. Some varieties are also grown by people in their gardens.

Thanks for posting, and looking forward to more.

3/7/2010 7:28:51 AM
Greg Beetham
Dr. Harout
Birma

I have read to Rana the comments and translated some of the expressions into simpler versions. She is happy.

She does not know PP and I do not change anything without her approval. She wants that her pictures should be posted as they are. Just they should be looking “natural”. I only sharpen them for her through unsharp mask.
Previously, she used my 50 mm and 28mm, finding the beercan too heavy. However, now I find that she has started preferring the beercan to the lighter lenses. She is also now trying the variations in apertures. Of course, only one of 20 of her shots is fair enough to be posted. But so is the case with me.
Yesterday, I, Rana and Akash went to the Panchkula Spring Festival. Hundreds of flowers are displayed on this occasion in the Town Park. This time the roles were changed. I carried the camera bag and changed once or twice the lenses that she wanted me to change. As per my plans, I did not click even a single shot, although she asked me to take a few snaps. I told her that it was her field. She took many shots and as desired by her I would accompany her in the morning again to take more shots. I think it would be a good occasion to snap and later post some of the locally growing flowers at this time of year.

It is 7.25 A.M. Sunday. We are going to have bed-tea and then would perhaps proceed to take some flower pictures. Tea has arrived. Would you join us?

Arun Gaur
http://tripolia-indianlandscapeimages.com

I would like to echo the positive responses from Dr Harout, Birma, etc. Just wish my "hit" rate was 1 in 20!

Some spring crocuses.





The recent sunshine has started to bring some colour out in the gardens and countryside. It is all still quite low to the ground so this has meant much crawling in the grass for the last two days .

Both taken with my manual 135/3.5 lens.

Marvelous job Birma. The pictures subtly complement each other in respect to distribution of colors and background blurs. You were on the ground. How tall are the stems in inches and what is the lens used? Is it Tam? Violet, yes violet, soon the trees in Panchkula and Chandigarh would turn violet too for a short while.
Arun Gaur
http://tripolia-indianlandscapeimages.com

Thanks Arun . Crocuses are around 3 or 4 inches high, so quite small. The most common colours seem to be violet/purple and yellow. They tend to grow in small groups especially in the grass around trees. They are often one of the early spring flowers and grow both wild and planted by gardeners.

The lens is an old manual focus, prime lens which I bought it from eBay for £20. It had been converted for the alpha mount and I was tempted by the "Carl Zeiss Jena" badge on it . It is nice to focus with, and on digital it is easy to experiment with manual exposure etc. It gives me another option for flower shots, and is also nice for portraits, but a bit long on APS-C I suppose. One day I will get a proper macro (Tamron 90 or Sony 100) but until then it is fun to play with.

Some sort of Lilly - don't ask me. If you do, my answer is "Yellow". And before people who may have been following my posts on the weather thread jump to any conclusions, I took it in my garden immediately after the reticulation went off