Flowers 2013

[Birma]

Thanks Doc

[Greg Beetham]

You are doing very good flowers Sury.
And those are great especially the first two Birma, actually I was wondering if there was going to be a shot with the long shadows streaming across the view and that second one is working well I think, the third is a good mood shot too imho.
Greg

[sury]

Great shots Andy. I love the first one in the first set and the second set.
Thank you Andy and Greg.

Sury

[sury]

Very nice flowers Sury, I know the yellow/orange and the pink ones are Roses but I don't know what the spiky one is.

Greg

Greg,
They are called Ice Plants. The large (2.5-to-6-inch-diameter (64 to 150 mm)) flowers of C. edulis are yellow or light pink, whereas the smaller, 1.5-to-2.5-inch-diameter (38 to 64 mm) C. chilensis flowers are deep magenta.

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

A reference image to jog your memory.

With best regards,
Sury

[Greg Beetham]

Of course Sury how silly of me, Ice Plants it is.
Greg
ps I probably should have known the name, Yildiz has posted them too, maybe last year.

[Omega892]

Nice shots Birma or should it be Andy.

My service will be resumed ASAP. I have been fighting other issues including installing Lightroom 3 (attempting to use an extra external drive caused Windows to re-assign drive letters and break LR2's catalogue accessing. Doh! Windows can be dumb sometimes - normal service was restored with some tinkering.) now I have a working card reader things should be looking up A77 wise, at last.

[Birma]

Thank you Sury, Greg and Lionel - you comments are much appreciated .

I like the Ice flower Sury. Lovely colour.

(Lionel, either is fine .)

[Birma]

Nearly finished

Another blue boke background. Slightly different lighting; I have been experimenting with the use of reflectors to provide fill in light for close-ups.


The Knapp 2013 - Bluebells 7 by Birm, on Flickr

A different sort of background and angle for the Bluebell.


The Knapp 2013 - Bluebells 5 by Birm, on Flickr

Both A99, the first with Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro, and the second with the Tamron 90 Macro.

[Birma]

A slightly wider shot.


The Knapp 2013 - Bluebells 9 by Birm, on Flickr

A wider view through the wood. I liked this big beech tree that seemed to be guarding the path.


The Knapp 2013 - Beech Path by Birm, on Flickr

Both A99, the first SAL 28-75 and the second KM 17-35 2.8-4

[Omega892]

A wider view through the wood. I liked this big beech tree that seemed to be guarding the path.

Both A99, the first SAL 28-75 and the second KM 17-35 2.8-4

Very picturesque but

there must be a storm in the distance, the ship has a list on. How to make people sea-sick on land.

[Birma]

Good point Lionel.

I think this was due to using such a wide angle on the original shot. I have straightened the tree and reloaded above. Hope this is a bit better .

[Greg Beetham]

You got those bluebells to pose nicely Birma and I like the last scene with the tree and path, I bet it makes waiting through all that nasty winter weather worthwhile now.
Greg
Ps Are the bluebells slightly washed out looking or am I imagining things, like a third over exposed maybe?

[Birma]

Thanks Greg - what winter?

Mmm. Not sure about the over-exposure -it is possible, or it could be colour variation in the Bluebells, or I'm screwed up something in PP. Which picture was the problem?

As an addendum to the Bluebell pictures I have had a go at video. Just a quick 30 second clip of the Bluebells and the dawn chorus in the woods. I quite like the concept - I will have to experiment further.

You'll have to see it on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/blodandbir ... hotostream

[Greg Beetham]

Great morning video with the bird calls Birma, the sounds were a little distant perhaps but clear just the same.
Greg
Ps The bluebell colour tone is more violet in the video than in the stills and the exposure in the video looks pretty good to my unfamiliar eye (never having seen bluebells for real). The still images have some small highlight areas (lots of them) that look well out of exposure range (blown) and it was that that gave me the impression that they might look better if exposed a bit closer towards the highlight end of the range in the image. (not that some blown highlights are a bad thing of course, it does add some ‘life’ I think) Does that explain what I was talking about?

[Omega892]

As an addendum to the Bluebell pictures I have had a go at video. Just a quick 30 second clip of the Bluebells and the dawn chorus in the woods. I quite like the concept - I will have to experiment further.

I liked that.

Can you not manage the 'Geoff Sample' voice-over?

Was that the sound of water flowing in the background.

We have a Green Woodpecker in the neighbourhood I hear it most days. Sparrow Hawks often put in an appearance but mostly when the light is too low for good long range shots. I have some not so good of males and females with Starling and Ring Collared Dove respectively. Those who blame cats for a mess of feathers on their lawn should consider the Sparrow Hawk which is more common than many appreciate.