Flowers 2015

[jbtaylor]

Piling on to the discussion of bokeh and Zeiss lenses. Rose bushes are hitting their stride. There will be more.

a900 ZA 135mm 1.8 @4.0






a900 ZA 85mm 1.4 @4.0

[sury]

With images like these, I can only please keep piling on...
Love the first one. Is the vase at an angle in the last one?

Sury

[jbtaylor]

Yes, it is at an angle. I watched "The Third Man" the other evening. It was my first viewing and it had a profound effect on me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man
With this image, I wanted to imply the odd angles of that movie but have the main subject seem to be in harmony with the viewers eye, and the background colors and shapes. So the back to front arrangement when seen from the side required tilting the camera to get the balance I was looking for. What else does one do on a Sunday evening?

[sury]

JB,
That was a nice tilt on things. If even you "lean" on me, "mobster style", I can't get a better
angle on things, especially on a Sunday evening.

[jbtaylor]

Something more conventional.

[sury]

I see your more conventional (nice one btw) and raise it to more mundane...

Some roses in the backyard...

[the_hefay]

Those are some nice pictures JT and Sury.

Here's some more flowers out in the wild. Indian Paintbrush and Milkvetch. The flowers in the second shot were very much brighter than in those in the other picture. I did very little in LR with it. I didn't even mess with the saturation slider and only increased the vibrance slightly to help out the greens some. It's amazing how one plant will be a very faded and subdued pink while others are almost neon.

[aster]

Hi the_hefay;

The previous photo of the purple and blue Larkspur shots are very nice, especially the backlit second shot.
And in the second batch, you found some neat clusters of wild flowers on a rather dry piece of land. I like the subdued colours of the green against the bright pink.

Hi JBTaylor;

The roses are lovely as always. The lenses bring their glory out. : )

Hi Sury;

I think you've got a neat composition out of the downfall of the floral wind chimes and the up-reaching rose blooms...Nice flower choices from your ever-abundant garden. : ) I don't quite understand why you took the second shot,...it's a bit too blurry and the subject in focus isn't that defined against the blurry background. So, it lost me!

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[Birma]

That last one is spectacular the_hefay! Fabulous backlit effect, and beautiful combination with the purple and warm browns. That is worthy of a nice print on the wall and going into your 2015 portfolio

[Birma]

Beautiful roses JT and Sury

Love those splashes of wild flower colour, the_hefay

[the_hefay]

Thanks Yildiz and Andy.

[sury]

My comments on the previous set were lost too. Hmmm. Jeff, you are only common factor. I wonder what's going on.
I agree with others' comment on back lit purple flowers.

Jeff, I like the first one in the latest set Jeff. The reds contrasting against multitude of colors, love it.

Yildiz, thank you for your kind words. As for the one that lost on you, I was trying to capture the background with
deliberate out of focus. That one looked much better on my monitor, is a reason I posted it. Let me review the image.
It may be that I inadvertently exported a wrong version. On the other hand, would I know the difference?

With best regards,
Sury

[aster]

Yildiz, thank you for your kind words. As for the one that lost on you, I was trying to capture the background with
deliberate out of focus. That one looked much better on my monitor, is a reason I posted it. Let me review the image.
It may be that I inadvertently exported a wrong version. On the other hand, would I know the difference?

With best regards,
Sury

Of course you would, Sury. You have a critical eye but you're too kind and self-deprecating to admit. : )

I see now. Then, it's because the flower in focus is far too small to be standing out on such big estate of blurry background. I guess JBTaylor's 135 mm, which delivers the creamy bokehs would get the work done for you here. Because the objects in the background are still very visible and recognizable, they sort of drown the small blossom in the foreground. (My humble prognosis. )

All is well,

Yildiz

[sury]

Yildiz,
Bingo. You nailed it. When I saw on the monitor, I was zoomed into the flower to check if it is sharp enough, and did not pull back to see what you were seeing. The image is what it is. Now I see what went wrong. The experiment.
I now realize (based on what you pointed out, I say) the results show it did not came out as I was hoping and will tweak the concept. The ratio of in-focus area and out-of-focus area need a sense of proportion. There should be an aesthetic balance. That is the learning I am taking from the discussion. Now off to more experiments.

[Marcell Nikolausz]

I was not so active here recently. I thought I will share some of my recent flower (Calla) photos.
As always, I tried to play with the light:






Cheers

Marcell