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Flower Shots With Presence!

Ken Tanaka

pro member
The light and textures on Nicolas' are fascinating.
Actually, it saddens me. It's a visual metaphor for my brokerage statement. All the little flowers have died and joined the leaf litter on the forest floor. (If it keeps up I'll be selling NASCAR snaps, too.)

Also, I'm going to give a gerbera a shot after seeing that gorgeous red one Janet shot.
To illustrate the extent of my horticultural knowledge, I thought that "gerbera" was something you fed to babies.
 
I am truly a fan of your flower photos Janet. They have your style and you give them a personality all their own.
Here is another taken before the calas were disposed of.


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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I am truly a fan of your flower photos Janet. They have your style and you give them a personality all their own.
Here is another taken before the calas were disposed of.


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James,

Yours too. The lines are like Japanese calligraphy strokes, balanced from the ends of the stems, crossed like the meeting of thighs and ascending to open stretched arms and neck of a splendid figure. So simple, stark, perfect and satisfying.

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Asher,

This is more than just pleasing, it is a very good picture if you ask me. Kudos. I too love the shape and the dof and lighting. It's a pity you tease us with such a poststamp version ;-).

Cheers,
Hi Asher,

So are you going to show us more of this Edward Wesonian lily?
It never ceases to amaze me that a number of good pictures go unnoticed here in OPF.

Cheers,
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Asher,

So are you going to show us more of this Edward Westonian lily?
It never ceases to amaze me that a number of good pictures go unnoticed here in OPF.

Cheers,
Well, Cem,

You must have written that kind comment at the height of Carnival! I benefitted from your advance on drinks at the time, for sure!

This is another set of Calla Lilly blooms. The first is notable for the extra swirl in a crease in the flower that I felt a strong attachment too. I'll return to try to take more if it's still standing.

Here are two more from my garden taken with the Canon 5D 50 1.2L, ISO 160, 1/800 sec f4.0. They are smoother and more open. One is more mature than the other.


_MG_7712 Color 800_01.jpg


© Asher Kelman 2009 "Two Calla Lillies in my Garden" Do not copy or download


I hope this is a better size for you. I'm hoping these will print 16x20. I didn't realize how much personality these different lillies have! Enjoy!

Asher
 

janet Smith

pro member
I didn't realize how much personality these different lillies have! Enjoy

Hi Asher

I do like your Cala Lillies and the lilac Anemone. Out of the Cala Lillies I prefer the first one that you showed, but like Cem I would like to see it larger, it's a bit too small to be able to see all the detail. And yes you're right these flowers do have a strong personality don't they. I'm looking forward to mine coming into flower so I can try again (and again - no doubt!)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Janet,

The first Lilly was taken outside my son's apartment.



5D_MG_7124Lilly_cropped.jpg


© Asher Kelman 2009 Lilly at Dusk Do not copy, edit or download


Yes it's rather small! I didn't want someone to copy it so I made it that small. Maybe I should rethink that fear! I'm especially fascinated by it's unusual form. it reminds me of the starched white collars of Elizabeths court in merry England and of white dresses in some spring festival. This is the flower Edward Weston would have given up shells for.

James,

I'm so taken by your threesome, I plan to copy that setup if I may? I just can't bring myself to actually cut the lillies from the garden!

Asher
 
Very nice William. The Cala Lily is really one of my favorite subjects. They offer up so many different views and just a slight change in angle or lighting gives a completely different feel.
Asher, I am glad you liked my threesome picture but really, there is nothing there that you or anyone else would have to ask permission to copy a setup. I wish I had these growing in a garden like you do. Unfortunately right now the only ones I ever get are cut and from the store. The setup is just me plopping them in a vase and anyone can do that.

I have another here from the opposite end of the spectrum. I kept this expired one around even after its normal life expectancy had passed just so I could practice with it and try squeezing just a little more from it before finally discarding. The normal color may be gone now but I still find it beautiful and interesting even in this state. I also submit a live version for comparison.
James Newman

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Rachel Foster

New member
Very striking, James.

I shot this tonight. It's the first flower I've shot in a long time that I've found intriguing. (Of course, how I'll feel about it tomorrow, next week or next month is anyone's guess!)

ISO 125, shutter speed 1/15, f/2.8, focal length 100 mm (macro lens).



smalllily.jpg
 

Jim Galli

Member
Very striking, James.

I shot this tonight. It's the first flower I've shot in a long time that I've found intriguing. (Of course, how I'll feel about it tomorrow, next week or next month is anyone's guess!)

ISO 125, shutter speed 1/15, f/2.8, focal length 100 mm (macro lens).

I think this is really beautiful. Well done.
 
Here are two I took last month and just never did anything with them until now. Spring has sprung here in Texas and tomorrow morning we are taking a little day trip on the Bluebonnet Trail. I am told there are flowers galore right now.
James Newman

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janet Smith

pro member
Hello James

I really love the first one, beautifully delicate, the shallow DOF, colours, in fact I love everything about it, thank you for showing these.
 
Thank you Janet. The first was my favorite as well. I really like the greenery in that one almost as much as the flower.

This is what is left of an Iris I cut yesterday. It didn't last long but it still has some beauty left in it.

James Newman

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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Flowers in the Parking Lot Barrrier

IMG_7558.jpg


Photo Asher Kelman "Finding Flowers"



IMG_7559.jpg


Photo Asher Kelman "First Choice"



IMG_7561.jpg


Photo Asher Kelman "From an Angle"


IMG_7562.jpg


Photo Asher Kelman "Getting down"
 

Rachel Foster

New member
Asher the best thing I like about these is your shoes! It lends an element of the whimsical and unexpected. I'm glad you chose to include that one.


Nice shoes, by the way.

My own bias would be to crop out everything but the flowers themselves. I'm interested to hear what others think on this one.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
My own bias would be to crop out everything but the flowers themselves. I'm interested to hear what others think on this one.
Hi Rachel,

Yes, that's one approach but then the oddity of the carefully selected genotype of plant that gives this stunning flower the resilience to grow in a cramped place in a parking lot that's utterly industrial is what I wanted to record. I will include cars. I'm exploring how to tell the truth in a way that's worth stopping to look at twice.

Asher
 
Asher..
I am pleased that I am not the only one who takes flower shots in parking lots.. I think the 3rd is my favorite. I might have gone with a little less depth of field on them (except for the one with the shoes)..
This is mine.. Taken at Spokane airport while waiting for my son to fly in.. The big round spots are reflections off of cars.... Interesting of the choice of flowers in and around parking lots :)


47952764.jpg



Model Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Flash Used No
Focal Length 300 mm
Exposure Time 1/250 sec
Aperture f/5.6​
 

Rachel Foster

New member
Inspired by Janet's red gerbera, I've been shooting them again. Unfortunately, the best I've managed is still this shot from last October at a museum reception. ISO 800, f/8.0, 1/30 shot with the XTi.



smallredgerbera.jpg



I'm still trying.
 
Very nice image Rachel. I tried some of these not long ago too and found it most difficult getting the red to come through just right. Yours looks very nice on my monitor.

I went back to our arboretum for a quick visit the other day to see how everything was blooming. It's doing very well and should really be at its best in another week or so. Here is one I took that I liked a lot if only because it was not with a black background.

04-24-09.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher..
I am pleased that I am not the only one who takes flower shots in parking lots.. I think the 3rd is my favorite. I might have gone with a little less depth of field on them (except for the one with the shoes)..
This is mine.. Taken at Spokane airport while waiting for my son to fly in.. The big round spots are reflections off of cars.... Interesting of the choice of flowers in and around parking lots :)


47952764.jpg

Model Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Flash Used No
Focal Length 300 mm
Exposure Time 1/250 sec
Aperture f/5.6[/QUOTE]​


Hi Duke,

This is delightful as it samples life around us, probing beyond our normal reach to look at one small area in its environment.

Anyone can buy a perfect plant and take pictures. Immediately, the picture's beautiful subject can make the picture seem wonderful, but what does it mean to us beyond that shiny impulsive moment of color? By including the milieu of the flower in the industrial world, you are allowing us to see a sample of our lives. It's street photography, even idealized and iconized, that allows some truth of 2009 to enter the picture. The flower then is not just one more capture of a pretty thing.

Someone else might have cropped out or cloned away the reflection or else simply dumped the picture out of hand. Choosing to exploit this round reflection as a complementary compositional element, adds to the photograph. Further, reminding us of our pictures relationship to the light and the surfaces of the lenses, the idea of the picture-taking itself, as a real process with many dependencies, is included.

I'm not yet asserting that your picture is some outstanding work of art, (or excluding that POV) rather I appreciate so much not making everything tidy and frankly boring!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Inspired by Janet's red gerbera, I've been shooting them again. Unfortunately, the best I've managed is still this shot from last October at a museum reception. ISO 800, f/8.0, 1/30 shot with the XTi.

smallredgerbera.jpg

I'm still trying.
Rachel,

You work gets better! You didn't crop it to nothing. Not that that would be wrong, but rather this presentation allows me to bring many more thoughts to its enjoyment. The ling green curves are important and successful elements that bring the eye in from the left to your single bloom. It's better that you have chosen one with some interesting disorder amongst the petals. The flower is fresh but the disposition complex. So that allows us to be intrigued and maybe explore. Having physical shapes that do that can be part of what makes a picture successful.

I would have love to have seen the left side with the green curves even longer as a bold statement and then you could even ut some of the black space on the right. In all this is good discipline on your part and an improvement.


Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I went back to our arboretum for a quick visit the other day to see how everything was blooming. It's doing very well and should really be at its best in another week or so. Here is one I took that I liked a lot if only because it was not with a black background.

04-24-09.jpg

Hi James,

Any chance you have that with the leaf on the lower right more formed. I wonder how it might look. Also, can you tell us what we are looking at. Hopefully we'll see it open!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Rachel,

It seems to be a different picture; IMHO, better. The petal does not cross the leaf now. Do you have one where there is a gap?

Have you decided that the neck of the vase should be hidden? If not can you allow it? Also the lower leaf might be lightened a tad to show it all.

Asher
 
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