Floating Saguaro

Gallery: FloraPosted January 26, 201153 views5 comments

Miserable snow and sleet around Washington, DC, so what better time to post desert flora.

This saguaro cactus is in the front yard (desert landscaping) of my sister-in-law's house in Green Valley, Arizona. It was in its blooming period in late May, 2010, with many buds, some blossoms open, and others past.

This is my first real attempt at light painting, with a handheld flashlight playing on the top and down to about ten feet from the ground. This image, with the light about 30 degrees off to the right, was much more interesting than with lighting from directly ahead. Try the larger photo for better details.

Canon 50D, 17-85mm at 75mm, f/10, prefocused on tripod, 15 sec. exposure. Comments and criticisms much appreciated.

Dave Thomas, Leesburg, Virginia

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on January 26, 2011 at 7:40 PM

Dave:
I have not done any light painting so just take my comment with that in mind. I think the lighting is too unidirectional and harsh making the image rather flat. This is a nice experiment though and I would love to try this someday but living in the city is kind of hard to do this with the strong light pollution everywhere.

Registered on September 1, 2009, 588 Posts, 8184 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on January 26, 2011 at 9:11 PM

Dave: Welcome to the finest Flora gallery on the planet and thanks for your first post here. Cool technique and I agree with your choice of light angle. The larger version is much better for assessing the image. For me the light on the blooms at the top is too strong but I like it better and better as I go lower in the frame. Neat concept and I hope you do more. >=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on January 26, 2011 at 11:38 PM

Welcome to the gallery David. This interests me a lot. I've never tried it. I understand that the side lighting is more appealing, it would be for me too. I think the light is too strong here, at least most of it. I say that because of the strong shadows and slightly burnt colors on the cactus.

This might be interesting as a conversion as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your posts and I'll be especially interested in seeing if you do more with this technique.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by David Thomas on January 28, 2011 at 12:03 PM

Thanks very much for the comments. I'll post a different cactus shot from the same trip, too.

I see now that the lighting is quite harsh at the top -- looking through the eyes of others is often revealing. I would love to try this again with gentler light, but I don't know if I will ever be back at the right time. Maybe another subject will turn up, since I still like the concept.

I did try tinkering a bit with the image. Even with the limitations of an original JPEG image and Picasa3 editing, I found that a slight reduction in saturation really helps, and B&W also looks good. So thanks for the specific thoughts, for now and future efforts. Dave

Registered on June 21, 2010, 30 Posts, 178 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on January 29, 2011 at 7:27 AM

Very imaginative, David - and the large version really has some great detail. For me there is just a bit too much contrast - some of the elements in the dark areas I think I would like to see more clearly - but the lighting certainly draws you in. Hope to see more.

Registered on May 18, 2007, 1108 Posts, 7647 Comments