Goatsbeard + Re-post!

Gallery: FloraPosted June 27, 201169 views18 comments

Yellow Goatsbeard, Tragopogon dubius. A first for me on our acres and was way back in a small pine, so I couldn't get a decent setup for an outside shot. This is said to be open only in morning and closed by noon and may be why I have never seen it here before. I have not been able to find one since and sort of wish I hadn't cut this bloom for inside photos as it may have been the only possible reseed I have.

Olympus E-5
50mm F2 macro
1/6 sec @ F8 -1.0EV
flash off
2 umbrella reflected 5500k lamps
tripod
saturation
Sharpening
spot metering
manual focus
ISO 200

Large view provided

I always appreciate and learn from your critiques and comments. Thanks for each and every one of them.

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on June 27, 2011 at 7:36 PM

I forgot to add that I added canvas to the bottom and cloned in the extension of the stem. Do any of you have methods to give some natural curve to a stem when cloning?

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on June 27, 2011 at 7:53 PM

I like your comp and the clean bg Charlie. Nice detail in the bloom as well. I've never seen one of these or even an image of one that I can recall. It's a neat looking plant. The stem looks good to me. There's nothing I'd change here or try to improve. I like it as posted.

I'm sorry I don't have any special technique for that type of cloning other than just going to a small brush and creating the edge of the curve you want as a guide. Sort of like outlining with a crayon in a coloring book, only you don't have a shape to start with.

pat

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

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on June 27, 2011 at 8:05 PM

Pat, if you feel it looks natural it may well be. When I cut this I didn't really notice the straightness or curve of the stem. It was as I was finishing the cloning that I wondered if it would look better with some curve.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on June 27, 2011 at 8:32 PM

Charlie:
A very nice image; not seen this before so thank so sharing this.

As for the cloning, is looks natural and is good as presented. As an alternative, you could also present this in a tighter square frame with just the flower.

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

Comment posted by Bob Duff on June 27, 2011 at 9:23 PM

Charlie, this is a great specimen. Very structural with strong diagonals. I can see why you would want an image of this one . You've done an excellent job on it for my tastes. I like it as posted. But, if you would want to have a slight bend in the stem and you use PS CS5 then I would study up on using puppet warp. Bascially you put a few dots/anchor points along then stem and move them into the shape you want. Since you are basically transforming the whole image to do this you don't want to go too far or you'll have other distortions to deal with. But for a slight graceful curve to match the ones in the bloom that shouldn't be an issue.

Registered on April 21, 2010, 160 Posts, 1675 Comments

Comment posted by Bob&Charly Nelson on June 27, 2011 at 11:25 PM

Sweet image, Bg, and light Charlie. Well seen, captured and shared.
Bob

Registered on October 27, 2005, 289 Posts, 4202 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on June 28, 2011 at 12:22 AM

Thanks all for nice comments. Bob the suggestion is what I hoped for. I don't know yet if PS Elements has the tool "puppet warp" but it sounds like something I may want to use sometime. Thanks for the help.

And Gary this was done in a near square format and I added canvas. I like it both ways and may post the other tomorrow. Thanks.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Morgan Casey on June 28, 2011 at 8:30 AM

Charlie, you captured this flower beautifully. The detail and color are wonderful and the black background really adds to the unique quality of the leaves. Nicely done.

Registered on November 16, 2010, 22 Posts, 269 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on June 28, 2011 at 9:32 AM

Beautiful.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Buck on June 28, 2011 at 12:27 PM

Nice details in the bloom Charlie. I like this quite a bit. I can attest to these being open early on, but closed later in the day. I missed the chance to shoot one at my parent's house recently. I think a bit brighter for the bloom and a touch cropped from the bottom would help this overall.

Nathan

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1101 Posts, 13589 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on June 28, 2011 at 1:22 PM

Nathan, I found this bloom just at the edge of a field that is full of millions of yelloe dandelions and the yellow is almost an exact match. I wonder if there have been others that I was just not observant enought to see. I'm still hoping to find more. Good luck in you guest for this wildflower.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on June 28, 2011 at 2:45 PM

This is the way I had originally composed this shot and then felt there should be additional room at the bottom. Now I think this is (was) much what I want. Thanks for comments and suggestions.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Carolyn Derstine on June 28, 2011 at 9:24 PM

Wonderful picture, Charlie. I really like the look of this flower with the green points extending beyond the yellow petals. I like your comp on this and the good details. The black BG shows this flower off well. I think the straight stem looks just fine as is.

Registered on February 16, 2011, 610 Posts, 3684 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on June 29, 2011 at 5:24 PM

Very nice Charlie. These are such striking flowers.
May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on June 29, 2011 at 10:36 PM

Hi Charlie

A remarkable capture

Love the color, and lines. hope you find some more of these beauties

Albert Darmo

Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on July 1, 2011 at 4:28 PM

I have found absolutely none of these flowers since the one I posted above. I've looked every morning for an hour or so and have yellow spots in my dreams because of millions of dandelions, but no goatsbeard. Before I tossed the withered bloom I took a shot of the unopened bud so that if anyone else is looking for these the bud is different than a dandelion and you might see a bud like this and be able to check it when the sun is higher.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on July 2, 2011 at 6:52 PM

Charlie: Marvelous find and a fine capture. I'll give a very slight nod to the repost but like everything about both. 2 thumbs up! >=))>

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

Comment posted by Larry Lynch on July 5, 2011 at 12:26 PM

Beautiful light and color. Excellent comp.

Registered on September 16, 2006, 773 Posts, 9940 Comments