Spring Tones

Gallery: FloraPosted June 22, 2014449 views6 comments

The winds were whipping the beautiful flowers around and around. Hard to acquaire focus on any part of the flowers. A bit past it's prime flowering season; nevertheless, delicate and beautiful.

I could use an ID if this is not too blurry. It could be a Texas Mountain Laurel or some form of Acacia tree. I've seen this flowering shrub or small tree In Utah, Nevada, and California.

NIKON D700
150.0 mm (in 35mm: 150.0 mm) (105mm + 1.4 TC II)
1/320 sec; f/4.5; ISO 100
Manual focus; Spot metering

I shot several shots with a higher ISO but since most of those images contained flowers that were nearly seed pods, they were not aesthetically appealing.

I liked the tones so in spite of the softness, I kept the image.

C&C welcome.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Ramamohan Pai on June 22, 2014 at 9:16 PM

Carol - I have no idea on the ID but I am sure someone who knows will swing by soon.

I really like the selective focus and the color but the rest of the frame being completely out of focus confuses me a little bit. Lets see what others have to say.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 550 Posts, 9037 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on June 23, 2014 at 11:55 AM

I like the selective focus approach to show the small purple flowers and you have a nice complimentary background. Perhaps a vertical crop to reduce the large amount of OOF area.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on June 23, 2014 at 12:25 PM

Carol: I do like the selective focus but the rather abrupt transition from sharp to OOF bugs me a little. A different camera angle slightly more parallel to the flower would work better for me and would soften the transition. I do like the color palette and the BG. >=))>

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

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on June 23, 2014 at 2:29 PM

I would agree with the three previous critiques, plus a crop, perhaps 4:5, to balance the OOF better;

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on June 23, 2014 at 4:43 PM

Great separation of the buds from the pale bg, Carol - and personally i like the space around the bloom. If anything I might go for just a touch more dof, but I'm not sure, as the sharp buds really do stand out so well with all their delicate colouring. No idea on the ID - have never come across anything like these over here !!

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

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on June 24, 2014 at 8:57 PM

Hi Carol

At f/4.5 you have limited DOF.. I have to agree with the others, the transition from in focus, to out of focus is too abrubt..

Albert Darmo
Canada

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