Gladitude

Gallery: FloraPosted May 9, 2017217 views13 comments

Sony A77II
Sony 70-400G @ 250mm
ISO 200, 1/125 @ f8
Ten years ago yesterday I started my tenure as Flora moderator. It has been a wonderful ride and I want to thank all of you who have posted and contributed your images and comments over the years to the finest Flora gallery on the planet.

I found this gladiola at the Mercer Arboretum in Northeast Houston a couple weeks ago. The Mercer suffered a lot of damage in the floods of April 2016 and the hard freeze we had this February. It is recovering although only the water lilies really survived unscathed. All comments welcome.>=))>

Comments

13 comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on May 9, 2017 at 11:52 AM

A beautiful composition and image. I like the contrasting colors and the lighting on the gladiola. I'm not sure about the upper left corner, it has an artifactual look (like when my cloning or content aware doesn't quite work out). You might consider smoothing this area out.

Thanks to you and Phil for the great work you've done in this gallery. It is always a pleasure to view the excellent photos in "the finest Flora gallery on the planet." devil

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on May 9, 2017 at 1:20 PM

Bill, beautiful blooms and excellent BG, and appreciate your efforts as moderator. As to the look of the upper left Allen mentions, I've seen this banding effect in my own images, and I would agree a bit of blending would help. Maybe those better versed in PS than I could enlighten us.

Registered on July 21, 2004, 706 Posts, 3233 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Bartz on May 9, 2017 at 2:16 PM

I have always found these hard to photograph, but this is excellent.

Registered on May 12, 2007, 56 Posts, 92 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on May 9, 2017 at 11:43 PM

Beautiful glad with terrific light, Bill. Really stands out from the nicely contrasting bg. Excellent dof managment.

Thank you for your 10 years of service as flora Mod, and for you 26,426 and counting comments. Exemplary job on both counts. devil

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

Comment posted by Yun Gao on May 9, 2017 at 11:59 PM

Great composition and beautiful light, Bill. Nice image!
Thanks for your great work as Flora Gallery moderator for 10 years. Your works are very inspirational. devil

Registered on September 11, 2012, 267 Posts, 1621 Comments

Comment posted by Giuseppe Guadagno on May 10, 2017 at 10:42 AM

Bill, the finest flora gallery in the world must have the best moderator. This portrait of the gladiola flowers is splendid. I don't think we have this type of wild gladiola.

Registered on February 3, 2007, 827 Posts, 5052 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on May 10, 2017 at 4:47 PM

Bill, I agree with Gigi's first sentence. Congratulations and thank you for your 10 years of service. I hope you continue for at least another 10 years.

The lighting in this image is incredible, and the colors are remarkable. The diagonal composition couldn't be more perfect.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Buck on May 10, 2017 at 8:39 PM

I really should have planted some glads in my yard this year... :( I really like the profile shot, and the flowers are very pretty. I wish that shape on the stem side about half way up was not quite so dark.

A HUGE thank you for all of your work as the floral moderator! What an amazing tenure!

Nathan

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

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on May 11, 2017 at 10:18 AM

I agree with Allen on the ULC. A field blur would work nicely on this and make a top notch photo into the top of the notch!

I will keep my accolades short. Thanks for your patience and kind mentoring. They mean an awful lot to me!

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

Comment posted by Kathy Snead on May 11, 2017 at 10:25 AM

This is very nice and the diagonol placement of the glad is perfect.

Registered on April 6, 2017, 104 Posts, 397 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on May 11, 2017 at 12:20 PM

Just a superb contribution to mark your anniversary, Bill. Wonderful lighting and colour and very neat framing of a difficult subject. And thank you for all your inspirational images and helpful and enthusiastic comments over the years !!!!!!

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

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on May 13, 2017 at 10:47 PM

Hi Bill

Thats 2644 comments a year, blush

That's what you call dedication to flora. cool

i hope you can give us another 10 years of wonderful comments . this gladiola is perfectly presented, with excellent detail, color and light devil