Wildflowers and Oaks

EQUIPMENT & TOOLS:
Nikon D2x
12-24mm @ 12mm
f/14 @ .5 sec
Remote release,
Worlds second most expensive tripod
Worlds most expensive ballhead
Photographer Vest,
Photoshop, (a little bit o' burning and dodging),
4:57AM,
Tecnu (anti poison oak soap),
Marc Adamus' Super Duper Wammer Jammer Web sharpening technique,
Just a hair bit of Ability and Desire (don't really need a lot of Ability and Desire since I have such good gear).

Ahh, shoot. This is exactly why I wanted to spend more time in the area than an hour.

I think this works quite well compositionally. I'd like to see the background a bit lighter.

Thanks, it turned out darker here on the web than it is at home on in print.

I really like this Mark. I admit much more so than than your last post. The three elements (lupine, balsam, oak) are composed nicley. I agree about the back being slightly lighter but that has been addressed I see.

Nice...the yellows are a bit bright....and I can never get the tree trunks to look any other color than that purple from the Lupine.....

Thanks,

here is a lighter version.

Darren, this oak was a bit purple. I added a Hue & Saturation layer and sucked out the blue and cyan to make the tree gray. Then I painted with black on the mask on everything but the tree to reveal the rest of the photo before the layer adjustments.
There are a couple of real bright flower, I need to darken them.

Okay, here's the darker flowers.

Very nice comp, Mark - I like how the Lupine seem to bend around the tree....

Oh, that's what I hope to find when I go to Rowena. I still haven't found it. Was this what you found when you showed Kevin & me around?

Kevin

BTW, I have the world's cheepest tripod ($70 at ProPhoto). Does that make my pictures crappy?

Kevin

The original sucks waaay less.... kinda natural color for the light conditions!

This is really good Mark. I prefer the original; the darker background sets off the stronger points of the photo nicely and the bright balsamroot really provides a focal point. I'd be tempted to play with vignetting the bottom two corners just a bit to set off the balsamroot even more. As noted above, the curve of the balsamroot/lupine around the tree is a really strong composition. I'm not sure about the tallest grass mixed in with the balsamroot. I might have been tempted to shoot this, and the "groom" it a little for a second shot to compare.

Er, a, thanks, Larry....

John, I thought of that but I always end up doing too much gardening and the scene ends up looking less natural to me. In the print, the grasses are a wonderful detail to explore.

Kevin, of course it does? Don't you know that you have to have expensive gear to take good photos?