Early Purple Orchid

One of those misnomers really, as this species has neither been early nor very purple in my local patches. I was actually out photographing monkey orchids when I came caross this one. I am not normally a fan of large in the frame, but here it works, at least for me. Disagreement welcome - I am the first to admit I know little about flower photography.

David

Nikon D200, 150mm Sigma, tripod mounted. 1/40th @ f13, 200 iso

I also know little about flower photography (other than the fact that it generally involves a photographer, a camera and some flowers - and the first one is optional) but compositionally, it doesn't make any kind of statement for me so I don't feel grabbed by it, sorry

I too don't work with plants very often David, but for me these shots seem to work best when either the plant is shown in its immediate context or when one of the individual flowers is picked out to show the petal detail etc. Although the colours are fantastic and this is technically spot on, the composition is a bit in-between for me personally.

Hi David, I think I agree with the above statements but would also add that it looks a little 'cold' overall. I also think it would be better if the flower was up-right in the frame. You might want to give your 300mm a turn out in the field for this kind of photography and get down with a beanbag. Give the plant some space to breathe and I think you'll be onto a winner. I'm guessing the leaves did not look great as this plant seems to be at the end of it's days this late into the season. There are a few stragglers but most of them went over a couple of weeks ago at least in the several sites I've been to.

Brett

Well it works for me, as I am a BIF fan. I think you have got the DOFabout right, allowing the individual flowers tp stand out well against the excellent BG. The slight slope of the spike, gives the image a touch of incongruity, which I prefer to the touch of banality which would be risked if the spike was completely vertical. Very nice to see.

This works for me too. I think you need to try different photographs and not conform to rules. The background is good and the flower detail is good too.

Ian