One of my newest...critique away.

This picture is actually a blind shot for me; i.e., I was holding the camera underneath the blooms without being able to see what I was taking a picture of until it was over. Any suggestions?

You couldn't see, but you had something in mind when you tried this. Did you achieve your goal?

I wanted to see if I could achieve the effect without having to lie on the ground, to be honest. I'd no idea how it was going to turn out, but I'm happy with it.

It's an interesting perspective, but like dc I would ask if you had something in mind, or was it an experiment of sorts to see what you'd get?

Purely experimental, a way to try to avoid having to lay on the ground to get the shot.

Upload an image at least 1600 on the long edge so we can actually see it :)

Looks like bamboo in bloom(?) or some exotic...

Hello amandadeanne , I don't normally comment on other people's pictures , but here goes:-.

The shot looks perfectly fine to me , the unusual angle is a nice different approach.

If I may offer a suggestion , when you take pictures with the camera pointing straight up , and you do not want to lie on the ground in order to see the screen on the back of the camera , place a mirror on the ground and use the reflected image from the screen to focus and compose your shot , a small "cosmetic" mirror will be perfectly adequate , this method really works.

Just remember that the reflected image will be reversed , you will soon learn to compensate for this.

Just my .02cents worth :).

I wanted to see if I could achieve the effect without having to lie on the ground, to be honest. I'd no idea how it was going to turn out, but I'm happy with it. Purely experimental, a way to try to avoid having to lay on the ground to get the shot.

Well done!!!...Izzy

Hello amandadeanne , I don't normally comment on other people's pictures , but here goes:-.

 

The shot looks perfectly fine to me , the unusual angle is a nice different approach.

If I may offer a suggestion , when you take pictures with the camera pointing straight up , and you do not want to lie on the ground in order to see the screen on the back of the camera , place a mirror on the ground and use the reflected image from the screen to focus and compose your shot , a small "cosmetic" mirror will be perfectly adequate , this method really works.

Just remember that the reflected image will be reversed , you will soon learn to compensate for this.

Just my .02cents worth :).

Hmmm! That .02 cents sounds like it might actually be worth at least a nickel.

Very creative approach Amanda - I'm glad it turned out so well! The stems of the (I assume) flowers look like tree trunks and the foliage look like some kind of weird tree branching out just under the green canopy. So in terms of creating a 'striking photo' the photo is IHMO a success. At the very least (without your explanation), the photo would make me stop and think: "what on earth is this?".

Two suggestions for your consideration:

- I'm sure you've thought about cropping and you've chosen a square crop. Depending on how much room you have on the bottom-left and how many pixels you have, you might want to consider a 'portrait' crop which might emphasize the height of your 'weird trees'

- I'm not sure about this, but if you're into post-processing, you could play also around with the brightness and saturation of the 'reds' vs. the 'greens' to make the red foliage 'pop' (and stand out) more. The same applies to 'sharpness'. Unsharpening the green canopy might make the red 'foliage' stand out more.

These suggestions are entirely optional. The photo looks good as it is. I'm delighted that your 'experimental approach' got such great results!

Mike

PS. During a photography course and from reading many photography books, I too learned about 'changing perspectives'. But not so extreme as you managed! My very first camera had a 'flip out and twist' screen which would have been ideal for this kind of shot. But since I 'upgraded' to (fixed screen) DSLR's my lowest perspective is about 12" (lying on the ground, looking through a viewfinder). I learned from your post to 'experiment' a bit more. Thanks for this!