Which way ?

Poetic concept to present Globe Thistle (Echinops banaticus).

Ever original!

Very nice

Very interesting and beautiful. Congrats.

Really beautiful AND original. congrats. A great piece of decorative work.

Abdul, Fantastic composition, original point of view and the dof make this beautiful image rather unique, bravo, cheers Jana

Fantatsic shot; terrific idea.

This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture the Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest. It is simply an image that the Elves found interesting and worthy of discussion. Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the Site Feedback forum.

Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum. We have this forum because future visitors might be interested in learning more about the pictures. They browsed the gallery, found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why does it work? Or, indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved?

So, when contributing to this thread, please keep the above in mind. Address the strengths, the shortcomings of the image. It's not good enough to like it, you should spend some time trying to put into words why that is the case. Equally so if you don't like it, or if you can't quite make up your mind.

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Thank you and enjoy!

Kudos on a very original image. I am usually not a big flower shot fan, but this image is certainly very interesting and well-done. Also, I think that a lot of symbolism can be drawn from this image, which adds greatly to its artistic merit.

 

Great job!

I really enjoy this picture for many reasons; the square format, the placement of the flower heads in the frame, the fall-off in dof, the muted and harmonious colour combination, and the intricate detail in the flowers themselves.

 

Congrats on a beautiful and unique image.

Thank you all for your kindly comments and ratings. Thank you Photo.Net (the Elves) for choose this as 'Photograph of the Week! I'm so appreciative!!! Regards, A.K. Audah.

The arrangement of the flowers here really gives viewers feeling of something rather dynamic, giving such life to "still life", I really love it. :)

Perfectly well executed in every aspect, very well seen!

Cheers,

Sophia

I'm not sure whether this picture is going to attract many posters, because I'd say that this kind of still life shots is not what interest most people, generally speaking, but I, for one, find this very clever and interesting. And I'm glad the Elves picked this picture from all your posted images, because I think it is indeed one of your strongest posts here. Whereas your work often involves a lot of very apparent Photoshop post-production, this POW on the opposite seems very "quiet" and "un-manipulated", so I'd be curious to know whether any manipulation occurred and which one - if any.

 

Now what I like about this picture, as far as aesthetics are concerned, was already phrased (and very well) by G., above. So I'll just suscribe to what she wrote, and add the following:

 

1) I like also the contrast I see here between the "strong", "iron-like" balls and the "weak", "fragile" stams of these *iron-flowers*. What it suggests to me, is that strength can grow from weakness.

 

2) Along the same line, the stams are not growing straight, as one would expect: they are "twirling up in the blur". It's visually very appealing, but it also suggests to me, that there's no growing up without any hesitating. In short, the message I get is, that natural or psychological growths are only possible with hesitations and possibly mistakes along the path that leads to strength.

 

Finally, I like the sober way such a subtle message gets accross to me: no distraction, no fancy stuff, no exageration or over-doing. Perhaps you didn't even intend nor even imagine, that someone could read your picture this way, but as long is it touches a soul out there, it was definately worth taking. And this picture did touch me when I first saw it, very long ago. Congrats.

Excellent photo + composition + style + technique = Humor. GOOD job!

 

I am not so sure what these are -- man-made or natural -- but the image as presented is humorous.

aside from the originality, the tones, the detail, is the composition and size of the image

which makes the whole thing look like an uneven figure... it fools the eye into thinking it is

not square... which turns a serious picture and subject matter into something more

lighthearted, to me... made me smile. love it!

Never underestimate the power of Point of View! Well done.

First, I don't know that I agree with all of Marc's analysis, so I will just stay with comments

on this photo.

 

When I first saw this, I didn't like it much. I looked again and something called to me.

Here was this organic thing, a plant, and it had been transformed into a kind of petri dish

germ. Of course much of this feel was contributed by the blue/green lighting. So I

thought, wow, maybe this guy is onto something interesting--so I went to the portfolio.

Well, I was pretty disappointed. There was not one other photo there that seemed to have

the feel of this one at all. So, I was just left with the kind of feeling and wonder if this was

just a mistake that he thought looked cool or what!

 

I know this sounds harsh, but the principal is the difference between creating art and, as

Marc referred to it in his early post, decorative work. I have a tendancy to look for the

artist and the portfolio has many glimpses of original work and thought, but the

developed work is a bit more expected and cliche. There is nothing wrong with producing

work like that, it can sell very well, but a well done and thought out series, like the POW,

could be incredible and sellable and elevate the status of the creator as an artist.

Thanks once again for the comments. This image is part of the Triptychs Globe Thistles series that I created for my American publisher. They wanted me to create still-life images, with mondern theme, original and almost abstract. The goal was for fine-art prints to hanging as decorative pieces.

 

I came across with this plant when I walked in the bushes near my house and found out through the 'Google' about this plant. The plant is part of Thistles families. The latin name is Echinops banaticus.

 

In the technical part, I shot with SONY DSC-F828, external flash, natural light, pale blue background and camera 's white balace was setting to blue-ish mode. Toning was developing with help Photoshop.

 

I hope these explanations will give you idea to know about this image. I appreciate all kind of comments, negative or positive, as I teach my self to this level. I'm still have no any formal education and training in photography or art up to now. I just follow my heart and my eyes...

 

Thanks all! Regards, A. K. Audah

Sorry about the link doesn't work, here the right one to the triptychs : Globe Thistles Triptychs

Thanks all!

Cool, not only because of blue.

original ikebana viewed from top with DoF; probably better than simply viewed from side (as the 4 'flowers' seem to be at the same level).

As for me, the good point of this PoW, Abdul, is to enable PNetters to discover your fantastic portfolio! a real 'touche-a-tout' (ecclectic) one, in which you appear to manage pretty well various compartments of the photographic art!

thanks for posting!

I think what throws me about this image is the DOF. Each thistle appears to be tack sharp on both top and sides, yet the stems and the vase all seem to have a uniform blur. From my own somewhat limited experience with a small sensor digicam, it is very difficult to throw out the background even at f2.8.

 

So is the blur as captured or PS?

Might two or more of the thistles here really be the same single thistle?

Here's the thistle at the top-left of the original image, next to the thistle at the top right after rotating it 90-degrees counterclockwise:

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/4935911-lg.jpg

Here are the centers of those thistles:

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/4935915-lg.jpg

To me, this looks like two views of the same thistle photographed from slightly different angles. Could different thistles be so strikingly similar to each other? The bottom-right thistle in the original also looks like a very similar; I'm not so sure about the bottom-left one.

Just looks odd to me...

Maybe they are thistle twins?

 

In the end, it's still an interesting piece of work that has allowed Abdul to riase the bar on his photography and possibly, as Mona would suggest, give him a path to explore this new avenue of art.

Looks as if Scott, would indeed have "nailed" something...:-)

I've looked at this photograph for two days now (been out of town) and I cannot make up my mind if I like it or not. The compostion is somewhat bothersome to me and the ultra-sharp focus on all but the lower right thistle seems strange. I think Scott or who ever it was who noted the similarities between this one and the top left made a remarkable observation. Obviously (I think) you've combined at least two images. The stem on the lower right one is more out of focus than the other three too. None of this bothers me like the composition, however. I would crop this into at least three different photographs if it were up to me. I just don't like the out-of-focus middle of the photograph.

 

In viewing your other pictures in your portfolio, I see a lot to admire. You have Photoshop down pat! I just wish I could do some of the things you seem to do with such ease. Nice work.

 

Willie the Cropper