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An exquisite shot. The tiny refracted image of the flower in the high-positive

diopter droplet(sharp!) with the blurred background of the same flower is a

great lesson in itself. Macro at its best.

Before I say anything that might be interpreted as "critic" I have to say that I love this photograph. It's a really remarkable composition. Having said that I can understand a little why some find it busy. I think,however, that it's not so much that it's busy (it has been truthfully pointed out that it has fairly few compositional elements)as the fact that the radial pattern of the background does draw the eye out of the photograph. I think the suggestion of some kind of frame or border it a good one. It might serve to contain the eye within the image the way some photographers slightly darken the edge of a print for the same purpose. This is not really a critic of the photo which, again, I love, but just a thought that it would benefit from a frame. Gisle was either very lucky or very good, arguably both.

The photo is very clever and definitely adds that extra dimension required to raise insect macros above the banal. Nonetheless, something just doesn't work here in terms of the final punch. I'll go out on a limb and suggest the bokeh is rather pedestrian and that the side is consequently let down by the rather large out-of-focus area.

Exactly what more could anyone want? I'm not especially into macros but even I can recognize a good thing when I see it. I was thinking of substituting a small child or a baby for the ant but I may never get around to that parody. This appears to be a fairly creative composition based on what have become some fairly common shots. So give the photographer some credit for putting a new twist on what has preceded him. Sure it would have embraced the snobs among us if it had been rendered in B&W but hey sometimes you have to have color just like you have to have red meat.

 

Macros are not my bag but this must be acknowledged as a competent work worthy of the title of POW.

I don't care whether the ant was alive or not, this is one of the best organized shots I have seen.

A clever idea and excellent execution. The elements are all there -- the mini flower image, the ant and the slanting stem. But the image bothers me because I usually expect these kinds of photographs to be pleasing to the eye. I kindof agree with Vuk that the out-of-focus area is too large. I also find it bright and jarring.

Yes, "bright and jarring" background--it makes the photo unpleasant to look at for any sort of extended period.

In response to those that find the composition too busy and/or emotionally jarring, does a reduction in the size of the background help as in this possible crop?

Scott, your crop looks like dynamite! Good suggestion. You've taken a whole lot of area that was doing nothing, and left us with the little bit of area that is doing everything. Not bad.

 

What's wrong with this image being jarring? I mean, is that a bad thing? Or just an observation? Is jarring another word for impact?

I'm usually the first guy to call for a tighter crop but with this one I think you got it just right. Had it been mine I'd've cleaned up some of the specular hilights on the green stem but just the same this is excellent macro work. The real problem I have with this image is that I'm jealous as hell!!

The cropping helps, but what is really crippling this picture is the color, especially the giant 'fuzzy egg yolk'. The ant is kind of a nasty brown too.

There are several possiblities for digital correction here (besides cropping), including hypersaturation and color balance. I did a quick experiment involving converting to b+w (by selecting the Red channel), blurring & lightening the background (apologies for crude selection artifacts here), curves adjustment and usm foreground (which is the real subject of this photo -- the ant, the stem and the refracted flower in the dew drop), and finally a rotation to try to give a more dynamic feel to it.

Scott,

 

Your new crop is a tremendous improvement. I felt like Vuk, and a few others, that while this was technically impressive, it was not a shot that I really wanted to look at. While I'm not really interested in macro ant shots, this crop keeps me more interested in looking at the image.

I still think that the original is an excellent image, but after reading the comments I certainly understood what they were saying. I feel that by narrowing the point of view, you eliminate a lot of the rays of white that were shooting you out of the image like one of those spin paint machines at the county fair. I think this effect is contributed to by the fact that a lot of the petals were seperated and the black spaces between them accentuated this effect. This crop lets you concentrate more on the ant and the refraction, which in my opinion, is the most dynamic part of the photograph.

The closer crop works so very well,by bringing the numerous contents closer together, its just that much easier to enjoy!!!

Scott Bulger for president! Scott Bulger for World Leader!

Certainly an artful photo, and great fun to look at, but it is a bit too contrived for my tastes- I guess I prefer more of a photojournalistic style to macro photography.

 

The ant, by the way, is a wood ant in the genus Formica.

Scott Bulger's cropping improves the image 100%.

The crop is impressive in part because we already know it's a flower

and because we understand the technique involved, ie not manipulated.

The 'yolk' comment is valid. Maybe a compromise between the crop and

original would give the viewer the information needed to determine

that it's clearly a flower. As was also mentioned, the ant is not

particularly attractive, except perhaps to another ant.

It goes with out saying: this is a beautiful shot and great macro work. Congrats on 'Pic of the week'.

Excellent idea. Very well executed. IMHO the original cropping is close to ideal.

I like all the 'clutter'. This is the ant's world we are looking at. Bring back all the rays!! Let's lobby for rays! Send Scott back to cropping school! I want to see more of the ant world. Besides, the strong almost red color of the ant needs to be balanced out with more space defined by the other weaker colors.

I will not seek, nor will I accept, my parties nomination for leader of the world. I will be too busy in cropping school to give the job the attention it deserves.

Novel, but the very novelty of the little lens of water and its image of a flower causes problems of composition. I personally like it, but I could not rate it too highly on the traditional scale. I am glad you took it and glad I got to see it. What are the ratings worth anyway?

It's a great metaphor for a particular vision of the Japanese: the toiling ant in the Rising Sun.

This is a home run with the combination of the focused water droplet, the depth of field showing both the ant and the flower and the compositional elements. Any of the two would be great but the three combined makes this an exceptional photo. Very well done. You have raised the bar on macro shots for the rest of us.

Thanks for sharing, and consider these comments helpful or rubbish as you see fit.