a sense of wonder...

Thanks for looking !

Anne & Runar :-)

Really beautiful flower shot.

very nice

an excellent macro work.

you are in a class of your own, so much beyond the rest of us.

in the essence of every work of art is, a sense of wonder. not everything rises to this level, but your work, does.

Soft and beautiful. A charming photograph. Best regards.

Delicate and beautiful colors. Regarsd A.W

Wonderful light and softness!

Compo and colors are great too :)

beautiful and artistic shoot

Anne & Runar,

i second drors comment! beautiful work.....

You created an excellent image with a high artistic level,elegant and delicate,all my best.

RC

Wow!!! Excellent image...so soft...so delicate...excellent light, details, colors, composition and processing...7...my best

I like photos!!

Great vision as usual.

Excellent.

BR / Volker

Please note the following:

• 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.
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• Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum: to help people learn about photography. Visitors have 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? Try to answer such questions with your contribution.

The first thing I notice are the sharp-edged overlapping light circles of the background. They dominate the photo and come quite forward in the composition, compressing any implied depth and competing with and almost dwarfing the flower. The flower echo in the background also has a manufactured feel. The main petals themselves seem well illuminated and probably exhibit the best lighting in the photo, no real dazzle (which isn't a necessity) but not that much of interest in terms of light variations or floral drama. The stem of the flower is rigid and barely has a curve, so there's not much sensuality in its stance. The flower facing away from me, or at least partially away, is a bit like a cold shrug, distant, objective. The sharpest green leaf at the base of the stem catches my attention but I don't quite know what to do with it. The diagonal composition, which normally might give me a feeling of movement, doesn't here for reasons of how the photo is balanced and particularly how the light is concentrated and focused.

My favorite folder in AR's portfolio is called The Polar Drones. There's a simplicity of design and subject and a movement within the series from cool to warm, a straightforward, steely or glassy and focused approach that has a boldness while also showing a passive appreciation for the forms of nature. In this photo, on the other hand, I find a murkiness and a technique and approach that doesn't bring out the best of the subject.

A unique flower shot!

I love this. I could look at it all day and if it was I who took this shot, I would have it on my wall and tell everyone about it.

Beautiful work... 7

I find the limited DOF creating a lot of distraction in this photo. The soft focus both in the rear flowers & at bottom compete with the main flower. The side view of the main flower is fine. But it's placement has the main flower, which is the subject, just facing out of the frame

Anne and Runar... I see this as an example of your exemplary work and the POW as a well deserved recognition. Congratulations... Mike

Maybe it is just because we are photographers, but like Fred, the hard edges in the background were the first thing that struck me when I looked at this image large. Whether it is banding or a shape in the background, it does seem to be a bit prominent and fights with the subject a bit too much overall.

Otherwise, the image has some nice qualities to it. I like the fact that this one isn't just a standard view, showing the profile of this type of flower seems different. The colors are very seductive and warm and the composition is pleasing.

As I was writing and looking, I did get a sense that maybe the background here is not a natural one--a print or transparency of some sort used as the background or maybe some diffusion material stuck between the subject and the background. (my sense is that it is more translucent than a print would be) There seem to be shadows and mergers that are just visually quirky to me, making me wonder if something like this has been done in this area. It is a nice effect except for the apparent banding.

I would have to say that, at least from the thumbnails, many of the flower images that AR have posted seem more standard fair for the genre, with a few exceptions like this one. It is just unfortunate here, at least for a photographer's eye, that we have these strong bandings/edges within the background of this image.

Most of A R captures are really delicate and artistic, they are in a very beautiful composition, DOF and colors. In the past few days, I saw amazing photos of them and his one has no exception.

Great!! very nice tones

I'm always struck at how flower photography has evolved and progressed over the last 10-15 years, particularly it seems since the advent of digital photography. The work that many people do with flowers is so amazingly beautiful.

This particular photograph is quite nice. I agree that the relatively sharply defined background circles are a distraction, particularly because one of the petals happens to touch the edge of one of those circles -- that just increases the impact of the distraction. I wish the green base were different -- it's slightly unsettling to see one sharply defined (but only in part) green leaf amid a mass of very indistinct such leaves.

I do like the angle of the flower facing slightly away from the viewer, with the yellow anthers rising from behind the petals and set against the white in the background.

I like this selection as a POW because, IMO, it may not be the best in A R's portfolio, but it gives viewers elements to perhaps like and dislike, thereby hopefully leading to an interesting discussion. It has also led me to a portfolio that I hadn't seen before. Fred mentioned the Polar Drones folder, and the striking shapes of hard ice set against a soft background of a variety of colors provide a contrast that I find very appealing. It's interesting to compare this folder with the similar Natural Elements; for me, the contrast and color in Polar Drones makes it much more appealing. However, my favorite in A R's portfolio is Wind Journeys. Here they have captured very ephemeral elements, almost the wind itself, in a series of delicate and softly colored images that I've never seen as a collection before. That is strikingly beautiful work.