coming out

Sam, a really unique sort of shot you have here. a thought would be try zooming right in on it and concentrating on its uniqueness. i have just had a wee play with it, this is just to give you a idea of what i mean. am sure you can come up with something more suitable. was tempted to play with a couple of the knobs but resisted the temptation so image has only been cropped. really interesting work!

Maybe I agree with Roger about the crop, that way the beauty of the flower is being emphasized!

Warm regards Sam!

PDE

Pierre, i actually care less if you agree or don't agree with my suggestion, but have to say it's nice seeing you at least leaving something more than your general critique which is Simply- WONDERFUL PDE i just find that a waste of everyone's time. you say you have 40 years of experience, why not share that experience with people who are here to learn. blowing smoke up someone's ass is not helping them at all. i also have a fair bit of history in the field of photography over several different genre's. the last 12 years has been spent marketing flower images, but i actually started out as a landscape photographer more years ago than i care to remember. i than did 5 years as a nude photographer. my interest now are flowers, and i seldom to never leave the flower section. always try and make it clear that anything i may say is just my opinion. but i think about what i write and hope i have been able to help a few people along the way. i will be away tomorrow but am open to discussing anything ive said here, as long as it's intelligent dialogue.

cheers

roger

Excellent. fine job!!

Roger,  I do like the crop.  This was one of those images I kept looking at over and over - I actually did clone out some distracting half flowers in the background, but it still didn't have what I was looking for when I first shot it. In fact, I almost didn't post it because of that.  But your crop gave it the umph I wanted.  It's weird, but sometimes I look at an image and just can't construct the correct look, then someone comes along and does something very simple, and boom - there it is.  Thanks.

sam, there may be yet another option here. generally, i do not like cropping any part of an important shape or composition. shapes and forms are sacred. since this "flower" formed such a nice tight circle, i cropped to the tangent points. this may be a bit too close, but you get the idea. certainly, we cannot let ol' roger have the last word....

I see your point also Dror.  In looking at the image again, I'm thinking I would prefer to have more of the stem showing as it adds to the realistic nature of the photo.  Sometimes, I see images and they appear too isolated when their very reason for existence is eliminated.  But I'm very appreciative of your thoughts and suggestions.  These sorts of discussions make for lively interaction.

While I think the basic shot is good, I also agree that there may be ways to work the crop and the color to get to where you see the shot and include some of the elemnts that Roger has suggested. I can see having some stem in the shot and would not want to lose the back petal. Maybe if you rotate the shot somewhat so the stem is on an angle and the back petal is more above the flower, you could crop in just below the leaf bud and tigter on the sides. This would give the desired focus on the flower. You might tweak the levels just a little to pop the color somewhat as well. These are just some thoughts that might work to enjance an already interesting shot.

Like everyone else i couldn't help but play with the image a little. Something along these lines is what I was suggesting.

Sam, you just have to be pleased with the response you have got from this image. what's really nice, is there are no rights and wrongs just different ways of seeing the same image. i would probably have not thought of Charles idea of rotating the flower in a thousand years. what i like here is you have a image that has lots of interest for who ever views it. i seem to always be looking at flower images but this would be one that shall stay in my minds eye for quite sometime.

Roger I take that as a compliment. And I agree with you, there is so much to see and workwith in this image that we can all find new ways of telling the story. Sam you should be very pleased that you have created an image that draws so much attention. - Charles

Charles, you most certainly may take my comment as a compliment. of the 4 images here including the original, yours would probably be my pick. but on saying that am sure there are still more possibilities with this interesting flower.

Charles,  Your suggestion gets me back to more of what I was looking for - at least that's the way I'm looking at it today. And thank you Roger for giving me more feedback on this image.  Now I wish the flower were still in this state so I could go back and play around with different POV's, and lighting. But, as we all know, beauty is a fleeting thing and one of our jobs as photographers is to try to get it right the first time. I can only hope that I captured the essence of the image on that day at that particular time. Again - thanks to all of you.

Sam