Blooming Lilac Flowers

Comments appreciated.

Soft and tender as should be!

Warm regards Bulent!

PDE 

One of the most delightful fragrances of spring, in my opinion.  I love the softness of your capture.

This had a very unusual effect on my, like a slow motion floral explosion. I follow a number of photographers on this site and it seems lately the creative input has been reduced to a trickle. It appears to be a rather widespread phenomenom and my contributions have slackened as well. At any rate, it's always a pleasure to see new work from you, Bulent my friend.

I think that it's the focus on the (central) buds (instead of on the open flowers that are in blur), which seems to create a feeling of a 'floral slow motion explosion', as Jack so eloquently put it above... The lilac colors are lovely and soft, and I like the slightly impressionistic overall feeling of your photo, Bulent. An original capture indeed!

I like the relatively high key and shallow DOF presentation of these blooms.  Marjolein's observation on the buds being in focus while the out of focus blooms hint at the next level of development is also valid.  Jack has hit on something that I too have noticed  of late and that is the absence of or at least the lessening of the amount of constructive criticism being offered on the images here, at least on the people I follow.  Troubling!  They're not at zero but have diminished noticeably.  It is discouraging but I urge Jack and others to keep doing what you need to do to hopefully correct this lull in active participation.  Honest, constructive criticism is essential to keep us from becoming lazy in our work which is supposed to get better, not worse,  and an honest critique helps.  I also think it helps if, time permitting, we religiously attempt to acknowledge these critiques.  Best,  LM.

I notice it's a Vivitar macro lens.  Is it old?  I think what actually gives the picture all that soul is not focusing on the nearest bit, which is after-all just the standard thing to do, it is instead the gentle rendering from the lens.  best, j

Thank you all very much for your rewarding comments and please forgive me for being this late to respond. I do appreciate your comments and critiques very much and I owe many PN members for helping me make a progress towards reaching a better understanding of photography.

I was away for some time to visit a very special small part of my country and I will be sharing photos from there soon. Unfortunately, I have experienced a severe case of hardware (mainboard) malfunction and it will take some time to recover my system. (Which is, by the way, based on Logical Volume Management with some embedded virtual systems). I am writing this message using my spouse's laptop.

I agree with Jack's and Len's observations on the recent trends here. Forum activity has also diminished, by the way. These may partly be related to the "proliferation" of many other image-centric sites. Still, this is probably the only place where I feel at home, with close friends... I think I will stay here as long as I can click on a fresh photo of one of my friends and enjoy it for some time... I admit that I comment on only a few of the images I like very much. On the other hand; I rarely, if ever, comment on an image just to be polite... I have learned a lot here and I believe there are some exceptionally competent photographers here. Indeed, PN is a big part of my life and I fully understand what Len is saying...

Jamie,

My lens was bought as new (never before used), old stock. It indeed has some character! It has also made me get a better tripod ;)

I like lilac soft colors.Very good composition and light. Regards.

I couldn't find the lens you used, but I did find a 135/2.3 and a 28/1.9 from Vivitar Series 1, both excellent.  I traded a modern Sigma lens for them.  I can't wait to try them out.  best, j

Very beautiful and so soft! Wonderful capture and color. I love it! Thank you for sharing. :)