Multiple

Strong shot. You really do bring us intimately close to another life form that we generally take for granted. I think the depth of our lives is proportionate to the breadth of our ability to appreciate the world in all its diversity.

Beautiful color, and razor sharp!

 

Well done Radu,

 

Best, David

Jack,I am all the time honored by your so nice words for my work,and for sure this means a lot to me and I thank you for comment.

David,many thanks for your visit and comment that I appreciate a lot.

your attention to detail, colour and quality of light are always so much appreciated when I view your images Radu. This one is exquisite!

With pleasure I read your comment dear Gail and I am glad that this photo delight you,thank you for nice words and thoughts.

The colors and contrast have been pumped so much that, for me, this picture has turned from the fragile beauty of flowers and water droplets into food photography. It feels plump and juicy to my eye; ready for yummy munching.

Which is interesting ... I like plump and juicy things.

Another flower POW (his amazing 3rd since 2015) by Radu that shows these little everyday beauties of nature "on stilts." I don't mind the heavy saturation as flowers are not my first passion, although a more natural blurry vegetation background might be a good complement here as well.

Does anyone know whether the POW icon expires after one year of the viewing of the highlighted image?

That is my understanding from the Photo.Net icon dictionary. If so, it might give an incentive to those picked to renew that accolade in future and also to seek to submit increasingly unusual, beautiful or controversial images to the forum.

 

Arthur, can you rephrase. Im unclear on what you're saying. A photo of mine was chosen as POTW more than a year ago

and the icon still resides next to my name. That's true for others whose photos were chosen several years back. I didn't

understand the incentive part of your post.

Echo Julie. The strong contrasts gives initial hook to look; then the details give reason to explore. The texture is tangible, the visions in the waterdrop lenses intriguing, and the difference from cliche 'soft' style is a treat.
Another rich and juicy fan.

This image, like some others by Radu, treads a fine line between realism and fantasy. In this instance, the bud on the left

conjures up visions of a bug-eyed creature - not a flower.

Fred, sorry for the possibly poor grammar. In the list of icons of Photo.Net it is mentioned that the icon remains with the photographers "byline" for a year, but not after that 12 month period.

Do you read the same thing?

 

Thanks, Arthur. I put NO stock in what PN's guidelines say since most haven't been updated in centuries and give out much false, misleading, or outdated information.

Rereading what I didn't originally understand, I think you're suggesting that the icons disappearing after a year would incentivize us to submit more creative photos that might be chosen for discussion here (it's not meant as an accolade even though that's how it's often viewed). Perhaps it would, I don't know. My incentives for making photos tend to lie elsewhere.

If you're saying that three of Radu's flower photos have been chosen since 2015 to be POTW, without taking anything away from Radu's work, I'd say that's a shame, since the site has claimed to want to highlight the work of as many members as possible, particularly new members.

Yes, your third paragraph mirrors my thoughts. I agree also that new photographers may want, and need, the critiques that come with a POW and this should be one of the priorities of the deciders.

I also see many photographers who take the time to not only post images but talk about photography in the many forums and thereby contribute quite a bit to the vitality of the site, yet after 5 or 10 years or more of membership and perfecting their activity may not have not had the chance to have that critique (other than the through the useful critique forum). I presume that those people have a great interest in the activity and are pushing some of its limits, unless it is assumed that they have little else to do with their time. The three-time selection within one year that I refer to is perhaps an indication that the deciders have not much time for exploration or are hung up on particular photographic expressions?

I think it was Landrum who this week provided elsewhere an example of a POW of 2002 that received an enormous amount of interest and comments. Perhaps that is a question of current interest in this site and forum, I don't know? It was before my time here, but perhaps Philip Greenspan had something to do with inciting that apparently former high level of participation.

I was intrigued by the comment of Wayne, "The strong contrasts gives initial hook to look." That is a very important part of photography and one that has I think both good and less good sides. Good, because visual impact or subject relevance is sometimes important, but less good because often powerful but subtler works (that may require digestion) can be ignored if that becomes the "alpha and omega" of what photography should be.

I quickly learned in local and national photo association competitions that "hook to look" was the way to win prizes and for a while I did that very successfully but later stepped away from submitting to those salons because it was making my photography too unidirectional - do I want to attract the judges who have little viewing time or do I want to do something more than that in terms of developing my own progression and improvement of approach? So hook to look is hardly a criteria I place very high now.

After boring you with all that, what the current POW does is to exhibit this approach to still life and perhaps raise the question, would Weston if here today photograph his pepper in a different fashion than he did. Yes, probably somewhat (as an artist never wanting to stay with what is past for him), but I doubt he would want (or need) to use the saturation slider to create an effect. However, before becoming complacent with that thought, yes, he might, as long as the result satisfied his artistic approach.

Same old, same old, this brings nothing new to the table, so why a third one of these? While the image is real sharp and very colorful and maybe even tasty, the 'all sliders set to max' approach, robs the subject of any subtle beauty that it may have possessed. It now looks like something that would hurt me if I fell on it.

It is a balanced composition with an engaging background. The light is intentionally set to enhance the contrast of the foreground object. I

think it is absolutely necessary to highlight the subtle colored buds in such a bright and colorful background. I don't think the saturation or

contrast were overdone at all. They might have been enhanced a bit to compensate during postproduction but certainly not 'maxed out'.

Flowers can have naturally highly saturated tones and such tones can be enhanced depending on lighting conditions.

Although I like flowers as much as the next man (not the next botanist though). I, too, express some skepticism as to what sets this one apart from all other flower bud images. Technically it is an excellent image for someone to identify this plant, but I don't really see it as much more.

About the icon discussion of the POTW above, I have that

icon beside my name, and since I have read it's to be stay

for one year,I've contacted the administration because it

stayed more than a year, I thought it was a bug in the

program, the answer came that it would stay for good.

Radu always seems to come up with interesting photos. Some like them and some don't appreciate his style. I appreciate the fact that he is constantly experimenting and willing to get his work shown to the public, unlike many of the critics here and elsewhere.

Is a time since I am here on PN and my only goal was to share my passion for photography and nature(especially flowers) as I see it as a world of light and colors.I learn many things in time from different members here and try to improve my work and share my ideas and feelings with different people.We are so different for sure, one each other, but from this I think comes the progress and possibility to have something new.I like flowers and the beauty of this wonderful subject invite me each time to discover it if possible in a new way.I try to show as much as possible the subject as it is in nature to keep the beauty of it.Macro photography shows sometime incredible details never seen naked eyes.Springtime comes always with vivid colors as this buds here(this green was exactly so) and bg done with an Iris flower gave me this colors.
About why was chosen this one as POW from all flowers I have I do not know,I know an only thing that I will come as much I can with new ideas about how I see this wonderful world and not as a simple shot but with my feelings about this.

Oh, Dear Radu, I am sorry that people take so much time to find anything and everything wrong with and image rather than looking for the beauty and artistry in your exceptional work.
I read these people's comments and then looked at their own work, they have miles to go to become the artist you are. They should spend more time on looking for the good and applying that good to their own work.
I left photo.net because photo.net encourages negativity on its site. I once received notice from photo.net that I was not giving enough negative comments and that I could be banned from posting more images if I did not mend my ways. So I left.
Most who criticize on photo.net have a not so great talent for their own images. Your work is of extreme beauty with a true eye for artistic beauty, be proud of your work and know within yourself that you have great talent in capturing and processing your images to bring out each flowers beauty to the joy of the 90% who love and adore your amazing work.
I look for the good in an image and say, how can I improve my own work, which has taken me so much father in my own photography. https://www.facebook.com/sherry.bell.10

When one finds the need to put down the work of others because those others criticize the work of someone whose work one likes, one shows little class and very little understanding of critique or photography.

 

Sherry, you spent your entire unfortunate post criticizing those few who said negative things about the photo, did not acknowledge the many positive things said here about the photo, and said nothing yourself of any substance about the photo. I think that does more of a disservice to the photo than anything anyone else has done. Not one word from you about the photo itself other than to hurl hollow but hyperbolic terms like "extreme beauty" and "artistic beauty" at the photographer. He's talented, you think, but you say not a word about what's good about his photo.

This sounds rather unbelievable. Unless you could show us this "notice" you received, I have no reason to give it credence. Perhaps you misunderstood something that was said or some notice to you came within a context that you chose to interpret a certain way. It's odd to make such an accusation without supplying evidence.

I did for sure received an email notice a few years ago and no I do not have that email, and yes that email notice was the last time I posted any of my images to this site.

It was very plain in what it said that I gave out to many positive reviews and not enough reviews telling people on this site what was wrong with their images, which could lead to my suspension on this site.

Yes, I saw total stupid nit pick stuff on this site of peoples work, often. I would say many of the post when I was active on this site were just pure nit picky negatives about tiny stupid things, many of whom claimed to be purest and things like that.

As I said!!! one will learn more and grow better as a photographer if they look for the good in an image and try to learn from the good. Those who pass out the nit picky negative comments learn nothing about becoming a better photographer because their mind set is on what is wrong rather than what right with an image.

I did not criticize every post as you suggested, I said the word many!!! not all.

Here are my thoughts on this photo " Its is shows the beauty of simple green buds with wonderful light which shows the shimmering dew on each bud, excellent detail, wonderful colors tones from the blur of the background flowers further bring out the beauty of these simple green buds. Great light and composition Radu. Excellent capture and post process work to create an eye appealing work of art.

This is what you said, and you did not address the many positive comments about the photo, all of which had more substance than your comment about the photo in your last sentence.

 

If you're truly interested in learning about becoming a better photographer, one way would be to consider spending less time putting others down for negative comments and instead reading carefully the positive comments, considering the substantive things they say (which don't just throw around hollow terms like beauty without further description), and looking yourself for your own more meaty descriptions of what it is exactly that makes a photo "beautiful" to you.

 

Like I said, absent the context in which you received this supposed email and not knowing who the email was from, I put no credence in your interpretation of what was said.

 

You may critique any way you like. I have always critiqued both positively and negatively and gone into detail, when I care about a photo enough. Very rarely do I limit myself to just praise or disdain. I try to say why. Even when I was a beginner and knew my photos weren't as good as some I was critiquing, I still felt comfortable saying negative things if I saw things I thought could be improved. My eye was often ahead of my own photographic skill. Getting into conversations with better photographers helped me to learn and they appreciated my not always fawning over them, so they engaged me on much more than a superficial level and that was part of how I learned and improved.

Sherry, I notice that you edited your last post to include a more descriptive and thoughtful comment on Radu's photo. I was responding to the first iteration of that post, which was a simple one-sentence praise. I very much appreciate your more considered comment.