jeff_wallace

Many thanks to those who reviewed my last post. This is a cropped

version of the last picture. Any comments are appreciated.

This is a great photo! I really like the perspective, particularily the way the mountain starts from the upper left and pulls you into the center. Wide angles are difficult to use, but you pulled it off nicely. Would a graduated ND filter have helped tone back the sky? Maybe a 0.3? Great photo!

My wife and I spent the better part of the morning in dew soaked weeds trying to get closeups of dragon flys. We didn't get anything this nice. Nice control of DOF! Very sharp!!

I really like the composition and the colors. It is a very pleasant transition from green to yellow. Nicely done.

The slide and .tiff scan of the slide show the bug very sharply. The loss of resolution comes from the conversion to .jpg. Does anyone know how to fix this??

Thank you all for commenting on this photo. Some replies...

 

This photo was done with a fully manual Konica which my dad purchased in 1970. There is no autofocus and this shot was done with the camera in my right hand while my left hand was positioning the flower (the bug kept trying to crawl to the underside of the petal). Because of the extension tube, focusing was done by moving forward and backward (extension tubes on wide angle lenses are tricky, at best).

 

Paul: Those white areas around the bug are white flowers, although I forget what type now. I tied them back for some later photos. I was trying to make the flower seem "larger than life" by making it flow out of the frame.

 

Denise: You are correct. The flowers are what caught my eye. The bug was a nice side effect. I shot two rolls of these flowers at different angles, and with different amounts of polarization. (The photo lab was so impressed with the color saturation, they are using one of the slides as an example of what this film can do). <--Shameless plug....

 

Amy: The slide for this is as sharp as can be. The lens I was using is a prime lens from the 70's. It is an all metal, all glass beast (quite heavy, as is the all metal AutoReflex). The fuzziness was mostly due to the scanner and converting the pic to jpeg. I'm not very Photoshop savvy yet--the scanned .tiff is much sharper.

 

Thanks again to all who commented. Please check the folder to see a cropped version which focuses more on the bug vs. the flower.

I would like to see what people think of the composition and angle of

this shot. I was trying to approach this subject from an unusual

angle (i.e. not straight down on the flower). The original slide

shows much finer detail; you can see the grains of pollen on the

antannae and legs.

 

Both positive and negative criticism are greatly appreciated,

especially relating to composition, angle, etc.

 

Thanks

--Jeff

The minute I saw that blue light, I thought "Madison bus line". I enjoy your night portfolio. I'll have to contradict the comment on the camera shake. If you've ever riden these buses (especially the drunk bus on campus) you'll appreciate the shaking/blurring. It really captures the mood. Did you use any filters or flash?