ransford

Thank you for affirming my intentions. Good to hear from you after a long silence. Perhaps you, like me, are returning to post some new work, which is so often quite original and always thoughtful in your case.

Mixed this up with another picture. This is a nectarine blossom, NOT a camelia. Still interested in comments, however.

Sorry for title. Comments welcome

Sorry for the awful title, but it's mnemonic for me. Comments welcome

I've been away from Phtoto.Net for awhile and just came back and saw this image again. I'm still fascinated by it and I like this version best. Have you printed it in a large size? I think it would be great about three feet high. I'd put it on my wall, for sure.

Ransford

The longer I look at this the better I like it. Beautifully cropped with the lines, including the hand, perfectly balanced. The desaturation of the hand is quite fascinating. Usually the hand would command our attention but I find my attention drawn to the red of the accordian. I wonder whether the desaturation is symbolic or aesthetic, or both?

Yes, this was once a white camelia, very pretty..too pretty. So I cropped it and channel mixed it and blended until it was a little more exciting, to me at least.Photoshop haters will be horrified, of course.

I obsessed over this blossom from my backyard. It was charming and delicate, but as I worked on it, I kept looking for strength and finally altered it drastically in Photoshop, even adding noise at the end to what had already become noisy. I used every imaginable device in PS...the image kept telling me it wanted more. For the moment, I'm happy with it, but I realize this is not for everyone.

Just amazing this has not had a comment. You know how I like flowers, especially some with backlighting and an unusual crop.

It was good to hear from you recently. I have not posted much in recent months, other stuff has occupied me; but I plan to put my heart back into photography.

Meanwhile, I hope to see more of your work and read more of your thoughts since both are topnotch.

Ransford

Well worth revisiting. Wonderful colors on the grapes.

The only problem I have with the first version is that my eye is constantly drawn to the grasses, to the loss of the ducks. I like both, but I find this one judiciously sentimental.

On a second look, the sky looks fine. The tree still looks magnificent. Surprised you didn't get more comment on this.

 

Hard to comment without seeing original, but it certainly doesn't look flat to me, in fact, the flower seems to me to 'breathe,' largely due to the lighting.

Mariellen, I love this image, would like to see it large...how large I'm not sure...large enough to get lost in it but maybe not so large that I might begin to understand it. The colors and lighting are so impressive that it looks like you set it up with a myriad of lights. Do you think they have things like this on Mars?

I'm back, I think. a few months with no pictures. Now I'm trying to look at my portfolio and see it with a fresh eye and hopefully move to a higher level.

Ransford

An exceptional photo. My eye is drawn like a magnet to the white pup, and then I drift through the rest and then back to the left. This ought to win a prize somewhere. Love it!...Ransford

Comments welcome

Comments welcome

Thanks for your encouragement. I envisioned a sequence of three from this shoot and here it is (Also uploaded to webpage.)

My granddaughter, Sabine, who will turn two at the end of November. I haven't done photography for awhile, became wrapped up in other creative activities.

Wonderful scene. I like the atmospheric distances. I see another way to do this one. Cutting off 20% of the left part would emphasize the natural diagonals from upper left to lower right (my favoriate diagonals). Your crop shows a central thrust upward, which is probably appropriate to the church or monastery, assuming one or the other, rising heavenward. Whatever, it's great just as it is.

No white line on mine.

Your comment is intriguing. Of course, it could be taken as favorable or unfavorable, but I think that some of my B&Ws echo the lighting and tonality of that period of cinema, especially film noir. Even though that was before my time, I was impressed by their visions. For the 40s I think John Wayne and the 50s was a cultural desert. For color, I think of painting, not cinema, with a few exceptions.

I use the word 'delightful' with the best intentions (it may sound too bland). I think it marvelous that you have captured the feel so many of us look for in above-ground forests.

Thanks for comment on my driftwood study.

comments welcome

The lady bug is perfect, the focus in the image works well, the color of the flower is terrific. Again, you have put the focus near the center yet everything is balanced. You have mastered the 3-dimensional close-up. (I must note that I am not a good judge in this regard since I lack stereoscopic vision)

Ransford

This seemed to come out darker on the Web than my original, but I agree that it needs lightening.