eddiem

Very nice all around, seconding the others--composition, light, dof, color.

 

Good work.

I think the light rays coming down in the sky and the two flowers in the right foreground, one pointing about 1:30 and the other near 3:00 right lower bottom really add strength to the composition.

 

Nice color throughout also.

 

 

I think the color is quite dramatic and the the light overall is good.

It could be sharper, either dof or shutter speed.

Nicer overall.

Good placement of the snake and the snake's tracks relative to the whole, and the inclusion of the other tracks all highlighete from the top left make it quite interesting.

 

Good work!

Nice composition foreground to back and left to right.

Eye is tack sharp.

Very nice

Hi,

I'm learning too--

What are you using? I have a sigma 17-85 with macro, not a dedicated macro, and have found it quite a challenge to get the dof and clarity of some other posters.

Manual focus seems to work better than than auto for me with bugs.

One useful exercise is to set up a static test of dof at various f stops using a ruler just so you know what you've got at a given distance from subject.

Then also with bugs, you may need some pretty fast shutter, too.

 

Good luck.

 

Ed

This was at Key West, where there are in the summer lots of street

performers. This guy had two trained house cats and did an entire Lion

Tamer type show, starting with sitting up on bar stools, turning

around only on their hind feet, etc. This was the climax of the show.

Lucky shot; I had just had my camera a year and was learning how to

shoot b&w.

I like the black and white grain, but to me it looks a little posed, and I think I would place the boy to the right a bit in the picture, particularly if he's about to do something to the left, like go down a slide. (I don't know the whole theory but in general, draw a tic tac toe grid across any picture and put your subject at one of the intersections instead of centered, like the boy is)

Thanks for the identification go to

 

BILL HILTON JR., Executive Director

Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History

1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA

hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

I thought this was an effective use of fill flash. I didn't try manually setting the shutter speed higher, though I believe the 950 syncs all the way up its range.

I would try aligning it using the rule of thirds to see if that makes it more interesting, and maybe trying to get a little more depth of field. Also, different angle or crop to get the yellow flower above it out of the picture.

I took one very similar to this one but cropped tighter and I still wasn't happy with it, I'm afraid.

It's called "Bullseye" and is in my uploaded photo. Looks like exactly the same kind of flower.

 

I think if you took the same subject and tried a little more light from the left, and framing so she was along the left one-third line, those two things would make the same photo more interesting, more balanced.

I like the opposing diagonals of the red flowers and the white in the background.

I think a little more depth of field on the main flower would help.

Great colors.

You did a great job with the timing. It looks though, like either you were a little off on the focus or you need a faster shutter speed. This would really pop if his eyes were tack sharp.

You really captured the light in this one.

The bit of snow in the left distracted me a bit. maybe crop that out.

I like the movement created by the range of colors and masses.

The man's expression makes this work, and the perceived relationship to some type of outdoor work.

I would second the comment about not knowing it was for a wedding. Bubbles (champagne) might be something to try. Seltzer is cheaper and would also work.

Yeah, at the risk of copping out, I'd say it's at least partly an issue with the Coolpix 950. There are only three or four aperture settings and they're not easily set, at least not like with an SLR. This photo was hand held on full auto. I should try tripodding it and working harder on utilizing the higher aperture numbers.

 

Thanks