Climbing Drosera

[Jerry van Dijk]

A climbing type of Drosera from Western Australia. I liked how it caught the light in the undergrowth. Tough image to get, we were in the shadow of a mountain ridge, hiking without tripod, so I had to shoot with high ISO. I kept the dark green stem because I thought it added a little interest to an otherwise empty image.

D7000, Nikkor 200mm Micro, handheld, ISO-1000, f/11, 1/1600 sec, -2EV.
ACR6.3 Cropped for composition, sharpness, NR, exposure
CS5 NR on BG.

[Randy Stout]

Jerry:

The Drosera is very interesting, with fun lighting. Noise seems well controlled at this small size.

I appreciate leaving the steam, but if the IQ will allow, I could certainly see several different crops here, even including a horizontal version.

I am still training my eye to see small jewels like this, and not just walk by looking for birds and big stuff!

Cheers

Randy

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Randy, IQ isn't that great because of the high ISO, so my options are a bit limited. I tried a horizontal crop, but that centered the "flower" too much and I had no room left to change that.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I really like this one the lighting is beautiful. I know the image is of the flower head but for some reason the OOF stem keeps drawing my attention, strangely enough the dark green one doesn't trouble me but the yellow one, if only the top bit was as slightly out of focus as the bottom bit.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Jerry,
Very interesting plant. Sounds like you did well to catch this and I like the placement in the frame. Tough call about the stems - they do give the image a bit of balance.

Allen

[Dave Johnson]

Nice bkr, light and subject which were captured well in tough conditions. The stems add to the image imo, but the gradual blurring of the light green stem towards the top is a little distracting as it pulls my eye from the flower. That's my only nit and apart from that I like it. TFS

[vishaljadhav]

Nice one, we get 2 varieties of this in here but very difficult to locate, let alone to photograph
you have done well here

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks everyone! I think a major problem is that we're looking at the back of the 'flower', with the OOF stem pointing towards us, giving an eerie effect (comparable with an off HA on a bird). I'll play around a bit with different crops some more, but the IQ at closer crops leaves much to be desired.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jerry. Sundews are very cool little carnivorous plants - the ones we have here are usually tucked away among sphagnum mosses and are difficult to spot. I like the comp, the clean background, and the lighting that makes all the "sticky drops" sparkle. The issue I have with the image is DOF. My eye travels around the sundew looking for something sharp to visually grab onto - and there are a few droplets that are quite sharp, but most are soft. Granted, this is not an easy subject to fit into a narrow DOF - I think if the central green area was sharp throughout it would help. At a ss of 1/1600 you would have been able to shoot at 1/800 and f/16 and still hand hold. Backing a few inches father away from the subject would also have increased DOF - I expect you already know this so this is mostly for folks who are still learning macro tricks of the trade. :S3:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Steve, I completely agree with your analysis. If I recall correctly, my settings were for BIF and I forgot to change them for this macro shot. Oops!
Here in Europe, we also only get the short version, usually growing in bogs. This particular Australian species is a real climber, which needs other plants for support. It can grow to lengths of over a meter and also occurs also in dry ecosystems. It's a different world out there when it comes to nature.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jerry,
Been away so a bit late.....but Steve caught my suggestions! If you throw a 20mm tube in the pack....no real weight.....you can drop the SS to even 1/250 with that setup and probably get great results unless it was very windy. I do see your explanation....so just keep that in mind for next time out.