Marsh marigolds

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod canon 50D Canon 180mm macro ISO 100 1/13 sec f11
Well spring finally sprung, this is one of the plants on my garden pond, the frogs have been busy newts are active and I have had a couple of mallards on the pond but Barney isn't too keen on that so they don't stay around for too long. Maybe next week or the week after damsels and dragons will emerge - can't wait!

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Jonathon, Nice colors and I am glad Spring has sprung for you! My eye is drawn by the floating material in lower right below the flowers - could clone that out. Might also try a move off center or more of a vertical. Still a fine shot as is.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Allen, I noticed the ghostly material in the pond and took the decision to leave it visible to help demonstrate the aquatic environment. Thanks for raising the issue, I appreciate the point you make but for me I think it "belongs" there.

[Anita Bower]

Jonathan: You did a fabulous job capturing the details of these Marsh Marigolds. Beautiful detail in the petals and the centers. Wow. There are a couple of spots I might have cloned out, but they are minor. I agree with Allen that the stuff in the pond is distracting, especially the dark areas to the right of the flowers, and white stuff to the lower right. To show the aquatic environment, perhaps having the pond in focus would work better as it would leave no doubt about the intent of the image. To me, this photo is all about the flowers, not the pond. I find yellow to be a most challenging color to photograph, and you did a great job.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jon. Good to see spring is happening somewhere - just not where I live - maybe next week the ice on the lakes will actually melt and some of the early flowers like these will start to grow. Excellent sharpness and good job handling the yellows - I agree with Anita - yellows are tough! Here's another vote to at least tone down the background "blobs" on the right side as they, IMO, unnecessarily draw my eye away from the flowers. The background on the left side still shows the aquatic environment without being distracting. Bottom line: it's all a matter of taste. :S3:

[Diane Miller]

I like the OOF stuff on the pond surface. Gives some context.

I wonder if you could teaase a little more detail out of the yellows?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks everyone, glad you thought it was OK, I checked the yellows in the raw conversion and the stigmas were desaturated -8 in Photoshop.