Mrs. C's Peonies

[Julie Kenward]

I lived next door to Mrs. Cooney for most of my life and always envied her gardening skills. After she passed away I inherited new neighbors who recently saw me oogling their inherited pink peonies so they cut me off a handful and told me to shoot away. How could I refuse?

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
ISO 400, intermittent sun/shade
f/7.1 @ 1/200
Handheld, AWB, Eval Metering

[Robert O'Toole]

I like it. The light is nice and soft and the colors are attractive. Wish I could see more of the petals and some of the highlights are overly bright and lacking detail but the image is sucessful overall.

Robert

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Julie,
I do like the placement of the stamen and light.............in this case agree with Robert............ more DOF is appropriate!

[Ed Vatza]

... more DOF is appropriate!

Or less. :) My first thought is that the image is kind of in the middle. Either it needed more depth of field and sharpness or less leaning toward the abstract. I'd almost prefer the latter but that's me. I think it has the makings of a wonderful abstract. Reminds me of the flower images in the Anne Laird article in Outdoor Photographer of a couple of months back.

Now as for the peony. How come no ants. My mother has had peonies in her back yard for like 50 years (as long as I can remember!). She always told me the ants tickle the flowers open. :) And there are always ants on the flowers. So where are the ants? ;)

[Mike Moats]

Hey Julie, I like the comp and don't mind the highlights. It has a nice soft looks which works for me. If I woud change anything it would be a little more sharpness in the stamen area.

[Julie Kenward]

Robert & Roman: I did venture out of my normal f/2.8-4.0 "zone of comfort" with some of these shots and Ed is right - a few made for some good abstracts (or will once I get them finished.)

I was really trying to use this set to find a way to balance my lighting better (as I still have no reflector and only an on-camera flash.) This was one of the images where the stamen were not over or under exposed and that's why I chose this one for the forum. Believe me...those stamen were a royal PAIN. I'll try scooting past that f/8 mark next...

Ed: As for the ants...they are off the flowers and running down my kitchen cabinets. :eek:

[John Cooper]

I quite like your composition here Julie - love the soft light and tones.
This flower is almost indistinguishable from my Camelia sasanqua - I will post one next for comparison!!