Deptford Pink

[Ed Vatza]

My wife and I went out to do a bit a birding this morning. So I left my macro bag behind and brought along my heavier artillery (but just a pop gun compared to what many of the folks here use! :(:)). After spending some time walking through a meadow, seeing birds but nothing worth photographing, we decided to head back to the car. Along the trail, I suddenly notice a small bit of pink/purple among all the usual suspects. Clearing away some of the brush, I found one solitary Deptford Pink plant. So I went to work.

I kept the 400mm f/5.6L on the 30D. I added to 500D close-up lens. I replaced the Better Beamer on the 580 EX II with a Sto-Fen Omnibounce diffuser and mounted everything on my tripod. Here is what I came up with. It is different than I what I have been recently posting so I am interested in hearing your thoughts.

By the way, I seriously considered nipping out the buds behind the flowers but decided against it since they to have the right to bloom. And the insect is gratis! ;)

1/30 sec at f/16; ISO 400; 0 EV; FEC -1

[Steve Foss]

Ed, that would have been my dilemma too. Better comp without them, tighter ethics with them. No right answer. Life is like that, eh?

One possibility would have been to use a couple dead sticks/branches to bend the buds out of the frame and hold them there. I've done that a time or two.

The purple in these flowers is stunningly rich. I have never seen one before but would love to photograph one. This is a sweet statement of purples and greens.

Is the narrow deeper purple border around the blooms natural or an effect from the 500D? I've never used a 500D before so have no experience there.

[Julie Kenward]

I am mad about dark purple and deep green together so this is already hitting all the right buttons with me. I am glad you chose to leave the other buds in - I think they give it a more natural and 3-D appearance but the one stem behind the back bud bothers me a little. The only other thing I've been wondering about as I look at this is what this would look like in a more vertical composition? I like the square comp but feel like a little of the stem area might be missing because you have so much going UP from the flower (those back buds) but hardly anything below it. Just a suggestion...:)

[Ed Vatza]

Thanks Steve. Thanks Julie.

Steve, I noticed the purple border after I originally PP'ed the image. I thought it was a sharpening halo and went back to the original but found it there also straight out of the camera. An artifact of the 500D? I don't think so. At least I have never noticed it before. I started over and PP'ed the image four times and each time it remained. I think it is the flower as strange as that may sound.

Julie, I considered going vert especially after my experience yesterday of making 220 vertical images out of about 250 total. But I wanted to capture the buds in the background in varying stages of development. So I chose to go horizontal instead.

But I will post more verts. I promise! :D

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for putting it through its paces for me, Ed.

The reason it caught my eye is that it only appears on the upper and right-hand portions of the flower. My immediate thoughts were that it was an effect from the 500D or a shadow/highlight or other halo, but none of those seem to be the case. I've used the 30D and 400 f5.6L with a full set of extension tubes in similar situations with purple flowers and never got that, so that's why I wondered about the 500D.

At any rate, it doesn't really matter much. I really like that image, and I'm with Julie on the colors. Emerald green is my favorite color, and purple used to be. Need I say more?

[Bill Whitney]

Ed....nicely done. Wonderful colors. I think leaving in the buds was the right choice....adds just a bit more interest and depth. I had the reverse problem....I knew the Wood lilies were out and that was what I was going after......I get to the top of our hill and my wife says there were a pair of cedar wax wings on a snag I had left and then a red bellied woodpecker. That's life. You made a nice transition from bird mode to flora here.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ed,
I do like the transitions between the FG flower focus and the varying degrees of focus falloff. Most of the stems not bothersome......but agree with Julie that the one behind the last bud is a bit. Glad to see you thinking Vert too!