Milkweed

[Julie Kenward]

I found this milkweed plant while cleaning up my fenceline. That pretty much caused the rake and shears to get set down so I could pick up the camera...

Well...you know how it is.

Canon 40D, 100mm f2.8 Macro USM
f5.6 @ 1/80th, ISO 200
Manual mode, pattern metering
Handheld, cloudy skies
Processed in ACR & CS4. Small crop, levels and contrast adjustments. Put a diffused glow over the "fuzz" and masked off the rest of the milkweed pod. Cloned out a distracting piece of leaf from the FG.

[Ed Vatza]

Hi Jules,

Don't want you to think that I've forgotten the macro/flora board. ;)

I love milkweed pods and think they make wonderful subjects but this one seems to get lost in the background. I find myself having to work too hard to pull the pod out of the surroundings. When I do, the pod looks good but then I lose it again and have to start over.

[Stu Bowie]

Superb detail in this Julie, very well spotted and captured.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Jules,
I love the softness of the feathery bits - makes me want to bury my face in it...
I hope the BeeP is pulling his weight with the raking!!!
Regards,
Nicki

[John Wilkerson]

I like the somewhat muted colors. As far as the pod getting lost I do see where it could. Maybe a bit more depth of field could have sharpened the far side of the pod and still dropped the background out thus
adding a bit more separation. And then maybe the pod isn't meant to be the object of attention.
Thanks for sharing.



www.wilkersonphotography.com

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Liked this image Julie. Suits my taste buds. Just the apt DOF IMO.
Might increase the saturation on the milkweed plant - the greens especially just to make it pop a bit amongst the surrounding subtle colours.