Pink Cyclamen

[Anita Bower]

My favorite photo subject is flowers. I cut a flower from a Cyclamen plant growing on my windowsill and placed it in front of black velvet. I used white foamboard as reflectors below and to the left, with window light coming in from the right.
Konica Minolta 5D, 100mm macro lens, f32, 2.5 sec., ISO 200, tripod, natural light, daylight WB, manual exposure and focus, RAW. Post processing using PS7-levels, curves, contrast, saturation, selective color. Slight cropping.

Anita Bower

[Julie Kenward]

Beautifully done, Anita! Part of me wants to see the whole flower but the other part of me loves the crop/composition you've chosen. The lighting is dreamy yet everything is in focus and there's plenty of detail. I really like that you went outside the box and made the light work for you. Nicely done!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, nice sharp details this time. The f32 worked out well. Good light and I like the comp.

[Anita Bower]

Thanks, Jules and Mike! Like Jules, part of me wishes the rest of the lower petal was in the image, but.... I didn't crop it out. My only cropping was to take some off the right side.

Anita

[denise ippolito]

Anita, I think you did a good job w/ the lighting-I love cyclamen and think you presented it well. It is difficult to figure the right angle to shoot them at. I'd love to see you explore other angles for this -would make for an interesting series!

[Anita Bower]

Thanks, Denise. I do have other shots, which I might post.

Anita

[Ed Vatza]

Hi Anita,

I really like the image here. The details are good. The crop looks fine to me. The colors are luscious. I tend to like looking at the color of a flower against a black background. And there is a wonderful flow here.

Now if I may say so, the flower looks strange to me. I guess I just never really looked closely at a Cyclamen flower before. So I will say beautiful image while reserving judgment on the flower. ;)

And I remember reading that your favorite subjects are flowers. I just got a new book for Christmas that looks really interesting (I haven't started to read it yet so it could still turn out to be a dud. I'll let you know.). It is called "Macro Photography for Gardeners and Nature Lovers" by Alan L. Detrick. It may be a good follow-up to Mike Moats' book!

[Anita Bower]

Ed:

I appreciate your input!

One of the things I love about macro photography is the new world it opens up to me. The weird shape of this flower is one such magic discovery for me. We almost never look at a Cyclamen flower alone, or from this point of view. I like that it looks like a cross between a jet engine and banners waving in the wind. I'm happy when my photographs show people something they haven't noticed before.

Do let me know about the book! I, too, got a photo book for Solstice, "Fine Art Flower Photography" by Tony Sweet. It is put together something like Mike's book--with photos on one page and descriptions of how he took the photo on the other. I like it!

Anita :-)

[Ed Vatza]

I like that it looks like a cross between a jet engine and banners waving in the wind.

That is a perfect description, Anita,


I, too, got a photo book for Solstice, "Fine Art Flower Photography" by Tony Sweet. It is put together something like Mike's book--with photos on one page and descriptions of how he took the photo on the other. I like it!

With total respect for the excellent photographers here, Tony Sweet is probably my favorite. I love his work. have three of his books, a DVD of his and hope to attend one of his workshops sometime soon.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Anita,
I like it as presented...well done...:cool: