Moccasin Flower (AKA Pink Lady's Slipper)

[Daniel Cadieux]

While walking around at the folks' cottage I stumbled upon a pair of these gorgeous flowers. A nice surprise for sure! After taking a few "traditional" images I then slapped on a 36mm extension tube to work in-close.

Canon 40D + Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 @48mm + 36mm extension tube, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/100s., f/8, ISO 640, -0.3 EC, natural light, handheld, full frame.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_MoccasinFlower_3673-01.jpg

[Julie Kenward]

Daniel, good to see you here! I'm trying to decide if I want a tighter crop or a looser one. I think you could take the section at the top off and some off the bottom and have a really tight close crop or you could back up just a bit and give the top edge of the flower a little more room in the frame and have a looser crop....I think both would work.

I can't get over how much this looks like a human ear to me! Am I the only one? :eek::D:eek:

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Daniel,
I think you have a very unusual presentation of the lady slipper and a very strong comp. I too felt it needed a crop off the top.....but just a hair! I think the main issue was the brigtness of the bottom.....so I just lasso'd the bottom brighter area.....used a reverse s-curve layer and pulled back some with a brightness layer. This only toned down the FG area to be more harmonious with the rest. You chose a great focal point too and the shallow DOF......which I am not the biggest fan of......is perfect here. Very well done the re-post shows very minor tweaks. Let me know your thoughts and looking forward to seeing more of your images in the other forums!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Roman, Thanks for taking the time to play with my image! I like the subtle tweaks you've done. I had looked at cropping the top just as you did to give it a cleaner finish up there - your version confirms that I should have done it. The foreground area was originally even lighter than what I posted (and it was that light IRL), but toning it down does give it more "harmony". I will tone down mine but try to give it less of a "grayish" look than yours in the LLC as I prefer the delicate pinks of my original.

Julie, yes it does look like a human ear :-) I've always enjoyed a good macro session...it opens up cool stuff that you don't normally see from afar...

[Jay Gould]

Daniel, I really think it is a fun image; I hope you will forgive me for changing your image (if I have done something verboten I apologize and you as a Moderator can immediately delete my post). I just couldn't help myself. :o

I didn't see the ear; I saw a mouth, a mustache, an unshaved chin, tongue, and throat. ;):D

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Jay! No need to apologize...what you saw shows your creative thinking, I like it :-)

[Jay Gould]

Hey Jay! No need to apologize...what you saw shows your creative thinking, I like it :-)

Whew - [wiping sweat from brow]! I am glad you like it; I did not know how sensitive people are about their images and making changes. It would never bother me; however one never knows how someone else might react. It is not something I would do as a regular PP of someone's image.

:D The repost simply called out to me the moment I looked at your image. :D

Cheers Mate, Jay

PS: I just learned yesterday in my Adobe CS4 Classroom in a Book - how to do that rotation ;) .

[Stephen Stephen]

Very nice Dan. I agree with the suiggested changes. I'm hoping to photogrpah the Showy Lady Slippers at the Purdon Conservation Area this weekend.