Cattail?

[Ramesh Adkoli]

Found this growing in my native place, in the western part of India. In native language, we call it a name that translates to Cattail. I am not aware of the botanical or colloquial name in English. Appreciate your comments and views.

D700, 105mm VR Micro, 1/40s, f5.6, ISO 800, hand held, evening light, full frame
cloned an OOF leaf at top left, levels, curves, smart sharpening in CS3

regards,
ramesh

[Chris Starbuck]

Ramesh,
I think I've seen these (or something very similar) in our local botanical gardens (in an indoor tropical rain forest exhibit), but I don't know the scientific name either. Perhaps a botanist at a botanical garden or university near you could help.

I like your composition; the diagonal placement is nice, and there's a comfortable space around the tip at the lower left. Your hands are clearly steadier than mine - you've kept the whole length of the flower parallel to the focal plane, and placed the shallow depth of field just right to show the fine details. The light areas in the background are a little distracting; some selective darkening and/or blurring there could help, though I know from experience that's pretty difficult.

[Katherine Enns]

Hi Ramesh, I sent you a PM...its possible this is a Callestemon or relative. I need to know if the stems are woody, though.

kat

[Katherine Enns]

A look at the leaf and its very easy; Amaranthus caudatus, "Love-lies-bleeding".

All the best Ramesh, any time.

[Julie Kenward]

I love the plant in this image but find the BG to be a bit distracting to me. Even though everything is nicely OOF it all is going in different directions and that keeps tugging at my eye.

[Christopher Miller]

Love the complementary colors, Ramesh, and nice curving composition. Agree with the others on the BG, some darkening of the light areas would probably help.

[Ramesh Adkoli]

Thanks, Chris, Kat, Julie and Christopher for your views and kind words. Kat, thanks for the ID. What an expressive name for this flower! Chris, my hands are not that steady and i have spoilt many photographs by hand holding the camera, Was lucky with this one;-)

Chris, Jules, the BG is made up of the branches and leaves of this plant. I will see what i can do to tone it down.

regards,
ramesh