Greater burdock flowers

[Jerry van Dijk]

Greater burdock (Arctium lappa) is a common weed here in the Netherlands, and apparently also in Denmark, where I took this photo in a roadverge. I was actually shooting the butterflies that were visiting these flowers, but I was struck by the simple beauty of them (and the butterflies refused to sit still in a nice pose anyway :p). The hooks on the spikes work like velcro: the fruits stick to animal fur. This is how the seeds get transported. Image quality suffered considerably from resampling to meet the posting rules.

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 18 mm (108 mm eq.), ISO-100, F/3.6, 1/400 sec, EC -0.47, pattern metering, aperture priority, RAW.
RAW processing in Silkypix, PP in Corel Photopaint. Minor tweaks on EC, saturation and sharpness. Full frame.

[Julie Kenward]

These look like a cousin to a plant we have here in the states called Thistle. I do like your image - the way the light is hitting the top is very nice. I wish the BG were a bit more uniform in color and tone all the way around but I still like the image - especially the way you repeated the flower in the BG. Neat to see something new! Keep 'em coming, Jerry!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jerry, like the comp with the two, and like the DOF between the front and back one. I agree the white highlights in the BG needs to be toned down, or maybe clone some of the green into those areas.

[Vida van der Walt]

Great image Jerry. You captured the detail perfectly and the angle placed that 2nd flower (fruit?) at exactly the right spot for a great comp. Love the burgundy/green combination as well and ditto the light fall.:)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for your comments and advice. I'm not a PP expert, but I'm guessing selecting the BG to selectively tone down those highlights will be nearly impossible with all those spikes. Any tips?
Jules, you seem to have a good eye for plant taxonomy. Both thistles and burdocks are in the same family, that of the Compositae (composite flowers), a large family to which also includes flowers like dandelions and daisies. When you see the whole plant, however, the difference between burdocks and thistles is immediately clear: burdocks have completely thornless leaves.

[Anita Bower]

I think you just helped me identify a plant growing in my meadow! Thanks! It is currently dry, but I will check it out in the summer when in flower.

Nice details on this front flower! Nice angle of view with the second flower blurred in the BG. I like how the light highlights the lovely purple and lavender center.

I worked a bit on darkening the BG in the upper right. I used clone set at 30 to 60, depending on the area. :)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Anita, thank you for editing my image! I think it makes a huge differnce, creating a much calmer BG. It also made me think that applying vignetting to the image may also help a lot. It will not only affect the corner you worked on, but also the LL and LR where there's also a little too much going on.
Looking forward to your images from the meadow.