Molten snowcone

[Jerry van Dijk]

Finally all the snow is melting and we can ride our bike again in the street. I recently posted a picture of an 'azalea snowcone', which also melted. The sun just highlighted the melting snow and again I was struck by the simple beauty of the leaves carrying the snow like a goblet.

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 25 mm (150 mm eq.), Suntec 4+ closeup lens, ISO-100, F/3.6, 1/800 sec, EC 0, pattern metering, aperture priority, RAW.
RAW processing in Silkypix, PP in Corel Photopaint. Minor tweaks on levels and sharpness. Slight CCW rotation and cropped for composition.

[Julie Kenward]

Another lovely image, Jerry, but it feels a tiny bit dark. I opened up a levels adjustment in CS4 and moved the midtones slider from 1.0 to 1.20 - I think it brings out a little more detail in the plant.

Nice, strong composition - not too much or too little room around the frame. I don't think you could have exposed for the "snowcone" any better than you did! Would be nice if the front leaves of the plant were also in focus but not critical here as the snowcone is the focal point! Good details in the stem area.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jerry very cool comp and subject. Like the lighter version Jules posted. Good detials and BG.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi all, thanks for your response. Jules, that looks much better! I'm on another monitor now and see that the image indeed is quite dark. On the monitor I did my editing on, it looks much more like your version! I took some more images with smaller aperture, getting more focus on the leaves, but I liked the composition on this one better. If I can find the time, I may post another one later.

[Aidan Briggs]

I like the melting ice, and composition. I might have gone for a tad more DOF. Jules repost looks good here.

[Vida van der Walt]

Love your snow cone images Jerry. Another great image and I like the comp and fall of light. On my monitor the darker image is more dramatic and I like the contrast between light and dark.:)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Aidan and Vida! The differences between the two versions seem to fall within the range of differences between monitors. I'm back on my original monitor now and hardly can tell the difference!