Zulu Giant Cactus Strange Looking Plant...

[Charles Wesley]

Thank God it's spring again. Glad to see flowers in bloom. Got to photograph my neighbor's cactus . It has a most unusual pattern. It's shaped like a star fish and very asymmetric. Probably should have not used a flash.

Canon EOS- 1D, Canon EF 100- 400 f/4.5-5.6 L zoom, 550 EX flash and Bogen tripod.

DPP 3.8
PS/ CS4
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Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

[Cheryl Flory]

what a great sense of depth to this! almost feel like you are falling into it!
wonder what it would look like if you used a very small flash light only on the blossom.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Very interesting plant, Charles, I've never seen anything like it!
I would consider rotating a bit CW, so that everthing is level (althoug the center will be off). Image is a bit dark to my taste and I might consider adjusting WB. A tad more DOF would also be nice, but that would reduce the nice sense of depth that Cheryl mentions. Her suggestion for using a flashlight sounds like a great idea!

[Charissa]

Interesting shot Charles. I have the same flowers in my garden, from some mini cactus plants. Some flies love to lie their eggs in the middle of the flower, and if u wait a while, u will see dozens of white larvae crawling around right in the middle of some of them.
Like the lines of the shot, and the insect adds interest. Nice shot.

[Julie Kenward]

That is one incredible image, Charles! I do feel like I'm falling into it - neat perspective! You can tell that you were just a bit closer to the top of the plant than the bottom - if you get to go back really aim for dead center and see what happens. I wonder what this would look like with a fish eye or wide angle lens???

[Anita Bower]

Like others, I feel the depth of this flower. Wonderful. I'd like to have the center a bit lighter to I can see what is going on in there, but maybe the mystery is better.

[Charles Wesley]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. This cactus was a challenge. All petals where pointing in awkward directions. Wish I had a better specimen but that's the challenge in our forum. Took a course from Rod Planck
http://rodplanck.com/gallery.htm years ago. He would not take any floral image unless the plant was pristine.

Believe me his images show it...
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Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

[Anita Bower]

[quote=Charles Wesley;483338] Took a course from Rod Planck
http://rodplanck.com/gallery.htm years ago. He would not take any floral image unless the plant was pristine.

Believe me his images show it...
[quote]
Thanks for the reference to Rod Planck. I wasn't familiar with his work.

[Charles Wesley]

Anita,

Hope you enjoy Rod's site. He's a most excellent naturalist and a well accomplished photographer. He really loves Michigan...
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Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com