Bluets

[Christopher Miller]

These little flowers are one of the first wildflowers to bloom around here. Any comments and suggestions would be most appreciated.

Olympus SP-550 UZ
f3.5 @ 1/160, ISO 100
Aperture priority mode, pattern metering, auto WB, natural light
Processed in PS CS2; cropped, curves adjustment, slight saturation boost, noise reduction, and some cloning to remove a few partial flowers and smooth the BG

[denise ippolito]

Christopher, I like the graduated focus and the soft BG color. Is the blue on the edges part of the original flower? It's a very cute small flower and I like the way you presented it.

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Denise. I've noticed that the flowers will often have a very slight blue tone around the edges. However, I did notice some chromatic aberration too, so some of it might be that.

[denise ippolito]

I was wondering because of the name.

[Christopher Miller]

I've wondered about that too, Denise. Looking them up on the internet, it appears they come in both blue and white kinds. Practically all the ones around here are white, though some are more of a light blue color.

[Ken Childs]

Christopher, I like this for the same reasons that Denise already mentioned.

As far as the name is concerned, I've never been able figure out why all Houstonia sp. are called Bluets. If most were blue, this would make sense but there are pink, purple, blue and white species and there's lots of variation in color in each species.

[Julie Kenward]

Wonderful and inventive comp, Christopher. I love the choice of DOF here and the way they come right down the "tube" at you! Each one has it's own place and fills a nice space in the frame. Only suggestion I can think of would be to try stopping down the aperture a few more times and see if any of those turn out any better than this one.

[Anita Bower]

Nice work. These little flowers are so tiny and difficult to photograph. I very much like the composition and dof. The bg nicely complements the flowers. The Bluets around here are blue and white.

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks very much, Ken, Jules, and Anita. I appreciate the kind comments.

[Vida van der Walt]

Great comp and arrangement of flowers Christopher. Lovely colours and great dof.:)

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Vida! :)