The annual Indian Pipe hunt.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Around this time every year this neat little plant starts sprouting up in many places at the family cottage. The kids love hunting for them and they make it a friendly competition between themselves to see who can find the most. Fun times:) They are always found in dark, damp areas, and most of the time it takes some physical removal/displacement of the leaves around them to make the surroundings less distracting for worthwhile photographs.

Canon 40D + Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 @ 75mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/30s., f/8, ISO 800, -0.3 EC, handheld (lying flat on the forest floor with elbows braced to the ground), on-board fill-flash at -2 FEC, full-frame.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_IndianPipe_6912-01.jpg

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Daniel,
Sounds like a great time! I think you were on the right track with the clean up but it may have helped you to also place some darker leaves in the upper part of the BG. I generally prefer more DOF......as the bases are falling off....but perhaps it was the shooting angle? Great technique for HH at 1/30 sec.......but I highly recommend the tripod.....or even just the ballhead on the ground next time out. Light looks fantastic! I will offer you this tip...I spend more time cleaning the area most of the time.....than actually taking the picture! I'm not saying make it sterile.....but i would pluck the pine needles? out from between the leaves as well as the ones at the upper part of frame. Yes....you can patch/clone.....I know you would prefer it in camera as I would.

[Bob Miller]

HI Dan...You might consider cropping just a bit off the top to remove the light area .

[Julie Kenward]

I like Roman's critique and also think a slight crop off the top would help. These images are so hard to get right but I think you've come really close. Agree that the DOF on the stems could be better.

I find when I have a really distracting BG like this it helps to smooth out the tones so they are more "middle ground" then having some really light and other areas really dark. I'd suggest pulling up the shadows in the ULC and pulling down the brightness on the left middle leaf and seeing if the BG doesn't fall away more if it's all closer to the midtones.

Very interesting image, though! I'd love to find something like this in the woods...

[Paul Lagasi]

Hey Dan how goes it?...nice image, haven't seen this species of plant around, yet. I've been working on macro for a few months now..its habit forming..The white flowers tops are sharp, well done

[Anita Bower]

I think you got good detail in the whites of these little plants. I've found them most difficult to photograph. How did you get them so clean? Others have made some good suggestions. Thanks for sharing.