Swirling Around

[Julie Kenward]

A sequel to "Skimming Along" this is another leaf on the same day. If Anita found the last one "too busy" she's going to have a fit over this one. :D I like it, though...I love the way the water tiptoes onto the leaf and how lost the leaf gets if you don't look for it.

Canon 40D, EF 400mm f5/6L
f9 @ 1/200th, ISO 400
Manual mode, pattern metering, handheld
Natural light, crouching down to get even with water
Processed in ACR & CS4; small crop, curves adj, surface blur, high pass filter sharpening

[Jay Sheinfield]

Yup, this one does at first seem busy, but then my eye settles in on the leaf with a just a wash of color surrounding it. I like that its pointed at the viewer. My taste would have been to zoom in on the leaf and capture all the tones and textures of the water where the leaf is partially submerged. Then I'm a close-up guy.....:DIt's still pretty to just gaze at.

[Dave Leroy]

It certainly does have a swirling around look to it.

I like the hard metallic look of the water surface. It goes well with the lack of a lot of colour.

On the other hand a bit more yellow or orange in the leaf may look all right also.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jules. I like what you are trying to do with these leaves and I liked your previous post - a lot, but this one is not working as well for me. I think part of it is the overall "busyness" but also all the whitish colors in the water are pulling my eye from the similarly colored leaf. A tighter crop eliminating some of the white might (?) be an improvement. Of course, everyone has their own tastes with images like this so it will be interesting to hear from some other folks. :) :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jules,
I prefer the previous one too....because of the business. I do find Dave's suggestions on more color intriguing......and jacking some colors selectively may be the way to go.....but as always....very subjective! Very cool concept though and I will be looking to explore them myself!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Jules, I really like the look you're getting with the water on these shots! Here's another vote for a preference of Skimming Along. This one is interesting but I think I might like it better without the leaf, concentrating on finding patterns in the cool reflections. :cool:

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Jules, Personally I prefer "Skimming Along" too since that one is less busy. That said, I do like the feel of this one quite a bit. It has a very nice comp and flow. :)

[Mike Moats]

Awesome shot Jules, Love the abstracts in the water.

[Anita Bower]

Looks like you are having fun! Wonderful!!

My concern in both images is that the leaf gets lost amidst the stunning water colors and patterns. My suggestion for this one is the same as for the previous one--crop a bit, this time to place leaf more in a ROT position. I think that would draw the eye to the leaf.

Looking forward to more of these! Or, anything else. :)

[Andrew McLachlan]

Julie, I really like this image. Although it does at first appear busy I still think it works very well. Ken's suggestion about images of just the water would also be very cool to try. nice work!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Jules, good to see that you're still at shooting leaves in the water! I also vote for the former one. My reason is that the leaf seems to create concentric circles in the water. In this image, you are cutting them with the edge of the frame, while in the former image you have a perfect circel around the leaf, creating a much stronger image. As already mentioned above, this one has some strong points to, my favorites being the leaf pointing towards us from the UL corner and that great metallic look of the water.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Jules....I have not seen your previous post but i know I like this alot.....it certainly has a swirling feel to me!