My Botanical Brick

[Norm Dulak]

Nikon D300 w/Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 vr lens @ 150mm, tripod mounted
Indoors but natural light
ISO Equiv. 400
MM -0.67
PP: PS CS5 levels and curves; Viveza 2 to adjust some greying patches, to match the surrounding vegetation; modest cropping

Serendipity is defined as the occurrence of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Earlier this past fall I made what I think is a serendipitous discovery, as I used stones and bricks to anchor plastic sheeting over our garden flowers in anticipation of a possible freeze.

One of my bricks, as you see here, was covered with its own "micro garden", and I couldn't resist photographing it for this forum.

While there are some light circles and other marks on the brick in addition to the vegetation, I chose not to clone them out because I think they add character to the image.

What are your impressions of this image?

Norm

[Julie Kenward]

Norm, this is, indeed, serendipitous! Lovely finding!!! I very much like the DOF, the colors, and the textures in this image. My one other thought is that it feels a little off balance from a comp/crop standpoint. If you have more space, I'd zoom out just a bit and capture the bottom and top edges of the brick a little more so the green area isn't quite so close to those edge frames. If not, I'd crop some off the right side so all four sides are close for a more cohesive crop.

Very well seen! Do it again next year!!!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Norm, this is indeed a nice find and I agree that leaving the brick alone was a good idea....those patterns do add interest. If you have the canvas, I think a bit of a CW rotation and a vertical crop might look good. I'd crop from just to the left of the bigger plants, keeping the right 2/3 of the image and if the canvas is there, add a little to the top and bottom so the plants are surrounded by brick on 3 sides and the large 'outcropping' is pointing towards the LRC. Nicely spotted! :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Norm,
Cool find indeed! I think the brick adds a lot to this image in both color contrast and texture. I like Ken's idea of tightening up the comp a bit.....but it is difficult where to choose in these situations. The light was handled well and tightening up the comp will make the focal point a bit stronger.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Norm. You have some interesting subject material here and you could do some experimentation with the comp. I like both Jules' suggestion for a wider crop and Ken's suggestion for a tighter crop as I think both would make viable alternatives. :)

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks everyone for looking and commenting. :) The cropping suggestions sound good, and I'll try them to see which works best.

Norm

[Anita Bower]

A bit late to the discussion. This looks like an areal photo! Wonderful! Love the contrast between the red of the brick and the green of the plants.