Blue Flag Iris

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Beautiful flowers popping up all over Green Cay (South Florida.)

Techs:

50D, 100-400mm, f/8, 1/640sec, ISO200, 400mm, CWA, AP
No cropping and/or PS alterations.

C/C appreciated and encouraged!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Oscar, this definitely is a beautiful flower! The biggest concern with this is that there is too much in the shot that is taking attention away from that beautiful flower. Would a different angle have allowed you to capture the flower without all the other leaves and branches in the BG? If this is your plant, maybe you could have used some string to tie the other leaves out of the way or even cut the flower and move it to somewhere with a better BG.

For this shot, I would consider cropping some from the left and a small amount from the right to get the flower closer to a ROT position or maybe even cropping about 1/3 from each side so you end up with a vertical. Iris are a flower that generally look good with a vertical presentation. Keep the flower shots coming....you're way ahead of the rest of North America with your flowers and I'm looking forward to seeing what else Southern Florida has to offer. :S3:

[Dave Leroy]

A really lovely flower.

The big distraction for me are the green leaves in bg directly behind the flower. I like the idea of gently tieing or holding them down and then moving the Iris a bit off centre.

Lots of good ideas from Ken.

Dave

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Thanks for your inputs! I will crop as asked since I haven't cropped the image yet and should cause any problems. I would have loved to set up the plan a little better but they are growin in our Green Cay nature center near the boardwalk! Gettin' down there might ended up in a little alligator wrassling! :-)
In any case, there were other flowers that perhaps offered a better angle so I'll be think about that next time I go up to the nature center. Again, thanks a bunch!

Oscar

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Oscar, a very beautiful flower indeed! I do not mind to see a little of the surroundings around the flower, except for the BG stem intersecting with the iris. I would be in favor of off-centering the flower like Ken suggests, it would make a stronger composition.

[Brendan Dozier]

Very nice flower Oscar, nice colors and exp. I like some of the surrounding BG, but agree with others that it would be better if you could isolate it more.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Oscar,
BG already covered.....and since I know Green cay well......repositioning is probably only option! Light is key in most macros.....a softer diffused light generally preferred but tough many times when out in the field......although you had plenty of SS to sacrifice. Ploping the 1.4 teleconverter (if you have it) would have given a tighter view.....and don't forget to squat down a touch to see if you can isolate the iris in the BG that way! Don't forget that your pop up flash can also be useful in those situations when it is overcast.....to give the bloom a bit of fill. If you have a flash like the 580......you can underexpose the sunlight severely and use the flash as a main light source. Playing with the different light sources available to you will only help you when you try the techniques on bugs or other things that don't stay still! Just some more options for you for next time out in the field.

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Hey Oscar,
BG already covered.....and since I know Green cay well......repositioning is probably only option! Light is key in most macros.....a softer diffused light generally preferred but tough many times when out in the field......although you had plenty of SS to sacrifice. Ploping the 1.4 teleconverter (if you have it) would have given a tighter view.....and don't forget to squat down a touch to see if you can isolate the iris in the BG that way! Don't forget that your pop up flash can also be useful in those situations when it is overcast.....to give the bloom a bit of fill. If you have a flash like the 580......you can underexpose the sunlight severely and use the flash as a main light source. Playing with the different light sources available to you will only help you when you try the techniques on bugs or other things that don't stay still! Just some more options for you for next time out in the field.

Hi Roman, thanks for the excellent suggestions. I like the idea of experimenting with flash. Haven't done that too much lately and it's a great idea.