Dogwood Blossoms in Yosemite

[Gerald_Gilligan]

Dogwood Blossoms in Yosemite

I was in the park during the last two weekends. I was looking for nice flowers that were not past their prime. All I was finding were missing leaves and dark spots.

I came across this amazing set of tree's not far from the road and down in a ravine. There were hundreds of amazing blooms in near perfect condition.

I was able to climb down to them, and photograph down toward the tree tops...
Most of the Dogwood have flowers that are usually 5 -6' off of the ground so you must work the scene and hunt for good composition. You are usually looking up at the flowers. I don't think that many found these tree's because of their location.

I was able to isolate these blossoms with a telephoto lens + 1.4x as the sun bathed them in morning light. I also wanted to get all of the gold centers equally sharp.

I brought the background down with a curve adjustment in PS, I wanted to focus the eye on the Blooms. I like the way the flowers stand out...But I would like to know if others agree?

Taken May 21.2011 at 10:36 am
Canon 7D
70-200 F2.8L IS USM + 1.4x Tripod / shutter cable /mirror lock up
1/100 sec
Manual / RAW
f/5.6
ISO 100
185mm
Minor adjustments in Photoshop some distracting elements removed, and some Minor flower spot repair.
All critiques welcome.

[bhavya joshi]

Nice shots.. Gerald .. Love the flowers..Sharp and Nice lighting and Compose..:c3:

[Allen Sparks]

Love the contrast. wonderful composition. Nice tones too. lovely image

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jerry and welcome to Macro! I like the interesting description of how you were able to obtain this image. I also like the comp and the DOF that includes all 4 flowers - though I might suggest a little more selective sharpening on the centers of the flowers. I'm not so sure about the relative darkness of the background - it gives the image a gloomy look, IMO - you might try bringing the brightness back up just a little. Your signature on the first flower isn't really adding to the image and could be removed. :w3 I hope to see more of your work.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jerry,
Not an easy flower to pull off....so nicely done with the comp! I generally like dark BG's but it would be interesting to see this with the BG a bit brighter as Steve suggested....just for comparison. Overall.....very nicely done with a difficult subject!

[Mitch Haimov]

Very nice image, Gerald. Excellent DOF. Dark backgrounds can be striking, and in this case it certainly focuses attention on your subject. But it does make this image appear less natural. I think darkening it enough to de-accentuate the sharpness of the BG but not this much would work well--the blossoms would still be by far the brightest part of the image.

[Gerald_Gilligan]

I have been traveling and am delayed for a response here,

I darkened or de-emphasized the background to minimize the distracting white elements but here it is with the background layer removed...

Thank you for all of the critiques,

Jerry