Spanish Dancer

[John Chardine]

I wish this was wild but it's in our house. I remember when I lived on the island of Culebra in Puerto Rico that these were fairly common in the dry forests. That's where I really liked to see them, but I suppose in the house is not bad.

Date: 9 May, 2012, Time: 1902h
Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Nikon 60mm, f2.8 macro
Program: Manual
ISO 400, 1/60s, f/8
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: on

[gail bisson]

Hi John,
This is lovely. Very nice composition and I like that the flower is coming from the top of the frame. The black BG really makes the flower pop. I would burn the white on the green stem to tone it down a bit.TFS
Gail

[Ken Childs]

John, it doesn't matter to me where this flower is or where the shot is taken, this is beautiful! The black BG really make those colors jump right off the screen! This is a matter of personal preference but if this was mine, I'd like the flower to be level and maybe just a bit sharper.

[John Chardine]

Thanks everyone. There's a tonne of sharp detail in the original image, some of which just doesn't come across in an image 800px high.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi John. It's nice to see you here in Macro! This is a spectacular flower and you did an excellent job photographing it! The black background works well here and the yellows really jump out (and you've maintained good detail in those bright yellows). I would agree with toning down the stem a bit, but that is a minor tweak to a very strong image!

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Very nice subject well composed and executed. Looks great against the black BG.

[John Chardine]

A belated thanks to everyone (been V. busy lately!)