Arched Lotus Flower

[Jay Sheinfield]

I took this shot from the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. Curves layer, with additional dodging/burning and background fade to black.

Nikon D3s
600mm (300mm with TCe 2x teleconverter)
Tripod mount
f/18
1/80 sec

Comments welcome..........

[kostas nianiopoulos]

pretty neat work ,

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the Photoshop work and the way the stem fades. the flower head is well exposed and shows good detail. The composition leaves me just a little uneasy (but this is not one of my strong points I have to admit!) I am not too sure if it is a good thing to have a light flower actually going out of the frame, it looks "cut off" to me. I will be interested to see other comments.

[John Storjohann]

Jay, I've come back to this one several times before commenting...there's a tension created by the composition that is, to my eye, unsettling...and that may have been your intent...I played with a bit (something I'm usually hesitant to do...hope you don't mind!)...see what you think. It's such an interpretive thing...can't wait to get down there this weekend to shoot!

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Jay, nice image. I like the flow of the stem in the upper part of the frame and how it leads you to the flower. I am like Jonathan - just wondering if showing more of the flower would yield a compelling image as well. This is an interesting crop which does produce tension and that is probably what you were after with this.

Allen

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I wan't too sure on this comp, unfortunately its full frame, so I have no flower to add.

John, I like your idea as well.................

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jay. My thoughts are similar to those of the others. I really like the flow of the stem and the way the background fades out. The water drops are a plus and you have good sharpness on the flower. It would be nice if we could see the rest of the main petal - just as a comparison to see if that comp works better. :S3: