Bumble bee & water mint

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod Canon 7D Canon 100-400L IS ISO 400 -0.3 1/800 f10
I took this image by the garden pond. I have just downloaded CS6 and there seems to be a glitch associated with DPP and CS6 so I processed using the latest Adobe ACR and CS6. The ACR sliders are different to previous versions and it sure takes some getting used to after using Canon DPP! I have used my standard ACR pre sharpening algorithm but I am wondering if the plant is over sharpened.
All comments welcome

[Arthur Morris]

First off, congrats to our new Macro Mod, Jon Ashton. Thanks a stack for accepting our offer. And this image is a great way to celebrate. I love this soft light, the killer sweet BKGR, the perfect framing of the plant, and of course the bee coming right at us.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful shot with great colors and light. I like the bee flying above the flower.

Markus

[John Chardine]

Hi Jon- Very good news of your BPN Moderator-dom! And as mentioned this is such a fitting debut (I know it's not your first post!). Love the package here but clearly the bumblebee in flight makes it. The wing position and trailing legs are superb. Funnily enough I was out photographing sunflower centres just now and they were being visited by bumblebees but the split-second timing to actually capture one in flight AND in the focal plane eluded me. It clearly didn't for you.

BTW I use the latest DPP with Photoshop CS6 on a Mac and it works seamlessly. I process in DPP then cmd-d saves as a tiff which I open with Ps. For me the plant is not oversharpened.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Jon - Congratulations on your "Moderatorship" The image is a fitting tribute to your new position.

[Dave Johnson]

Jonathan my first impression after I opened this one was that the flower stamens look a little bit 'crispy'. After closer inspection I'm not sure if it is slightly over sharpened or just the stark colour contrast of white and magenta? Anyway, this is wonderful. The water mint on it's own would have made a plenty interesting subject (I love how there are flower heads in almost full bloom, part bloom and bud), but the addition of the bee is the icing on the cake. Stunning BG as always and the light is very nice. Just one thing left to say and that's congrats on becoming a moderator. Well done sir!

[christopher galeski]

nice one Jonathan,and congrats on the mod job.

[Bob Miller]

Jon.....Congrats for the job assignment> I know you will be just great at it and I am looking forward to posting to the forum and receiving your critiques which have always been helpful. I love the shot for all the reasons listed already and the flowers look good to me...not oversharpened!