Theme: Showy Banksia

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

How did I get here? Various conversions and blends till I ended up with the greens tending toward white - Nik Color Efex for a couple of layers, one a grayscale infrared, one an orange color infrared, this last one I inverted, color converted to gray scale, blended, Silver Efex for detail... etc.

What I think infrared looks like any way, white-ish greens, sharp detail... not quite your typical B&W image.

Thanks for looking. Showy Banksia is the common name for Banksia speciosa a very cool Australian bush that they have in the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum. One of the hummingbirds' favorites.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Jackie Schuknecht]

You have achieved the IR look Michael. That is one amazing looking plant.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Michael, what an interesting plant and one I've never heard of but if it's a favorite of hummingbirds then I like it I like your conversion but would be inclined to crop from the right to eliminate the vertical branch on the top right. (Just the stem - I think I'd probably leave the spiky leaves to the left of the stem).

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Jackie, Cheryl,

Thanks much for your comments. The composition was a bit tricky ... how much of the leaves to include? I posted a straight version in ETL if you're interested pretty much a full frame version. The faux IR changed the depth perception a bit... I think the straight version works a little better in terms of composition.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Super interesting shapes to the flower and the leaves of this plant! I think your conversion is good. I would prefer a plain bkgd behind this plant as the more distant shapes and tones add visual confusion. Wonder if you could take a black cloth into the Arboretum to cover the bkgd?

[Arthur Morris]

I like the shapes and textures but the basic image design with the one leaf in the center does not work for me. Kudos for getting out of the box.