Theme: Hoist on his own petard

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

A long ago shot (but processed today)... Forgot I had a Canon close-up lens that I used on my Nikon 70-200... Will have to pull that out again.



Nikon D80 70-200f/2.8 VRI at 17mm + Canon 550D Close-up Lens ISO 125 1/30 at f/11 HH (hah! those were the days. My first 6 months with a DSLR ;-) Focus by bob and weave.

Topaz InFocus, Impression, Detail, Nik Silver Efex (luminosity blend),

Those Cholla cacti are pretty darn sharp... A windy day and... Taken at Joshua Tree National Park.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Anita Bower]

The colors and composition are wonderful. I like the stems fanning out from the lower edge. The bee is mostly out of focus, which I think is a problem since it is the main subject. It seems with the close up lens that the depth of field was extremely shallow, making it hard to get the entire bee in focus.

I, too, forget I have that Canon close up lens. Thanks for reminding me.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Michael, I really like the organic colors and all the vertical lines of the cholla. I've got that lens too! Somewhere I need to drag it out!

[Nancy Bell]

At first I was wishing that the bee was both more in focus and facing the viewer. Then I thought if this is death by cactus, I prefer it to be hazy. Wonderful variation in the colors and lines, both those in the foreground and the faint ones in the bkgd.

[Dennis Bishop]

As the title suggests, this depicts irony. The dark background and the spines fit well with it. I like the rich colors and the composition.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Did he meet his fate? I don't mind the OOF bee as it implies motion. The colours are pleasing with a nice sense of depth to the image.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Anita, Cheryl, Nancy, Dennis, Jackie,

Thank you all for the comments. As always they are greatly appreciated. Jackie, maybe the spike he's impaled on is too subtle? ;-) Definitely a goner. I should say I was walking around the desert in my tennis shoes (bad, bad, bad) and got some of these spikes through just to the point of feeling how sharp they are (lucky for me it was only a couple hundred yard hobble back to the car), so this could have been hoist on my own...

Cheers,

-Michael-