Two-flowered Cynthia (What?!?!)

[Ed Vatza]

How could you not like a wildflower with a name like Two-flowered Cynthia?

My wife and I spent about five hours wandering through a local state park in search of birds and wildflowers. We came across exactly two of these flowers along the edge of one of the meadows. While my wife was preoccupied with a Warbling Vireo, I set off to photograph Cynthia. Little did she know! ;):D

Canon Rebel XT, SIgma 150 mm Macro lens, tripod mounted - ambient light

1/250 sec at f/22; ISO 400; -2/3 EV

By the way, I tried backing off on the images today and giving them more room. I'm not sure I like the images as much as when I fill the frame. Your thoughts?

[John Cooper]

Yes Ed attractive name for a very attractive flower.
I like your composition here and the lovely BG, but the yellow appears a little under-exposed on my monitor. Then again, maybe that is the true shade of yellow for this beauty!!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ed,
I have noticed that you are becoming very conscious of the BG's! The lighting and DOF work well for me here! .................now for the subject of backing off...............I do like them tight.......but in this image i would have tried a vert with a bit more stem........and more room to the right than on the left.........even a slight diagonal by rotating the camera.......even if the flower is straight up........sometimes works to improve the "dead space" in a composition. The BG would not have chanced at all...........but compositionally a vert would have strenghtend and givin you a bit tighter feel..........that both you and I like!

[Robert O'Toole]

Agree with Roman, good job, except I like the comp as is. I agree with John the image looks a little under exposed/dark.

Robert

[Ed Vatza]

John, Roman, Robert,

I appreciate the feedback as always. As I said, I was interested in feedback on the comp as I still think I like a fuller frame. Also, I think I just tend to be a dark person. :( First off, I made images at -2/3 EV, -1/3 EV and 0 EV and picked a -2/3. Then I did two versions, one brighter and one darker and picked the darker. So slightly underexposed is a very real possibility. :o

Here is the (slightly) brighter of the two.

[Robert O'Toole]

Good repost Ed, now that looks right on.


Robert

[Bob Allen]

I'm with Roman - I dig verticals, would work well for this. I normally prefer tighter photo but the green bg is sooo pleasing and complimentary to the yellow petals that it works as-is. Like Ed, I tend to underexp as well, so his original and repost both look great.