Hi Norm. Very nice sharpness and DOF on the flower and I like the diagonals of the comp! I find the background almost as interesting as the flower - maybe not a good thing? The image might be stronger with a more OOF background (tough to do with the little camera). It will be interesting to see how others weigh in on that.
I like the concept a lot, and when shooting in botanical hothouses it is difficult to get a creamy oof background. A shot like this is difficult to pull off, we are so conditioned to the single object on the featureless field. Perhaps pushing the background a little more into the foreground by having it sharper and perhaps with even more local contrast would do it, but it is hard to say without trying. You might have tried a two shot composite or stack to get that, focussing first on the bloom and then on the background.
Thanks for sharing something quite different from the usual, here and the holiday orchids above.
Hi Norm, a well exposed shot, I too have photographed these beautiful flowers in Madeira and I always found the background the biggest difficulty. The trouble here is you need a reasonable DOF for the flower and then ideally you need rapid fall off. I like the shot in similar circumstances I would try starting at max aperture and then going gradually smaller .
Bird of Paradise
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