Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 41 mm (250 mm DSLR equivalent), aperture priority, F/5.6, 1/200 sec, pattern metering, EC -1.
PP: sharpened, slightly increased saturation, slight blurring of BG, cloned out a light spot in BG and a spiderthread catching a lot of light.
These Amazonias at our local botanical gardens are amazing. The leaf consists of gas filled pouches, which gives it enough floating power to carry a small child! Once a year you can actually put your kids on the Amazionas and have their picture taken. My kids are already too heavy, so I took one without them. The lovely fall sun made a great reflection!
C&C very welcome.
An excellent composition Jerry,
I like the up close framing of the underside of this aquatic pod. The oof pod in the background gives the viewer a nice subdued contrast of green...I also like the depth of field...The colors and details are superb. Love the texture of these babies...:)
Question: why does this species of plants have thorns on the underside?:cool:
Boy, I wish I had some idea what this looked like in person. I like the details and reflection and the lighting is nice but I have no idea what it is I'm looking at. Does it sit on the water like a lily pad?
Wow, wonders of nature...
These leaves look like mini boats. The thorns look like they can do quite some damage...
Perhaps (a guess) they grow thorns to ward off fish/other water creatures from munching on the leaf from below the water surface...? Well not too sure actually.
Hey Jerry, very interesting and creepy looking plant. Good details and lighting. and very cool with the reflection. I would take the time to clone out all the little white specks on the water sufface. Well seen and shot.
Hey there, sorry for not getting back to you sooner (busy time at work!). The official name of this plant is Victoria amazonica, although it may be one of the many other Victoria varieties. They are related to waterlilies, but they can reach leaf diameters of up to 4 meters.
Julie, like waterlilies, these leaves float on the water. What you are looking at is the rim of the leaf, which is curled up. There is about half a leaf in the frame. There are a lot of pictures and info on this site of Victoria growers: http://www.victoria-adventure.org/vi...a_gallery.html
Gus, Kaushik is completely right: the thorns are to prevent the leaf being eaten. They grow on very large, air filled veins, which are the plants mechanism to float and give them structural integrity. The leaves are reported to be able to carry up to 40 kg!
Thanks for looking.
- Jerry -
Hi Jer,
How is the new job? Nice one here! Love the structure and colors on the leaves the low angle and the DOF. I am not sure about this but I think including the whole reflection next time would increase the impact of the photo. Also I think it needs some rotation adjustment, use the ruler tool and drag it from for instance one thorn to the same thorn in the reflection, go to image, rotate cavas, arbitrary and the rotation adjustment will be already filled in for ya, than just press ok and it will be correctly leveled. Apart from these two minor nits very nicely done!
See ya
Hey Krijn, thanks for your comments. There were some disturbing elements in the FG which prevented me from taking the whole reflection without leaving my low angle. I'll have another go at it next time I'm there.
You should come by to shoot some birds here, I found a great spot close by. I'll drop you an email soon.
- Jerry -
Amazonia reflection
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