Moss

[John Christian]

I saw this in a swamp this past weekend. It was at sunset and the red of the stems were really vibrant. I was on my hands and knees in swamp muck for this picture. Camera, tripod, choc. lab and myself all needed a bath.

Nikon D80/ISO100/f6.3 at 1/25 sec/manual metering in matrix pattern/sharpened and touched saturation +12/added contrast/WB auto

I am thinking I may have wanted to use a diffuser. I did find some of the out of focus areas a bit distracting. Thoughts/suggestions?

[Julie Kenward]

This is definitely "other wordly!" I do like the red stems and the green sprouts but I'm with you...the stuff at the base of the image is a bit distracting. Did you try cloning at all?

I think I'd also consider taking off some of the black at the top of the image...maybe bring it down to right above where the majority of the stems stop.

Cool image...I'd definitely go try this again and do a little "grooming" if you can before making the image to see if you can get a cleaner look at the soil level.

[Ed Vatza]

I pretty much agree with Julie on this one. Just a little off the top and do something about that out-of-focus blob at the bottom and you've got yourself a winner, John. Interesting subject and composition.

[denise ippolito]

John, I think it's very interesting and can see why you like it. I agree with the OOF FG leaf? I cloned it but I'm on my laptop and it's hard to see it close up in the lighting I have, so I'm sure you could do a better job,if you wanted to go that route-just wanted to see what it could look like. As you can see I did a quicky.