Greater burdock (Arctium lappa) is a common weed here in the Netherlands, and apparently also in Denmark, where I took this photo in a roadverge. I was actually shooting the butterflies that were visiting these flowers, but I was struck by the simple beauty of them (and the butterflies refused to sit still in a nice pose anyway :p). The hooks on the spikes work like velcro: the fruits stick to animal fur. This is how the seeds get transported. Image quality suffered considerably from resampling to meet the posting rules.
Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 18 mm (108 mm eq.), ISO-100, F/3.6, 1/400 sec, EC -0.47, pattern metering, aperture priority, RAW. RAW processing in Silkypix, PP in Corel Photopaint. Minor tweaks on EC, saturation and sharpness. Full frame.
These look like a cousin to a plant we have here in the states called Thistle. I do like your image - the way the light is hitting the top is very nice. I wish the BG were a bit more uniform in color and tone all the way around but I still like the image - especially the way you repeated the flower in the BG. Neat to see something new! Keep 'em coming, Jerry!
Hey Jerry, like the comp with the two, and like the DOF between the front and back one. I agree the white highlights in the BG needs to be toned down, or maybe clone some of the green into those areas.
Great image Jerry. You captured the detail perfectly and the angle placed that 2nd flower (fruit?) at exactly the right spot for a great comp. Love the burgundy/green combination as well and ditto the light fall.:)
Thanks for your comments and advice. I'm not a PP expert, but I'm guessing selecting the BG to selectively tone down those highlights will be nearly impossible with all those spikes. Any tips?
Jules, you seem to have a good eye for plant taxonomy. Both thistles and burdocks are in the same family, that of the Compositae (composite flowers), a large family to which also includes flowers like dandelions and daisies. When you see the whole plant, however, the difference between burdocks and thistles is immediately clear: burdocks have completely thornless leaves.
Last edited by Jerry van Dijk; 01-21-2010 at 05:32 AM.
I think you just helped me identify a plant growing in my meadow! Thanks! It is currently dry, but I will check it out in the summer when in flower.
Nice details on this front flower! Nice angle of view with the second flower blurred in the BG. I like how the light highlights the lovely purple and lavender center.
I worked a bit on darkening the BG in the upper right. I used clone set at 30 to 60, depending on the area. :)
Hi Anita, thank you for editing my image! I think it makes a huge differnce, creating a much calmer BG. It also made me think that applying vignetting to the image may also help a lot. It will not only affect the corner you worked on, but also the LL and LR where there's also a little too much going on.
Looking forward to your images from the meadow.