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Vinegar weed flower
NaturePics
Registered Users Posts: 32 Big grins
Vinegar weed is a wildflower native to our Central Contra Costa County area near San Francisco. The flowers are quite small (1/4 inch across or less) so macro photos show detail you never see with the naked eye. Here is a closeup
More vinegar weed images at
http://naturelover.smugmug.com/Nature/090809vinegar-weed-in-Lime/9745727_xwuSe#659966913_JKUic
Bill
http://naturelover.smugmug.com/
More vinegar weed images at
http://naturelover.smugmug.com/Nature/090809vinegar-weed-in-Lime/9745727_xwuSe#659966913_JKUic
Bill
http://naturelover.smugmug.com/
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Comments
prefer #54 , less of the disstracting elements in the frame
phil
moderator - Holy Macro
Goldenorfe’s Flickr Gallery
Goldenorfe photography on Smugmug
Phils Photographic Adventures Blog
I take pictures of what I see. I'm not interested in making works of art. I want to capture the subject in a way that let you appreciate it. These flowers are quite small and do not extend far from the stem of the plant. The plant is usually only 6" tall and is present in hot, dry areas with with harsh full sun lighting. I use the angles and background that are available and sort out the shots later. l spent about 45 minutes taking a number of shots of these flowers, edited and cropped them and uploaded some representative images to my SmugMug pages.
I've appreciated the photos that others have posted here for the interesting subject matter they contain. I think that the vinegar weed flowers are quite unusual and beautiful. I'm sharing pictures of a native wildflower you simply can't appreciate with the naked eye. I thought the point of this forum was to share pictures of interesting objects rather than just to critique technique.
I find your comment to be quite off-putting. As far as I am concerned, you can either appreciate the vinegar weed images or not. Did the images introduce you to a flower you had not seen? Did you enjoy seeing shape and color you had not previously seen? If you have no interest in the subject matter, just keep your "expert" critiques to yourself.
Bill
The point of a photographic forum is both to share interesting photographs and also help improve techniques. You should expect some hints/critique if posting in one. People are more likely to "look" at the picture if they find it both interesting and visually pleasing.
Brian V.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thanks for the positive comment.
There wasn't a single image in the vinegar weed gallery that seemed to me to be perfect. I believed that they did have value even if imperfect. I posted them because I thought that someone else might appreciate the beauty of those flowers.
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I've seen a number of your images and appreciated them. My wife and I find images showing the shapes, colors and fantastic detail of insects to be a great source of entertainment. You do a very good job of capturing that.
> People are more likely to "look" at the picture if they find it both interesting and visually pleasing.
Are you saying that people like me should be educated so that we produce acceptable content?
I decide to look at a thread based on the title and perhaps the author of the original post. Once I look at the first image in the first post, I decide to continue or bail out.
> You should expect some hints/critique if posting in one.
I think that it is simple politeness to offer critiques only when the original poster invites them. Act the way you should in everyday life. (As my mother said: "If you can't say anything positive, don't say anything.") If you can't stop yourself from offering an uninvited critique, do it in the context of the subject matter. If you have no interest in the subject of a photo, you have no business in offering any criticism.
I may be in the wrong place here. I do not care much for technique per se. I do not care about photography per se. I care a great deal about subject matter: wildlife, wildflowers, insects and fall color.
I am not looking for lessons from experts like GOLDENORFE in this or any other forum. I want a place to see interesting pictures posted by others and post some of my own. I'd like to interact with other people interested in the same sort of subject matter. Is there a forum for macro flower and insect pictures on Dgrin where the emphasis is on subject matter?
Several friends have used SmugMug to share images within our circle of friends. So I got a SmugMug account. However SmugMug's community features seem quite lacking compared to Flickr's groups. The amount of interaction is much lower and the feeling is less positive. I had hoped that this Dgrin macro forum and the wildlife forum would provide another place to share images. Based on GOLDENORFE reply and yours, I wonder. You don't seem at all welcoming or willing to appreciate posts for what they offer.
Bill
http://naturelover.smugmug.com/
I have an understanding of your point of view. My primary interest in macrophotography is not to produce great works of art but simply to try and capture pictures of things I find interesting. Whilst doing that though I think it is inevitable that you try to get better at capturing the subject.
In a photographic forum I would expect to see interesting pictures but also some comments/hints perhaps on how to take a better photograph of the subject.
In perhaps a "nature" forum I would expect to see more interest in just the subject without comments on the photography unless they were specifically asked for.
I post shots in both type of forums, but generally use nature type forums to post subjects for identification purposes or perhaps to show an odd or interesting subject or behaviour.
Just trying to explain my expectations of a photography forum, they may of course be different to yours
brian v.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
I think many of us feel the same tension. I often take images that I think are interesting because of the subject matter but that are not, for whatever reason, visually very striking or appealing. I enjoy them, but few others do. In the case of flowers, which I shoot a lot, I find myself often thinking, 'that's incredibly beautiful, but I can't think of how I can create a 2-dimensional image that will convey it.' Some are very tough, particularly the subtle ones. I've been working on oak leaf hydrangeas for 18 months without a single image that I am really satisfied with. Ditto, two summers with cardinal flowers.
This is a photo forum, after all, and people who post here are mostly interested in photography, not only the content. So, you can expect suggestions. I have had some great suggestions, as well as some that I don't agree with.
You have spurred me on: I will post in a minute a flower that I was ambivalent about. Have at it.
Dan
I appreciate your post.
I had never heard of "oak leaf hydrangeas" so I googled. Some new infiormation for me.
Perhaps Dgrin needs a flowers/insects/small things forum that is focussed on the subject matter. There are plenty of people who like this subject matter even if some of the people on this forum are indifferent to it.
The wildlife forum seems much more focussed on their subject matter. I can't imagine that anyone looking at a spectacular picture of a heron with a fish is thinking much about the lens used, the camera settings or the composition.
If you are referring to the violet closeup image, I appreciate your posting it.
Whenever I see a post with an interesting picture, I immediately go to the author's galleries and look for more good stuff. I looked at your Flowers and Mushrooms and Bugs galleries and enjoyed all those pictures. The sunflower indoors/outdoors images were especially pleasing. Thanks.
Bill
Re my galleries: thanks. The indoor sunflower was kind of an accident that got me started on something. My wife brought some in and set them up on our kitchen table. I was so fascinated by what it looked like with light coming through the petals that I took that shot. It was clear to me that handheld was not going to cut it (the DOF is way too narrow on that one), so I gradually accumulated a little more stuff. Now I shoot these often, but with a tripod and remote release so that I can close the lens down (if using only ambient light) or a flash with reflector. The African violet I posted today was one of the few I have done with the flash. The rest of the equipment is strictly low-budget: backgrounds made from things like a fleece taken off the coat rack and piles of pots and books used to position the flowers with respect to the lights.
Re different forums: there are forums for just about everything on the web, so I suspect you can find one less focused on the photographic aspects of these photos. This one is not that--you will see lots of comments and questions about all sorts of photographic techniques.
Dan
I can identify with several things you said. My reason for improving my skills or for acquiring better equipment is to get results where I failed before. I try to be as low-budget as possible. for years I used ultra-zoom all-in-ones like the Panasonic FZ50. I finally gave up on LCD viewfinder cameras and got a Nikon D5000, a Tamron 90 mm macro lens and a 70-300 mm telephoto zoom. I don't have a normal lens for that camera. I don't expect to be spending much money for camera stuff for awhile. For some people, spending money on their hobby is the core of their interest. I don't really want to spend money like that.
Your comment on backgrounds and objects to position flowers resonates with me too. I enjoy problem solving and prefer that it not turn into just a reason for a stream of purchases.
I've only taken one flash picture of my kind of subject matter.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_lesley_photos/3958988261/
I have some pictures on Flickr and find those groups to be quite productive. I don't find the Flickr user interface or the storage facilities to be worth getting a paid membership.
I much prefer SmugMug as a place to store and share images. I can upload pretty large images and let SmugMug take care of displaying them at different sizes. And I'm not worried about having too many images or taking too much storage space. I just having found a good community of people with similar interests on SmugMug communities or in this forum. I think I will be much happier with the dgrin wildlife forum.
I'm all ears if you have suggestions for good wildlife, flower or insect forums that are focussed on content.
Bill
I don't know of forums such as those--haven't looked.
Nice slug, by the way.
Dan