Photo Assignment 12 May 2006 - Flowers and Buds
 

OK, so last week we had 5 contributors. Not as many has I had been hoping for, but it was a good start.

Is a week not long enough? Would more time allow more people to get pics in? Please provide some feed back so we can get more people involved.

Thanks.

Ok so we have 3 suggestions this week; they are:

Capture and emotion
A body party tightly cropped
Flowers and buds

Randomly selected by coin flipping, this week's theme is:

Flowers and buds --as suggested by ClostGoth

The guidlines are here from last week's post: http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpos...68&postcount=1

See you in a week.

Feed Me Seymour
http://static.flickr.com/47/135145421_c60556c72f_o.jpg

Rutgers Gardens. Caught the bee.
http://www.reevesphotographics.com/i...e/PICT0068.jpg

BEAUTY IN BACKLIGHT
 

................

Pink and Yellow
http://www.dotdoubledot.com/img/phot..._05130005a.jpg

Sunburst
http://www.dotdoubledot.com/img/phot..._05130009a.jpg

Purple Shields
http://www.dotdoubledot.com/img/phot..._05130011a.jpg

Pink
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1...9medium9rq.jpg

Red
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6...3medium9tf.jpg

Using a friends 5 megapixel digital camera, which I am not too familiar with, I have other shots but I couldn't figure out how to set what I want to focus on.. I'll give it another whirl here in a few while its still sunny!

lots of flowers :D

hey aquafox... how would that look in B&W? just curious...

ngdawg... i really like the way the flowers taper down, drawing attention to the bee, but the top half lacks the contrast of the black background to the white flowers that the bottom half does. i wonder how it would look if you just cropped the top half off.

bobby... love it. my only thought is that the green bit that catches sunlight in the top right corner is distracting. i myself would have 'shoped it out. as for whether or not that's "cheating" if i had made the shot in b&w and was developing it myself, i would have burned it out.

fnaqzna... i like the 3rd one the best, but i might like it more vertical... just a thought. the 2nd one is pretty cool too, it almost gives off a sepia tone in itself

will try and get some of my own in tomorrow...

it would look like this :D

I like that in Black and White...gives the sky an eeriness and is much more dramatic.
I don't think cropping the greenery out would work well on mine-then the pic would be too close to square, but I'll try darkening it a little. Used a smaller aperature setting with a quick shutter speed to catch the bee-took 3 tries to have him where he could best be seen.
Used adjustments/selective color to darken the greenery

(as shot, just sized to 800)


By any other name...

i dig the b&w a lot

I wanted to get something in here before it was too late.

I call this: Paparazzi

oooooh that's pretty JJ, i love the detail of the water droplets.... and such a simple flower...


Cham... the rose is really beautiful too...

Best one here so far, IMHO. Very nice. This one has a completely different mood than any of mine, which seemed shrill by comparison.

I forget the name of the flower, but my mom got this as a gift from someone, and it really started to bloom about 2-3 months ago which is when I took these. Unfortunately, when attempting further pictures outside with better light, it lost its life due to a strong gust of wind... its stem is thin and hollow. Or, was, rather.

Golden
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2...143403f7rg.jpg

Splatter
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4...143392f7el.jpg

Head First
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6...143374f1bf.jpg

Push the Edge
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3...143378f1jz.jpg

i think i can do better, we'll see what the rest of the week holds...
my suggestion for next week... MOTION

The angle Charlatan chose is very striking. A true vertical would have been dull by comparison.

Edit: Will I need a host to post my pictures, if I want to join in?

Tech, I like the contradictions in "pushing the edge". There are so many layers of contrast: bright/dull; live/innate; soft/sharp.

fnaqzna: I like the color in the 2nd image. I'd suggest a wider shot for the first two rather than cropping off the edges of the flower. The third one looks good.

Chamaeleontidae: I like the second one better, The background in the first is a little busy.

Here's three I'll post

http://www.pbase.com/dwootton/image/...1/original.jpg
1/40 sec @ f2.8 200mm on a dark cloudy afternoon

http://www.pbase.com/dwootton/image/...3/original.jpg
1/125 sec @ f2.8 200mm
I like this one because of the progression from buds to flowers

http://www.pbase.com/dwootton/image/...6/original.jpg
1/400 sec@f2.8 105mm

Well here goes my first Photog submission... it's cropped from a much larger picture of a bunch of these tiny white flowers that I found growing sporadically in a remote park. I hope to improve week by week while learning from y'all...

<img src="http://telusplanet.net/public/markus_e/tfp/earlyriser.JPG">
--Early Riser--

Adding a couple more to the mix. It rained (cloudy days are good for outdoor shots) and I wanted to test the macro
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...PICT0110sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...PICT0108sm.jpg

Testing making an attachment

Thanks Spectre!

Expanding it to 2 weeks would help, perhaps you could open a new topic every week while expanding the cutoff date by a week; have overlapping topics.

I don't go out specifically to shoot pictures. I go out hiking, skiing, motorcycle riding and bring my camera along. If the topic doesn't fit what I'm doing ... oh well. Having 2 weeks/2 topics would increase the odds.

I love to shoot wildflowers, but it's a bit early in the mountains.

i think a week is okay, we have had 16 posts so far this week...

you don't have to participate every week, and remember that it's what you interpret it to be. the first thing i thought of when the topic was picked "flowers and buds" was a rose with a tag on it that said "for her" and a budweiser with a tag on it that said "for him"

but maybe that's the advertiser in me...

Additionally, you can always go back and submit at a later time. There really isn't a cut off...

By the way, can we have the topic in the subject heading? As there are more of these, it will not be enough to just have a date.

The subject heading should have the date and the topic for easy reference.

Cheers!

This is the original. Silly me forgot to take the date stamp off.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...s/100_2585.jpg

and here it is cropped to remove the date stamp:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...fthevalley.jpg

and here is another I took, again date stamp left on. I could not figure out how to crop it.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...s/100_2584.jpg

I can see I need to practice focusing on close items. Not easy to do with a point and click.

sportswidow... those flowers are cool... i love the pure white and the greens are nice. as for focusing, the focus is sharp, it's more the depth of field, (i.e. how much is in focus) which yeah, is usually not possible to control with a point and shoot. depends what functions it comes with, if you have aperature priority or shutter priority you can control depth of field easily with a little practice

Bud(weiser):

I think ng has the motion pictures lined up. :D

I am having trouble with focus using my inexpensive digital with it's closeup setting. Would I be better off sticking with auto focus and zoom, or does someone have some tips for me? I wear glasses which may be part of the problem.

Here are a few flower attempts I took today that I hope you will critique.

Many times it's not focus but movement. Try using a tripod. There are even single-leg ones you can get(would those be unopods? monopods?). I many times use my camera with one hand on top, the other on the bottom-limits movement somewhat (many hold the camera with hands on its sides, but side to side movement happens easier, it seems); also, only depress the shutter button enough to engage-too often people put too much pressure on it and that also causes the camera to shift.
If your camera has auto-focus, depressing the shutterbutton halfway usually engages it-try holding it there for an extra second to give the camera time to adjust.
I wear glasses as well. I don't think that's really an issue. Practice aperature settings-the smaller the number, the larger the lens opening. You can google tutorials on aperature usage-it will have an effect on the crispness of your shot. Also, if your camera has shutter speed settings, experiment with those as well. The higher the number, the faster the shutter; too slow and you risk more chance of movement and blurring. Too high and you end up with a dark picture.

Had to go back and look at your shots. First one got the colors really well, the second one seems a tad washed out, but they're good starts.

Thanks, ng.

The shots are two different hybred rhodies. The color on the first pic is more intense than the flowers actually are, and I have no idea why. The second pic is truer to the color of the flowers. Weird.

Elphaba, how would that last one look in B&W? The contrasts are nice and the lighting is just beautiful!

I will get around to posting my flowers soon, but I doubt I beat the deadline. (Aren't we passed it already?) Things have been crazy hectic here, and it's hard to spend any time shooting photos when your kids have gone insane. Mojodragon has promised me a trip to the botanical gardens this weekend, though, so I'm going to post then.

My suggestion for next week: statuary (Are pictures of children okay if they're statues and not RL?)

experimenting with textures
 

I have some pictures of _real_ flowers to submit, I promise... I just took this one as an oddity. A Space Oddity. :lol:

Hmmm, I'm not sure I like it in B&W. Not enough contrast, perhaps?

I tweaked the exposure and this one has a bit more drama.

I like the B&W, Elphaba. The second one is a little better than the first. I think what attracted me to this as a B&W shot is the lighting; and the resultant shadows. It's not high contrast, no; but still a great shot! :)

Here are a few wallpapers that I made. Hope they are ok to enter.

http://rjshade.com/art/wallpapers/blossom.png

http://rjshade.com/art/wallpapers/white-daffodil.png

http://rjshade.com/art/wallpapers/orange-flower.png

http://rjshade.com/art/wallpapers/dandelions.png

http://rjshade.com/art/wallpapers/daffodils.png