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Weekly Photo Contest | April 16 - April 23 | Floral

S

someoldguy

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Aug 2, 2009
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The subject of this week's contest is FLORAL ,

It's Spring and there's lots of stuff blooming around where I live , trees , shrubs , bulbs . So for this week the challenge is to come up with a picture of something in flower . It could be a real flower , maybe some sort of ceramic thing ,or maybe Uncle Louie's old Hawaiian shirt ...
Be Creative ; Have Fun !

As always, standard rules apply:
The photographs must be your own work.

You may only submit one photo per contest.
No commenting or liking photos until after the judging has taken place.
This contest runs for about a week, starting now
At the end of the competition, the judge (last week's winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible.
The 1st place winner will start a new thread here with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme, after that it defers to 2nd place).
Be sure to update the Contest Master List as soon as you post a new theme.
Contest ends April 23 at 12.00PM EDST
 
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This is a cactus flower and it was actually shot in the winter many years ago.
Cactus.jpg
 
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I'll be shutting this thing down at around 6PM EDST Tuesday rather than at noon as I won't be available until later in the day . So everyone's got a bit more time to get those entries in !
 
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I spent a bit of time looking at each entry in a separate tab on a big (30” ) monitor as I felt each deserved viewing on something more than a laptop screen ; so here we go …

@georgeinnj – Christmas Cactus ? There’s some really nice detail capturing bits of pollen on both stamen / pistel / and a bit on the petals . The background is nicely blurred ; done with a macro lens or just a big crop ?

@timo_redux –I’m intrigued by this image . This is different ….. obviously , they’re flowers , but what type? Were they colorized in Post? Was there some sort of soft focus lens/filter used? How did you do it?

@OldMacs4Me – That’s a nice , clear , crisp image ! Great colors , too . Looks like there’s even a bug on one of the lily’s petals .

@Chuckeee - That’s an interesting image ! Did this occur naturally ; or is there a pot hidden below the plant itself that’s been skillfully concealed by the brown leaves around the base ? The orange in the flowers make this pop right out . If this is natural , I’m glad that it didn’t get weedwacked like pavement plants around where I live.

@Hughmac - A worthwhile “fill in” . In fact , it’s “Just Peachy” . Wonderful color , I likes the way the petals gradually fade out of focus . Would have been nice if there was a bit more of the stem parts visible to even out the space top to bottom , but that’s not always possible .

@Janichsan – Wow! A REALLY close in shot ! Obviously a bud of some sort , but of what?

@piatigorsky – I certainly didn’t expect a B&W image in a contest with a Floral theme . When I first saw this I thought that this might be nice to see in color ; but on second (and third) thought ,it more than works in B&W . Great detail , particularly considering it’s a film scan . Is the flower some sort of thistle?

@coolguy4747 – Garden center hydrangeas ? Nice range of colors in the flowers , plus nice transitions from in to out of focus on both ends . 120 film… what camera?

@mollyc – Lantana ? Nice color rendering and detail , particularly considering it’s a film scan . This appears to have been shot in an outdoor setting , and the 35/1.8 did a good job of isolating the subject from the background

So I guess I’ve gotta pick winners , it’s much harder than I thought it would be . Please understand that these are the opinions of an old fart with bifocals and cataracts who’s probably not qualified to do anything more than tie his shoelaces .

3rd - @OldMacs4Me

2nd -@piatigorsky

1st - @Chuckeee

Thanks to everyone for entering , @Chuckeee next week’s all yours .
 
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someoldguy said:
@timo_redux –I’m intrigued by this image . This is different ….. obviously , they’re flowers , but what type? Were they colorized in Post? Was there some sort of soft focus lens/filter used? How did you do it?
Click to expand...
Lilacs, over my stoop. 100mm macro lens, cropped. Not colored in post; that's their natural color when new, but saturation bumped up a touch and shot with a high ISO, which gives the picture a kind of grain I like; feels "painterly" to me. No doubt a cloudy day too, though I don't remember. High ISO was also required so that I could have a small aperture, while still keeping to decent shutter speed to accommodate the shot being hand-held.

Thanks for the great contest and judging this week.
 
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Need a little help updating the master list . My computer seems to have become uncooperative .
 
someoldguy said:
Need a little help updating the master list . My computer seems to have become uncooperative .
Click to expand...
I got you!

someoldguy said:
@mollyc – Lantana ? Nice color rendering and detail , particularly considering it’s a film scan . This appears to have been shot in an outdoor setting , and the 35/1.8 did a good job of isolating the subject from the background
Click to expand...

Yes, when my daughter and I were in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago we went to the Audobon Zoo. I've always loved the way this lens has such a close minimum focus distance; it's not anywhere close to macro, in terms of filling the frame, but I can get really close to smaller objects for good separation.

ETA: congrats to the podium winners!
 
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someoldguy said:
.......

@georgeinnj – Christmas Cactus ? There’s some really nice detail capturing bits of pollen on both stamen / pistel / and a bit on the petals . The background is nicely blurred ; done with a macro lens or just a big crop ?

............
Click to expand...
Yes, a xmas cactus but in checking the file data I see that it was shot in early April so it does qualify as a spring flower. It was shot with the canon 100mm macro lens and is a focus stack composite.
 
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Good job, everyone!
I have been busy/distracted with a new baby in the family but I've enjoyed all your entries when I got here to peruse them! Good work!
 
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