Dueling lilies - a different view of Longwood BIG POST

Well, not really, but I had to grab your attention, right. And anyhow Mike Mac was scooping me by getting his pix online first. Had a great time shooting with Mike and look forward to many more shoots with him.

OK, first the excuses. These have all been tweaked in Capture, but I'm in the middle of switching to a more souped-up laptop and can't touch up with PS yet. OK, I'll admit it; that's the only excuse.

In this one, for example, the sign on the left has to go, but without PS I have no way to do it.







Those of you who are tough critics will notice that I cut off the bottom petal of the flower. I still like the flower and the image, though...











http://www.pbase.com/glarge/image/46564449/original.jpg[/img


Finally, two that show off the D2x's amazing resolution -


[ATTACH=full]12475[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH=full]12476[/ATTACH]


More to come..... Gordon

 

Hi Gale -

Thanks for your nice comments. Needless to say I'm not ashamed. Quite the opposite actually. I was just having a little fun with that first paragraph. I'm glad you liked these images, because I have lots more I want to share.

Gordon

 

Re: Dueling lilies - a different view of Longwood BIG P

Hi Kevin -

I've noticed the incredible detail and sharpness of the D2x since the day I got it. Is the "above referenced photo" the yellow lily? It's kind of funny that so far nobody has noticed the dragon fly at the top of the flower.

All these shots were taken with the 70-200VR, some of them with the TC17 as well. IMO this lens and combo are perfect for water lily shots. You will see in a later post that the lens, sometimes with extention tubes, is perfect for smaller flowers.

Gordon

 

Re: Dueling lilies - a different view of Longwood BIG P

Purple noodle things. I love it. :lol: I'm not far ahead of you. They are either pistols or stamens, but I have idea which. Maybe someone will tell us.

Gordon

 

Frank -

Thanks for the nice comments! Yup, I am learning how to use the D2x's capabilities, but I've still go a long way to go, especially in exposure. After all, flowers just sit there. Take a shot. Look at the blinkies. Look at the histogram. Figure out what you think should be done. Then do it. Repeat as necessary. So far I haven't found many birds that will do that. :wink:

You could really help if you could tell me which images seem oversharpened to you. Also which images would improve with better cropping, what the cropping should be, and why. I did crop in Capture to get images that looked good to me, but it would be really great to learn what you would have done. I think others would benefit from this too. Keep any comments brief though. I don't want you to spend a lot of time on this.

Thanks,
Gordon

 

Lisa and Mike -

Thanks for the nice comments! Sorry I didn't get back to you individually, but neither of you had any specific comments or questions that needed an individual response.

Gordon

 

Gordon all I can say is these are fantastic. I think the purple noodles are stamens.

 

Hi Cindy -

Thanks for your compliment about my flower shots. And also thanks for your ID of the purple noodles. Even though I now know what they are, I suspect I'll always think of them as purple noodles. Too funny. :lol:

Gordon

 

Sorry about that. But you will be one happy camper if Santa leaves one of these under your tree....

Gordon

 

Thanks Crystall. As you can tell, Longwood is one of my favorite places. Sounds like you now have a teleconverter, which is great for the lilies and other outdoors flowers. Get some Kenko extension tubes too. They give you macro capability, and are super for closeups both indoors and outdoors. I look forward to posts of your Longwood and Brookside shots.

Gordon