Hi all, I am entering a local photo contest at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. I don't know who else is entering from this site, I know several said they were going to. Anyway, if you would be so kind as to take a look at my photos from the Garden and let me know your favorites, I will be extremely greatful. Fair warning, some of these are not contest material but I have placed all photos up anyway. Here's the link. //www.nordarts.com/botanicalgardensweb/index.html - PS: I am going back again, to try to improve on some of the more interesting shots so if you see something you think would be a winner "if only" let me know. Thank you!
PPS: I have numbered the thumbnails, 1 thru 22 for easy reference.
I personally like #22. I like the combination of the soft water from the fall and the flower in the same image. I think that image could possibly be improved with a little more post processing though. The center portion of the yellow flower on the left is slightly 'hot' and is stands out a little more than it should possibly. A little toying with the burn tool may ease that up just a little... it would be worth some experimenting :)
These are magnificent, Joanns. My favorite two are #2 Berries (I love the lighting on this one and the unusual color) and #22 Iris. The rest are certainly right up there at the top of the list, as well. It was a difficult choice. Good luck.
These are magnificent, Joanns. My favorite two are #2 Berries (I love the lighting on this one and the unusual color) and #22 Iris. The rest are certainly right up there at the top of the list, as well. It was a difficult choice. Good luck.
Bitz
oops. That should have been #3, Berries.
Thank you! I owe you a lighting set up photo...I promise I'll have it for you this week.
Nice photos. I also agree that 22 is the best one, especially for a contest shot. The darker background really makes the yellow of the flower "pop" and it's good because the background is still in focus and more interesting than that in the other shots. The close-up of the rose is very nice too, but rather typical. The others are great, but not contest winners. Good luck!
Some thoughts. Overall I really enjoyed 2, 5, 11, 14, 15, 18 & 22. Thanks for sharing.
1-unusual view makes it interesting like the title says. THe brown lower third isn't too appealing though, some strangly unnatural looking blurred elements in the upper left. (purple/ green smudge) and a dead flower dead center in the shot. All the action and direction seems to be 'off the page' to the left a bit ? Very busy.
2 - good complimentary colours and a really sympathetic background that really enhances the foreground subject. Like the depth of field and layering going on in this one. In two minds about the leaf, breaks it up which is either good or bad depending on how you feel about it. Nicely balanced composition otherwise. Black border seems heavy though I like the red outliner.
3- Good foreground but the background seems confused and I don't know that it complements. Seems very spikey (holly?) for a very round berry foreground. Might be worth some time spent cleaning up and blurring down the background so that it has less emphasis, particularly some of the bright triangular elements
4- a bird in the bush. Good shot but doesn't really do much for me - some stronger catchlights in the eye might lift it somewhat ? light is very soft/ flat which brings out all the details but doesn't leave much to consider.
5- 3 really strong triangles, in the lower left background, center flowers and lower right background. Everything points downward towards a point that seems to be cropped off the page - have you considered rotating this 180 degrees ? I really light the repeating pattern of white and orange.
6- confuses me - the sunlight on the background is great light, but it seems to be not the focus and pulling me away from the unlit flowers you've put in the foreground. The reflections in the pool and general shapes are well constructed, but the light just moves me a around in the wrong way. Might be worth removing the red elements in the upper center background?
7- nice foreground but a really busy background - some of the brighter highlights could be toned down to de-emphasise these elements ? Foreground light is really hot with quite a lot of overexposed/ blown out white areas - not sure if you can retrive that from your orignal shots or not.
8 - seems really busy - two main triangles of composition fighting for attention - some of the blue sky poking through the background could be easily removed
9 - again this composition seems a bit busy - particularly with the yellow flowers poking in the corner. The trees in the background are again fighting for attention to my eye.
10 -same as 9
11- much softer light than in 7 allows the details to stand out. Background is again fighting for attention but works better - I'd personally lose the foreground stem on the far right.
12- two devils horns have crawled into the composition on the bottom right - flower in general seems a bit softly focused but
nicely lit. I wonder about rotating it 90 degrees clockwise and then flipping horizontally so that everything points to the upper
left/ lower right ?
13- nice bud and rose, good exposure and could maybe just clone out the two other buds/stems that have sneaked in
14- very classic image. I'd try to darken up the bright areas in the upper right, lower left and lower right corners and maybe
try to brighten up somewhat the center, just to vary the attention/ focus.
15 - great, bursting with life and attention grabbing - seems to be touch of purple in the lower left background that shouldn't
really be there ?
16- very swampy, very green, very unappealing ? Some nice curves and swirls and patterns - maybe B&W/ duotone ?
17 - good, straight shot of the garden - a bit too much brown/grey earth on the right hand side could be cropped a touch ?
18 - colourful picture and tastefully composed, with the background horizontal lines and the foreground verticals. The cropped
purple leaf in the upper right is a bit lost, as is the green stem that exits in the upper right third.
19 - similar to 18, but the slight change in composition has brought some well lit distracting background elements into play
which weaken it for me, also the blue sky reflections don't help much.
20 - seems underexposed, quite noisy and a bit drab.
21 - quite busy and several really bright/ blown highlight areas , which pull away from the waterfall, perhaps crop off the right
third and bottom third ?
22 - good contrasts between the dark waterfall and well lit flower - good colour contrasts too - can you lose the withered flower
18 to 20 have nicely contrasting flower colors too but they're too tightly cropped, especially at the top. I like the bird too but agree with others that 22 has the most interesting contrast.
WOW! Thank you all so much for taking the time to help a fellow DPCer. The overall winner, in my own little competition, is #22, the yellow iris. It does have the most punch so I will make it as perfect as possible, have it printed at DPCPrints and enter it. Fortunately, I am allowed 3 photos in the contest. My other favorite photo is #5. It is a macro shot. The actual size of the flower is very small, in fact, it is a close-up of the white stems you see in picture # 9. (I will need to find out the name of that flower). Gordon, I can't believe you critiqued each one of my photos! THANK YOU!
The results are in. I didn't place nor did I get one of the half dozen honorable mentions. Well, I'll show them, I was going to allow them to use any of my photos of the garden for any purpose but not now. LOL - just kidding, I'm just afraid if I made the offer, they would say - thanks, but not interested. :)
Gordon, I can't believe you critiqued each one of my photos! THANK YOU!
Hey, Gordon's just like that. He's a nice guy.
I like 22, too. But my favorites are 2 and 3. Amen to what Gordon said about #2. I like the seemingly random implied lines in #3, and the color of the berries is so lovely--wonderful light there!
