Weeds in Bloom

[photobug38]

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 80 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Sigma 28 – 80mm f/3.5 – 5.6 II Macro

Really new to using this macro lens. It is a used one and the auto focus doesn't work. Any feedback on the composition would be appreciated.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwright...05347/sizes/m/


Jeff

[Thunder_o_b]

Don't sweat the no af, you are better of using manual focus for macro. Set the focus and then rock through the focus point and then on the way back take the shot on the move, it takes a bit to master but is well worth the effort.

Now to your shot. This is one of those subjects that middle ground is not where you want to be. Pull back and get all of the puff ball, or zoom in for a much closer shot. I think if you had the whole puff in the shot it would have been a great shot, the BG colors are really nice.

[Nicole Hanna]

I agree I'd have liked to see the entire weed in the shot or no background colors at all with a closer focus. (Auto focus is over-rated anyway, so don't worry about that). I think I'm a little torn about the yellow in the background. Either more of it or none of it would be my preference here. I find that it distracts me from enjoying the focus of the shot. But it's such a soft look here, and it gives me a nice feeling of the .... well... the warm fuzzies! Makes me wish for spring, le sigh.

[chicagojohn]

Originally Posted by photobug38

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 80 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Sigma 28 – 80mm f/3.5 – 5.6 II Macro

Really new to using this macro lens. It is a used one and the auto focus doesn't work. Any feedback on the composition would be appreciated.

All sizes | 15/365 - Weeds In Bloom #1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Jeff

I almost never include the images in the quote, but to me this one is very special.

This comment will just go to show you how different different people's perceptions and cognitions can be.

I absolutely LOVE this image; not because of its technical merit (I could be explaining how to achieve a "better" result in getting additional focus normally). And I respect the opinions of the other two folks who have commented thus far and I agree with their suggestions.

However, how this particular image struck my mind was the concept of linkage. In the central part of the image, we see all these individual seeds that are almost "holding hands". And then that same pattern starts to move outward. As it does, due to departure from ideal depth of field, we start to see loss of focus and the image starts to blurr.

But isn't this a perfect metaphor for our lives? We have this clear knowledge of the relationships among the individuals closest to us, and then as the degrees of separation increase, it does get fuzzier. But yet we still understand the general concept of how the individual is related to the whole.

Geometrically, this image symbolizes that to me and its spherical shape symbolizes the world, which, contrary to the views of some, is not flat! So, for instance, here in the United States (and I don't know as I'm writing this where you're from), we see what is happening in Japan. It's kind of fuzzy. Yet tonight we find out radioactivity is showing up in the milk from cows living here, eating "our" grass. One can cite many, many examples....

That is the geometrical metaphor to me. We also know that with the slightest puff of wind, these seeds will disperse. Many of them will find homes in distant places and start "families" of their own. (As a caretaker of a tortoise, we see this "weed" as food, by the way.) As a citizen of the United States, in particular, that metaphor happens to make me think of how communites elsewhere were blown apart and scattered due to various winds, and how many of those seeds landed here to create what we now have as our society.

So, in conclusion, there are, on the one hand, the technical aspects of a photograph. But on the other, there is the unique way an image may hit a particular viewer, like me in this case.

I LOVE this completely as it is. It works very well for me. And, with your permission, I'd like to make a copy of it for my digital picture frame.