Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Nature’s transition in one frond from green & healthy to already past its prime.
Other Information
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Image Description
Representing the transition of ife
Technical Details
1/640 s at f/8, ISO 1600 @ 70mm.
Specific Feedback
Crop version of a larger image showing the parts most in focus. Would it be practical to darken the background further?
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Initial reaction was are the Pinna on top dead, dying or coming to life? Never saw then that color before. But your title would imply that they ae dying. Strange that half the frond would dye.
Harvey, the shape difference between the fronds on top and below is quite striking. I too don’t know if the top fronds are young and growing or old and dying, but I’m not sure that matters. I do think that a bit more space at the bottom would be good. The mix of sky and leaves in the background looks and fits the subject very well. It’s brightness and color suggest springtime to me.
Thanks @Mark_Seaver , Yes, I wish I would have had a little more room on the bottom, but alas I didn’t! The photo was in a heavily forested area and we were in a very hot period at that time. I suspected the top portion of the frond received heavy sun at some moments in time and burned the upper leaves.
I understand you have to work with what you have at the time, so the tight feel on the bottom will have to do. I really like this odd type of symmetry between the strong green at the bottom, and the dying ones at the top. I think your use of DOF is right on to lose the background. In a forest like that, the background can take away from the subject. Here you did a nice job making it complement it.
My initial response is that I love this. Such lovely curving lines. The contrast between the dried fronds and the fresh ones is so unusual and they are just perfectly aligned.
