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
To me this displays that color and beauty exist even in the desert.
Other Information
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Image Description
This image was captured in Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Az. I was part of a workshop touring that part of Arizona and we happened to be there as the Cacti were flowering. Our good fortune, so after capturing much more sweeping photographs of the Saguaros and other Park inhabitants, I began to focus on the cactus flowers and their developing buds. By using a f/5.6 aperture and a telephoto length I was able to keep the cactus needles, flowers, and buds sharp while creating a gradual blurring of the background resulting in a more interesting image.
Technical Details
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Lens: EF28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM @ 300 mm. f/5.6
for 1/800 sec. ISO 400. Edited using Photoshop.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Robert (Bob?), I like this a lot. The bloom and buds are very sharp, and the cholla spines and spent bloom add a lot of interest. Nice comp and colours, too. Your aperture choice worked great here.
Sweet image!
The composition is very nice, and juxtaposing the two cacti works very well, with soft light and good focus for the important parts. I would clone out the dark stuff in the UR corner. There are aberrations on the larger needles, most likely from the lens, which had issues at the long end especially wide open. But I see this is an older image and you have upgraded nicely, so I’m just being nit-picky. You might minimize the issue with a crop from the left. I wonder if softening the focus selectively might work? Maybe someday there will be AI fixes for things like that! It is a very pleasing image, well worth a bit of experimentation or saving for future fixes.
Hi Robert, Diane did such a good job with the technical stuff, I’ll stick to my emotional response (I’m better at that anyway ;<). What strikes me about your image here is the story it tells - Older, more mature plants, and even the dying, decaying ones giving way to that incredible perfection of brand new life. It’s a well done juxtaposition, and I even like how you have it positioned off center and down low. Wow, such a contrast! It’s a universal story we can all relate to. Who doesn’t love that fresh perfection of the young ones?
