Making the best of bad circumstances

Image Critiques Macro/Close-up Critiques
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Making the best of bad circumstances
Making the best of bad circumstances2500×1919 1.13 MB

For the leaf, not for me. Really, coming to the end of your usefulness in an oily puddle in a rainy parking lot doesn’t sound glorious – until the sun comes out and the leaves that haven’t joined you yet pay fleeting tribute!

Thanks to Ariel’s post The Curl for giving me reason to dig this out from deep in the archives.

Specific Feedback Requested

All comments welcome!

Technical Details

Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 11.43.23 AM

From 2009, reworked with today’s LR and PS tools. Only minor cloning and the leaf brightened quite a bit. Cropped to about 50% as I was handholding in a hurry and in an awkward position, trying not to get too involved with the oily puddle.

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Such a beautiful photo you’ve gotten, Diane, out of the oily mess! Love the colors, reflections and the wonderful swirls.

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I adore this in every way! I prefer to be handheld but am very glad they have articulating screens oh the places we get into.

Love the colors, the whirls, and the composition! excellent

Now I will keep my eye out for poly puddles too! :blush:

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Ha!
The contrasting yellows and blues and curly, circle lines are wonderful.

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Wow, Diane, that is a very creative narrative :slight_smile:
(I like it)

I like the individual semi-circles at each point of the oak leaf along with the reflections of the curled points and the stem.
I also like where the focus begins to drop off, it adds depth to the scene IMHO.
The resistance to blend that oil and water has, worked to your advantage here, the oak leaf and the water are pushing the oil away.
The swirling colors in the oil and water clearly reflect that resistance to blend but in an artful way.

A friend of mine once said: “Wow, those are some neat colors in the water” while on a fishing trip together, I replied: Yes, pollution can be very colorful :slight_smile:

I have a felling that this would not be welcomed as a wall hanging in the office of the EPA :slight_smile:
(Stated another way, “I don’t think the EPA would buy this for their office!”, it looks too pretty! :smiley: )

Thanks for posting this :slight_smile:

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Diane, the colors from the oil’s iridescence do a great job of setting off the leaf. The curled shadows are great for making one explore the view carefully.

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Diane, you have lots of curves, lines, textures and colors to feast our eyes upon. Nicely seen and captured.

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Oh, those colors are fantastic, Diane. Wow. The comp is perfect too. I’m not sure when you took this, but it’s an excellent candidate for a focus stack. But I like it as is too. Well seen.

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Thanks @David_Bostock, @Merv, @Shirley_Freeman, @Mark_Seaver, @linda_mellor and @DeanRoyer! Nice to be able to dig up old stuff sometimes. I see from the folder that I did make a primitive attempt at two focus points that might have covered the subject well enough, but with handholding they didn’t line up well enough. And my group was wandering off, seeing no reason to photograph an oily puddle in a wet parking lot. Wish I had taken time to set up the tripod and done a slightly different angle, so the curled tips stood out better. That probably would have meant spending the day with wet, oily jeans. Would have been worth it, though.

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