Pastel Stems

It was hot, it was humid and it was buggy. Just a retention pond in Florida.

Specific Feedback Requested

This is my first post here so let me have it haha. Any and all feedback welcomed.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Handheld. 1/4 second f/11 ISO 100 120mm. Nikon D750.

8 Likes

Quite lovely. The soft background makes the plants really pop. It’s hard to find a nice arrangement of these, but I think you did a good job. The touch of green in them is good, too. You could clone out some of the random ā€˜blobs’ in the water if you want an even cleaner look. Quite interesting and pleasing.

This is quite nice. I had the same thought as Kristen about cloning the blobs, especially in the URC. Things along the edges sure do stand out. Really beautiful image.

Thanks Kris! It’s really hard to find a group of these that work. I removed dozens of blobs from this image already, they were smaller ones though. I’m not the best at post processing yet, that’s one of my next goals. Cheers!

Thank you Harley! I removed dozens of blobs already, I’m not the best at post processing and I’m not really sure how to remove some of the larger ones. Cheers!

Very beautiful peaceful image, Jason. I’m glad you don’t have to live in the heat and humidity anymore! And can be in a place where they have fall! (I read your bĆ­o) I’m curious, what’s the story about the bird on your head?! It looks like a Scrub Jay or a Crow, I can’t tell in your small picture?!

Try using the lasso tool to select each blob then content-aware fill and see how it looks. If one does not work well, try a different selection with the lasso.

Jason, this is a very peaceful image with fine reflections from the clouds. However, this week’s theme is wetlands, last weeks theme was reflections, although this will also fit the reflections topic, just change the tag.

Thanks for the kind words Vanessa! I’m so glad to be out of Florida for a variety of reasons haha. You are correct, the bird is a Scrub Jay, while out showing my father-in-law his lifer Scrub Jay this one decided my head was a good spot to stop and survey the land. Luckily he had his phone ready and got this shot. Fun memory!

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Thanks Mark. I’m wondering if I’m missing something with the tag, with it being my first one it prompted me to use at least one tag so I picked the first thing that came up which was wetlands. I’ve changed my tag to reflections because that’s what I think it should be, in the list of weekly challenges it says from 8/29-9/4 is reflections. Is this incorrect, if so I’ll change it again.

That’s so awesome! Scrub Jays are hilarious! There’s tons around where I live and they’re very vocal!

Wonderful composition and reflections of both plants and sky! Good idea about a little more cloning, just to make an excellent image even better.

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Beautiful photo. I love it. I agree…it would be better without the blobs in the upper left. Great first post! Keep them coming.

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This is a beautiful first post, Jason. You managed to find a wonderful grouping of reeds as well as a great combination of warm and cool colors. My only suggestion would be to clone out the blobs in the URC to clean up the scene just a touch. I hope you don’t mind, but here is a rework with what I was thinking. Looking forward to your participation.

Thanks Ed! Your rendition does look much better, I need to learn this cloning skill.

Jason…a bit delayed… if you’re on the description of the current weekly challenge there’s a ā€œsubmitā€ button that adds the correct tag. Note that each challenge runs for one week from Sunday to Saturday. BTW, the only bit of weed in the upper right that I would clone is the one touching the frame. Frame contacts like that do catch a viewer’s eye. The other bits look like they belong in a retention pond. In or out becomes a question about how you want a viewer to think about what you’re showing. My simplistic feeling is that it’s a question of are you showing what was there or what you wish was there? and I don’t think there’s a clear cut answer.