Spring Gold, Lomatium utriculatum

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

Our earliest lomatium in this area and the first bit of color in the spring. Also known as Biscuitroot, but it would be a shame to dig it up. In this case, I decided to photograph the developing seed head. It was a bit breezy as it almost always is, but I decided to try a stack and ended up with 21 frames. The Lomatium came out pretty well, but the background grasses were pretty ugly, so I did a lot of smoothing there. I didn’t overlook the spittlebug house-I liked it. By the way, if you’re interested in seeing how a spittlebug does it, I brought an invasive oxeye daisy into the house with one on it and did a timelapse of it rebuilding its house after I removed part of it. The clip only runs 12 seconds though it covers 20 minutes.

2020-06-01 10-36-03 (B,Radius8,Smoothing4)-Edit
2020-06-01 10-36-03 (B,Radius8,Smoothing4)-Edit1600×1099 508 KB

What technical feedback would you like if any?

The brighter areas of the seeds and stems were pretty hot, though not blown in the raw files, do they look ok after processing?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Do the crop and background work?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

5DIII, EF 180 f/3.5 macro, tripod, 21 frames at f/5.6, 1/3200, iso 1600, manual exposure (far more light than needed, but I’d been shooting under heavy cloud and the sun snuck out on me). Stacked in Helicon Focus, further processing in LR & PS CC. Slight crop on the left. Taken at 9:11 am on June 1st.

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2

Dennis: Well worth the effort and the video of the spittlebug is fascinating and certainly validates your decision to make it an important element. Before I read that this was a stack my thoughts on the BG were that I liked the implied motion and dynamism. I think it works very well. Superbly crafted image.>=))>

3

Very dynamic and lovely colors. I do get the feeling of the wind blowing. The spittle bug house is great, as was your video!

4

You’ve done a fantastic job with the background grasses, Dennis, and with the stack ( I’ve never dared myself do a stack outdoors ! ). The plant I don’t know, so that is a bonus for me, and your video is a delight ! Thanks so much for sharing this.

5

I like the composition and the background shows motion, which makes the image dynamic. Didn’t know about spittlebug. I always thought the foam on some plants was the sap coming out. Thanks for the info on spittlebug and the video. I will pay more attention to it next time. Looks like stacking has worked well. I am surprised you got that many frames in the wind.