The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
A meandering path on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park led me into the forest near a roaring river. The sound of last Winter’s melted snowflakes ebbed and flowed with the topography. The soil slowly morphed from sandy gravel to a rich, loamy soil. Here, footsteps are softer and a feeling of deep reverence comes over you. As I paused to soak it all in, my wife called from around the corner in a sort of whispered yell, “Red Columbines!!!”. My adventure buddy is usually ahead of me because I am too easily distracted by things to take pictures of! I sauntered off in her general direction, and was gloriously delighted to find this marvelous specimen of Shooting Star Columbine. Its Latin name Aquilegia elegantula, could be translated “The Elegant Eagle”. I don’t think there is a more fitting name for this stunning forest flower.
Specific Feedback
The sun was filtered through the edge of a cloud, but fairly bright. I slightly underexposed this so as not to loose details in the flower and then brightened it a bit in post. I’m always open to any critique.
Technical Details
Nikon D850
Sigma 105 mm Macro
ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/1000sec
I took 100 shots but chose 71 for this stack. I put the center column on upside down and got creative with the tripod legs to lean against a large boulder to get a background flower positioned to add some color to the background.
Paul, I love the elegance of this image. Your composition bringing in the bokeh of the background into position so it highlighted the flower enhances the shooting star’s fireball. Your processing of the stacked images is well executed. Thank you for sharing this image.
Oh I like these and never see them much anymore. I really wish Wisconsin wasn’t as buggy as NH was. Oh well. I wonder if some local contrast would be beneficial to bring out some separation. Maybe a mid-tone lift. Some sparkle is needed I think. It certainly has presence.
This sounds very familiar as my adventure buddy does the same thing, she also alerts me to interesting things to capture.
I really like this and I certainly appreciate your deliberate and dedicated approach to setup and execution, it certainly shows in your work.
I also like that you positioned your camera so the red in the BG encapsulated the bottom of the flower so well. You have red in the BG where there’s green and yellow in the flower, then you have green in the BG where there’s red in the flower, very nicely done!!
The soft light works very well at highlighting the delicate reds. Wonderful textures and details as well!
The only small nitpick I have (and it is just a nitpick) is to maybe lower the brightness of the LRC or maybe just reduce the cyan there?
