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Kristen_SmithJune 20, 2024_1003901-Enhanced-NR-Edit.jpg
Kristen_SmithJune 20, 2024_1003901-Enhanced-NR-Edit.jpg1250×1024 928 KB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Ok, I had a little fun with the title. Sometimes I can’t help myself. If you’re old enough to have seen this movie in theaters, woo hoo!! I saw it at a drive in. Good times.

Anyway…these are three Purple Pitcher Plant flowers that I saw on a kayaking trip with a bunch of other people. I passed them by on the way out, but when we were coming back, I stopped. We had high, thin clouds so the light was bright, but very slightly filtered which I think helps. The three of them together stuck way up over the Leather Leaf and Sweet Gale, but I still had to do some distraction removal. Because their leaves fill with water and are designed to trap insects for food, the flowers form well above them so that they don’t kill their pollinators. Isn’t evolution wonderful? Oh and there are mosquito species that have adapted to be immune to the chemicals produced by the leaves and breed inside them which prevents predation of their young. Not so great for us who hate the little tormenters, but again, isn’t evolution wonderful?

The shapes and structure of the flowers shows really well with the three slightly different angles. They always remind me of space ships or space stations, so that’s probably why the title came into my head.

Specific Feedback

This is a crop and I have some room to shift around a bit, but I thought this showed the blossoms best; the surrounding vegetations is bright and I didn’t want it to be too dominant. Thoughts?

Technical Details

Handheld in the kayak, might have had a CPL on, but can’t recall.

image

Lr for initial work to even out most of the tonalities and do the crop. Used the denoise AI function there then into Photoshop for some removal action and use of the TK9 panel to isolate certain darks and colors for more contrast and smoothness. Also added a bit of a slight Orton effect in the highlights with some warming. Added canvas at the top because I had to crop out a bunch of OOF sky above the trees and thought it was a bit too close.

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2 Likes
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Very cool, Kris. I didn’t know they made this kind of flowers, but I’ve never lived around them. I like the image except for that darn out of focus leaf clump partially covering the stems. It gets close enough to the flowers to be pretty distracting to me. Unfortunately, I think it would take an awful lot of careful work to do anything about it (at least at my skill level).

1 Like
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From the looks of the grass, it appears you were lying down on the ground to get this shot. Really interesting to learn about this plant. Very pretty color. Your right, evolution is a wonderful thing. I think we could do without the mosquitos though. I like the lighter BG green near the top.

4

Very interesting plant! I like the colours, trio, and “attitude.”
I’m with Dennis on that OOF bit - would to tough to work out.
Your kayaking skills are clearly superior to mine - the thought of taking any of my cameras into kayak gives me great pause. I still think of my poor D800 that got knocked off a railing into a pond by a rambunctious kid. Thankfully, I had insurance.

5

Totally cool shot with wonderful detail and a gorgeous BG, and even cooler to be handheld out in the wild. I wonder about subduing the bright FG plants more, but I assume you have done what reasonably can be. The outdoors is the outdoors. I’ll take it – small flying, biting, pesky insects included.

Fascinating information about these plants and the intricacies of evolution.

6

Thanks @Dennis_Plank, @SkipsPics, @SandyR-B & @Diane_Miller - after removing a bunch of other stuff, I decided to let that foreground bit stay. Nothing is perfect and so… Carnivorous plants fascinate me and I even saw sundew on this trip, but didn’t have the time to photograph it although I have before.

Quite glad I’m comfortable and in control in a kayak, something I NEVER am in a canoe because there’s someone else’s movements I can’t predict. I’m a terrible passenger and basically in every vehicle. Control issues…I know. :laughing: