Walt Brunner  

Lupine Love by Walt Brunner

February 2021 - Lupine Love

February 2021 - Walt Brunner

Original

About the Image(s)

This photo is an example of always looking for a shot. I was at Reflection Lakes on Mt Rainier at 5:30 in the morning to try for a calm lake and reflection of the mountain. But it was not to be, so I began to look for anything else to shoot. The lupen were out in force, and I just turned around, walked to the other side of the road, and found this perfect heart shape in the unfolding petals. The morning dew added the final touch. If you zoom in enough, you will see me in the big water droplet. This has remained one of my favorite macro flower shots.

Taken with a Nikon D800 on 7-24-2012 with a Nikor 105mm f2.8 at f11, ISO 400, 1/1000 sec. I used PS6 to crop and darken the background. I used Topaz to sharpen the whole image and another layer in PS6 to add a gaussian blur to soften the flower in the lower left and to remove the drop of water in the heart

This round’s discussion is now closed!
4 comments posted

Marie Costanza   Marie Costanza
Walt, What a lovely image! The water droplets are very effective, especially with the bonus of catching your image within one of them! The dark background provides the viewer the ability to concentrate on your main subject, though I also like your original with the complementary colored background.   Posted: 02/05/2021 16:53:35
Dr Isaac Vaisman   Dr Isaac Vaisman
Walt, great macro shot. The colors are outstanding and the water droplets complement the image. The crop isolated the main flower containing the water droplet with your reflection on it. The other flowers in the frame are out of focus, and somewhat distracting because they are too bright. Using the elliptical marquee tool and expanding (smoothing) the selection by 10 pixels and the inverting it, I lowered the brightness of the rest of the frame making the main Lupin flower stand out. Also cropped the image to a square elimination a considerable amount of empty space.   Posted: 02/07/2021 20:16:52
Comment Image
Adrian Binney   Adrian Binney
Walt. A lovely close up! I love the colours and the droplets really add to the image.
Isaac has created a different version. Whilst this removes lighter parts, it also removes the complimentary colours that I feel adds interest to the image as a whole. I don't find your lighter areas hugely distracting - Perhaps a slight tone down of the whites around the core flower may be a middle ground.   Posted: 02/22/2021 12:14:46
Bruce Benson   Bruce Benson
Walt, a very nice image with nice color and subject. I agree with Isaac and like his adjustments to take away the brightness of the background. The main flower is pretty centered and the one on the right converges with the edge of the frame so a slight movement of the camera would make a stronger composition in my opinion.. Overall a very nice image. Bruce   Posted: 02/24/2021 12:11:59