Charles Ginsburgh

January 2025 - Tangerine Segments

Original

About the Image(s)

Recently I was eating a Tangerine, and I started to examine the structure of the segment with all of the interesting “juice sacks” within the segment. In the past I was always thought that it might be interesting to try to capture an image of these elements, so why not now.

To shoot this segment I needed to first peal away most of the outer membrane, to reveal the actual inner workings of the segment. This took some time, patience, and many trials. Luckly, I had more than one Tangerine to work on (and subsequently ingest). Humm … eating one’s subject seems to be a theme in my recent macro photography. Few slices remained intact once the pealing was done.

I was able to get one segment that was intact sufficiently to shoot, and that image is included here. I also shot an example, of one segment that had broken apart when I was pealing. I am not sure which I like best. The broken segment has more interest and detail while the intact segment is a bit more identifiable, again with its own set of details. I have chosen to display the broken segment but have also provided the intact segment as well.

WHICH DO YOU LIKE THE MOST, AND WHY? The importance of having an identifiable subject in macro photography may come into play here and is worthy of some discussion.

These images were captured using my tripod mounted R5 Mark II body with a RF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens (25 slices at 1/3 sec, f/10, ISO 400). Normal morning room lighting near an window was used for my lighting. Again, the slices were stacked within the camera using this relatively new capability in the mark II model. Editing in Photoshop was done to remove extraneous dust and bits, to enhance the contract and sharpness and to add an appropriate background.

What do you all think ?

6 comments posted

Murphy Hektner

Hi Charlie: It is interesting to me lately you have photographed food related subjects many of us would not even give a thought to photograph. In the process you have created some interesting images to share.

In regards to your question of which version, Original or Segments I would prefer, it would be the segments. The segments has a lot more composition interest as I can count 5 different sections with the two small round pieces in front. To me the original lacks design elements, just an oval shaped piece of material basically.

Am bothered by the presentation as you have a dark olive background on the top part of the segments, however the bottom half seem to hang out in space over darkness; at least on my monitor. With your other food pictures this was not the case as we got the feeling the subject was resting on a base of some sort. If somehow you could create a base defined by a thin border it may help.

Do not think most people could tell for certain this picture was created from a Tangerine. Thanks Charlie for sharing your creation with us.

Just my two cents!! cheers...

Posted: 01/03/2025 12:53:54

Charles Ginsburgh

You have made some valid points in regard to how the subject looks sitting on the surface. I generally try to add some type of 'surface" to the base the subject sits on, to avoid the "sitting in space" effect, but did not address this point in this image. Here I guess I so fixated upon the actual subject, that I looked past the overall image presentation. In other words, perhaps I saw what I "knew" was there rather than seeing what others would see. I know I have mentioned this in several of my comments, but this goes to show that we all can fall into this trap. Thank you for your observations. Posted: 01/03/2025 16:44:53

Xiao Cai

Hi Charles,

Wow, so beautiful image, very detailed, very sharp, and looks very "Juice". You did a great job!

I like the "final" one, the shapes are very interesting and very dynamic, but I like the reflection on the "original" one. I feel the reflection on the "final" one is a little unnatural feel, a little distracting, and probably it needs a little blurry.

Thanks for sharing! Posted: 01/03/2025 15:11:48

Pierre Williot

Hi Charles,
Nice micro-dissection!
Interesting subject but maybe a little dark. Nice details and texture.
I like the Peeled version better as the peel was a little too reflective.
Nice idea. Thanks for sharing.
Posted: 01/05/2025 15:10:51

Neal R. Thompson, M.D.

Great depth is shown in this m interesting subject. I would never guessed what it was without the explanation. Posted: 01/12/2025 21:47:02

Charles Ginsburgh

You bring up an interesting point, and one that is common to macrophotography. When we magnify items and scenes, the presentation often become more difficult to identify, causing some confusion to the viewer. We know what it is, but this may not be obvious to the viewer (as you experienced with this image). This is why I presented both images in this submission. I think that the main image has more interest and character but is less identifiable. The "before" or "alternate" image is more identifiable but has less 'character'. I was interested if the rest of the group was more comfortable with the alternate presentation. In our macrophotography, we need to keep this issue in mind. How can one keep the view engaged (but making them more comfortable is know what it is they see in the image) our do we stick to more identifiable images. I like the former, with some help in the caption, but you all may take a different tact. What say you all? Posted: 01/14/2025 17:28:52

PID Digital Dialogue

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