Botanical Gardens

[Shooter_Mutter]

I took these just 3 days after I had bought my camera.. thought I would toss them up for C&C and see what ya'll thought.

One of my favorites.. the Spider Lilly
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh29/aschen_engel3/8-30-08/IMG_0671.jpg

This one's a little blown out
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh29/aschen_engel3/8-30-08/IMG_0684.jpg

Grape-Berry things
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh29/aschen_engel3/8-30-08/IMG_0686.jpg

Open Landscape
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh29/aschen_engel3/8-30-08/IMG_0707.jpg

[tonydee]

Nice work. #1 has excellent choice of depth of field... all the interesting bits are nicely in focus. Might have framed with it a little more to the left, things generally look good with a one-third / two-thirds split of the frame. If you position the camera so the flower appears in front of the dark green grass, it will stand out more.

#2 is a bit over-exposed as you say. Could also use a touch of clockwise rotation. Looks like a nice place.

#3: I personally would have like more depth of field... f/4 is a bit too shallow, especially as such small berries don't provide a lot of satisfying detail, so you need a broader sweep of eye-satisfying subject matter. The purple at top left isn't enough to be satisfying... just a hint of a plant behind, so it would have been better to frame or crop the image to leave it out totally. Good exposure and colour.

#4: again, try for 2/3rds of whatever's more interest (the ground), and 1/3rd of whatever's less (sky), and the picture will just look more harmonious. Also good to think in terms of fore-, mid- and back-ground elements in the shot. This needs some foreground to enhance the sense of depth, and add interest.

Cheers, Tony

[Robert_Lay]

#1 and #4 are good shots - interesting and technically on the mark.

#2 gives me the impresssion of not being level - does it look like it's tilting down at the left? The dynamic range is also too much for you to capture. The portions that lie out in the direct sunlight are washed out. It needs HDR treatment.

#3 is just another nature snapshot. Nothing gets your interest in there.