Oregon Sunshine, Eriophyllum lanatum

I found this dewy jewel yesterday morning on our local prairie. It and others growing in a swale were significantly larger than the ones I’ve found on our property and I loved the dew.

The darker yellow toward the center of the rays is characteristic of these blooms.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Anything.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Should the partially open blossom stay or go?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

5DIII, ef180 f/3.5 macro, tripod, 4 shot stack at f/8, 1/2500, iso 1000, manual exposure, manual focus. f/16 wasn’t getting the full flower crisp and the background grasses were starting to show more than I wanted, so I went with the stack. Stacking in Helicon Focus, minor further processing in LR & PS CC (the background got a bit funky from the grasses moving differently than the subject in the breeze and had to be cleaned up). Taken yesterday at 8:08 am under partly sunny skies.

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1 Like

Dennis, the color, details and dew on this full bloom and the opening bloom look great. There’s enough background to show context well. I do think that shifting the frame a bit to move the main bloom off center would be good.

Thanks, @Mark_Seaver. I played with that composition a long time and was never quite satisfied. There’s plenty of room to play with it.

Lovely flower Dennis. I really like how you handled the bright reflected light. Lots of detail and water drops look great. I could also see the flower moved a bit. Higher in my mind. The square crop looks fine. The question for me is the personal choice about the partly opened blossom. It was probably hard to shift out of the way in the field. Cloning it away is probably awkward one way or the other. Adding more room may be the way to go.

I love the dew in this shot Dennis. I think the focus stacking worked well. I do like the square crop, and I also like the partially open bloom because I think it gives the image some additional character. I do agree with the suggestion of moving the main flower off-center, maybe just slightly to the lower-left of the frame. I think that would balance out the composition nicely. As you said, there’s plenty of room to try different things. I also noticed that there’s a tiny insect on the main flower, at about the 2:00 position. You could clone that out, though I personally think it’s ok to leave it in - again, it adds character. Overall, a gorgeous shot.

Dennis: I like this crop pretty much as is and think the center placement works fine. The dew and how you handled the hard light are marvelous and the bud adds a nice complementary element. Top notch shot. >=))>