Pterodactylus

[DvirBarkay]

A different view of the the flowering Night Fragrant Epidendrum (Epidendrum nocturnum) I posted before. This time with a much tighter perspective and without flash. I really liked the shape of the silhouette set against the full moon behind it which to me feels like some sort of ancient flying animal like a Pterodactylus

It was a rainy and very humid night out in the rainforest so the front of the lens was rather foggy when I took this image which I think helps to partly explain the lighting effect.

Specific Feedback Requested

The light/shadow effects in the image are in the original and didn’t do any vignetting. While I do think having the strong shadows helps to lend the image a more eerie vibe I am not sure if for other viewers it is distracting.

Technical Details

[Alfredo_Mora]

Hi Dvir, wow great blues, shadows, and shapes in your image! My eye is immediately drawn to the bright light and then the long petals of the flower. I think the shadows and steely blue tones steal the show here. I don’t really have any corrections to offer. Great job on this!

[Diane_Miller]

I think this is extremely cool! The dark shadows are mysterious and don’t seem overdone. What an amazing flower, wonderfully composed.

I don’t often shoot in very humid conditions but a few times I’ve had lens fogging ruin an attempted shot. I’ve put a few hand-warmer packs beside my bag and hope I remember to bring them if I’m likely to be in very humid conditions. I’d try to attach one to the lens behind the hood, with a rubber band, and see if I could keep the lens warm enough to not fog over. I don’t know if that would cause problems with thermal mixing or if the warmth would throw focus off – I’d try to be careful not to overheat anything and would likely need some sort of cloth between the warmer and the lens. Haven’t had a chance to try it since I thought of it, though.

[Bonnie_Lampley]

Oh, this is very cool! Like an alien creature in the depths of the ocean.

[Lon_Overacker]

Dvir,

Wow, this is fantastic! Yes, very “cool” - LOVE the blue here. Just beautiful.

Outstanding work. The only suggestion I can think of is wondering what this might look like rotated 90deg as a vertical? Just a thought.

Thanks sharing. Love this!

Lon

[DvirBarkay]

@Alfredo_Mora

Hi Dvir, wow great blues, shadows, and shapes in your image! My eye is immediately drawn to the bright light and then the long petals of the flower. I think the shadows and steely blue tones steal the show here. I don’t really have any corrections to offer. Great job on this!

Thank you @Alfredo_Mora !

@Bonnie_Lampley, Yes, I totally agree that it looks like a creature from the deep or some prehistoric animal.

[DvirBarkay]

@Lon_Overacker

Dvir,

Wow, this is fantastic! Yes, very “cool” - LOVE the blue here. Just beautiful.

Outstanding work. The only suggestion I can think of is wondering what this might look like rotated 90deg as a vertical? Just a thought.

Thanks sharing. Love this!

Lon

Thank you @Lon_Overacker ! Here is how it would look as a vertical.

[DvirBarkay]

@Diane_Miller

…one to the lens behind the hood, with a rubber band, and see if I could keep the lens warm enough to not fog over. I don’t know if that would cause problems with thermal mixing or if the warmth would throw focus off – I’d try to be careful not to overheat anything and would likely need some sort of cloth between the warmer and the lens. Haven’t had a chance to try it since I thought of it, though.

Thank you for the kind words @Diane_Miller! I think the main issue that night was that i was borrowing a lens from a friend that had no weather sealing and it was raining a lot and very humod (and in an open swampy area in the middle of a rainforest to boot) so fairly punishing conditions for a lens of that kind. Of course I have had many issues leaving the hotel room that was much cooler than the outside and having a foggy lens (front and back) and sometimes the best way to deal with that is to just let the lens sit for a bit outside until the condensation stops.