What's Your Point?

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
1

What's Your Point?
What's Your Point?1167×1750 476 KB

Chrissy has a small cactus terrarium that gives me lots of opportunities to experiment. While shooting this I inadvertently bumped the camera while the shutter was open. I was just about to delete it when I saw some possibilities with ICM. I shot a bunch of long exposures with varying amounts of movement and settled on this one. Will probably post a straight fully sharp rendition in Flora or Macro. I liked the combination of sharp haloed points throughout the frame. Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea but here it is for your consideration. All comments welcome. >=))>

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Technical Details

Sony A7RIII
Minolta 200mm macro
ISO 100, 5 secs @ f32

2 Likes
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I like it, Bill. The soft feel, along with the abstract/minimalist feel, all work very nicely together. Nicely seen and captured.

3

This works really well Bill. It’s both sharp and soft at the same time. I’m curious, with a 5 second exposure, how much did you actually move the camera? Just a little bump or was it much more than that? I love the soft color tones and light and you certainly have an interesting composition with the larger agave? in the foreground.

1 Like
4

Fascinating shapes and textures. Wonderful abstract nature to this image even though it’s pretty easy to determine what it is. The depth of field and background make this image work well.

5

David: I held the camera steady for about 3 seconds to get the agave leaf and the cactus spikes well defined and then moved it slowly for the final 2. Lots of trial and error but it was fun to experiment.

1 Like
6

Bill, a very interesting technique. I don’t think I would have thought to hold it still for 3 seconds and then move it for 2. It sure came out nice.

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Bill, the slight softness lets the blue and green tones and their shapes dominate rather than the spines. That makes for an inviting feeling that cactus shots don’t usually have.

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Interesting take on ICM, Bill. Gonna have to try that. The softness is perfect.

9

This is fascinating and wonderful and incredible! I love the softer colors in the corners, and the diagonal of brighter green above right of the agave leaf, repeating its shape. Definitely my cup of tea. (Two lumps, please.) You could spend hours playing with this technique!