Barely Dawn

Gallery: FloraPosted June 19, 2014497 views7 comments

This flowering Barrel cactus came as a total surprise.

The coffee grinder wouldn't behave so in spite of having half a house to unpack, I grabbed my camera and headed to Starbucks for coffee and a bite to eat.

Two doors down was a giant bin (perfect for the accumulated boxes in the car and around the corner lo' was a flowering cactus.

Even though it was still quite early, the light was already somewhat harsh and I opted to convert to black and white (NIK SEP2) to retain the early morning feeling and preserve a touch of color in the flowers.

Spot metering, manual focus, 1/1000s, ISO 100, f/5.0, 92mm.

C&C welcome.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Ramamohan Pai on June 19, 2014 at 7:44 PM

Carol - Nice selective coloration and the combination of the spikes and the soft blooms makes this shot very interesting.

I am on the fence with respect to the blank areas in the frame. My initial approach would have been to shoot this top down.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 550 Posts, 9037 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on June 19, 2014 at 10:34 PM

Interesting contrast between the colorful flowers and all the stark thorns, Carol. I like the creative approach. Looks good.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on June 20, 2014 at 6:38 AM

Love the high contrast b&w, Carol, and the vitality of those cactus spines. Nice focus too on the main flower. The movement of the eye into the distant dark gives this almost a landscape feel - very creative !!

Registered on May 18, 2007, 1108 Posts, 7647 Comments

Comment posted by Bob/Charly Nelson on June 20, 2014 at 7:12 AM

I'm on the fence with this Carol. I like the processing, but I wish the depth was greater so all the blooms were sharp. Just my humble opinion.
Bob&Charly

Registered on January 29, 2014, 35 Posts, 398 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on June 20, 2014 at 1:30 PM

Carol,

I like this as posted. I do think that Ram's suggestion to shoot top down is an interesting one.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on June 20, 2014 at 3:29 PM

I like this B&W version and creative approach. This would make a good vertical cropped image to me.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on June 21, 2014 at 10:35 PM

Hi Carol

Scott echoed my thoughts perfectly

the image seems to be saying, look, but dont touch

Albert Darmo
Canada

Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments