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Bell Heather


Bell Heather
Photo Information
Copyright: howard shirley (gerbilratz) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 362 W: 0 N: 977] (3110)
Genre: Plants
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-03-24
Categories: Flowers
Camera: Canon EOS 350D, Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG macro, Tiffen 58mm UV PROTECTOR USA
Exposure: f/29.0, 1/250 seconds
Details: Tripod: Yes (Fill) Flash: Yes
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2008-03-24 7:53
Viewed: 440
Points: 28
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Bell Heather, Erica cinerea.

Grows on Moorland, Heaths, Moors, Bogs and Open Woods, also on Dunes.They prefer drier acid soils.

Erica's have globular, bell shaped flowers 4 teeth and with the leaves in "whorls" The fruit is formed as a "capsule"

This species is much brighter coloured than Heather. The flowering season is usually from June to September, but this one was in full bloom in late March!!..anybody got any doubts on Global Warming!!

This one was photographed early this morning after a very wet and windy night. Very low temperature and a sharp frost. The ice/snow had melted a bit resulting in this saturated image.

To get some light thrown in, I used the previous ploy of attaching 2 halogen bicycle lamps to the lens (stuck on with duct tape...the goo will come off, honest!)and my trusty 20 year old Chinon flash gun on it's extension lead, this being hand held above and pointing down on to the subject.

Upon advice from some "critiquer's" I decided to open up the F-Stop to a massive

f/29!!
Shutter speed of 1/250.
ISO 100

The flash gun kept mis-firing because of the wet conditions, but I eventually got this image.

This was shot in RAW, and is "as is" in it's entirety. No PP work done to the image, no sharpening, no cropping or any other changes, just sized for upload.

I think I will leave off the macro flowers for a bit as they could become boring to others....but any comments and critiques warmly welcome.
boreocypriensis, matatur, eqshannon, PaulH, nglen, Adanac, mariki, sayat, goldyrs, jazdzurka has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello friend Howard,
Splendid macro shot of these beautifull Bell Heather flowers friend with excelent DOF, POV and sharpness. TFS.
Regards,

Bayram

Hola Howard,
A beautiful waxy-looking flower group with nicely accompanying contrast colored needle-leaves captured perfectly from an ideal POV and utilizing a deep DOF, obviously the result of "closing down" the f-stop to an f/29! The resulting focal depth is purely fantastic my friend, and that dark BG, well, fine eh?
Cheers,
Mehmet

Hi Howard,every day a great surprise.This is a really artwork,a wonderfull way to show this little flowers of erica,i like the black background too,my best compliments,Luciano

I see no reason why you ever would think your fine images, such as this one in particular are lacking in any way, shape or form...Deeply evocative in colour and feel.....
Bob

  • Great 
  • PaulH Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1032 W: 26 N: 2994] (10800)
  • [2008-03-24 12:55]

Hi Howard,
the feeling of freshness and wetness in this shot is amazing. I am impressed by your ingenuity and technique with the light managment too - also the use of f/29 works brilliantly!
Great work, well done!
Paul

  • Great 
  • Adanac Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1044 W: 1 N: 4110] (13816)
  • [2008-03-24 17:49]

Hello Howard,
Amazing piece of work here howard . the depth of field, colors and focus as well as the composition are all spot on. Congratulations sir.
Rick

Hello Howard,

Superb composition. Very good sharpness and wonderful bright colours. Very good contrast against the dark background.
Cheers,
Mariki

  • Great 
  • sayat Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 269 W: 0 N: 193] (1095)
  • [2008-03-25 7:22]

Very beautiful shot of this great plant. I like a lot the the colors and the somewhat soft light on the leaves and flowers. We have erica manipuliflora here with pink flowers which has an amazing fragrance. Does this one have a scent too?

Hey Howard,
An awesome shot, period!
Cheers!
Goldy

  • Great 
  • nglen Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1989 W: 5 N: 5528] (20896)
  • [2008-03-25 11:51]

Hi Howard. Firstly you take pictures of what you like doing its far from boring to me. I just love the light and shine on the bells the rain has helped to do this. such bright colours on a dull day. with dine detail . well done TFS.
Nick..

Hi Howard, fascinating flowers composition with splendid colors and excellent sharpness, very well done, ciao Silvio

Hi Howard,

I took a macro of some bell heather at the weekend, but yours is much better that my effort. Great level of detail and depth of field. Really interesting and so easy to get lost in the detail. Great shot.

Mike

Hi Howard
Very good macro picture. I like composition and colours. I admire also the shine on the flowers.
Thanks also for useful and informative note.
Ania

  • Great 
  • arfer Gold Star Critiquer [C: 2731 W: 0 N: 0] (0)
  • [2008-04-01 6:48]

Hello Howard

Excellent rich colours.
The lighting is well utilized here.
Well focused ,the POV is wonderful.
A very beautiful image to look at.
TFS

Rob

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