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Foxglove Finger Mittens


Foxglove Finger Mittens
Photo Information
Copyright: Emma Taylor (Aramok) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 922 W: 99 N: 1396] (4799)
Genre: Plants
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-06-16
Categories: Flowers
Camera: Canon EOS 350D, Canon EF 24-105mm F/4.0 L IS USM, Digital ISO 100
Exposure: f/7.1, 1/200 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): Herbs used in medicine [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2007-06-18 7:41
Viewed: 657
Points: 22
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
I thought that I would do something a little different today. I managed to snatch 5 minutes out in the garden over the weekend, in between the heavy showers and everything else that needed to be done.

About 3 years ago, the area under the electricity lines to our house was cut back and the trees trimmed right the way back away from the power cables. This resulted in a lot of disturbance of the ground and most of the vegetation was lost becuase of the marshy nature of the ground. A rather messy area of mud was left for 6 months until foxgloves started to grow there. There were none there before hand (at least not recently)

Last year was the first year that we had this wonderful display. This year has been even better with well over 200 or more flower spikes. In amongst them all I found this one which had fallen over and was resting on another flower spike.

I liked the way that the light was catching the flowers and with them on their sides, it seemed to add that touch of orginality needed to present a rather usual specimen.

Converted from RAW and levels tweaked, the picture has been cropped very slightly and resized. It was taken using flash exposure compensation of -2EV from a very close distance, handheld for speed... (my husband was trying to take me for the weekly grocery shopping - the foxgloves were much more interesting...)

A little about foxgloves - there is a lot of folklore about the foxglove.

The first and most important thing is that the entire plant is poisonous and just touching the skin can cause rashes.

The name of the plant is dervived from the fact that that the shape of the flowers resembles the fingers of a glove.

If the flowers are grown near to your door it is said to ward off evil, but the flowers themselves should never been taken indoors becuase it is considered to be unlucky to do so.

The foxglove is a source of Digitalis (Digitalis purpurea) which is used in medicine for heart treatment.

There are many, many names for foxgloves in folklore, all centre around a common theme,

to name a few...
Gaelic - meuran sith — fairy thimble or meuran na daoine marbha — dead men’s thimble.
Irish - meregan na mna sioh - thimble of the fairywomen
Norwegian and Danish — raev bjaelde — the fox tinkle-bell. etc...

Can you add any more names?

For me they were always finger mittens...
pablominto, trinko, SkyF, SunToucher, SelenE, ramthakur, Alex99 has marked this note useful
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ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To SunToucher: no chanceAramok 2 06-18 14:12
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello Emma,
Good diagonal composition!
Wonderful details are captured in the delicate flowers, and the pleasant light makes the attractive colours sparkle!
Greetings,
Pablo -

great colors, didn't know they were bad to touch. nice focus good background

Hi Emma.
Very beautiful. Great crop to suit the proportions. Awesome colour and detail. Very well done.
Regards, Steve.

  • Great 
  • Mana Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1714 W: 24 N: 4988] (16346)
  • [2007-06-18 11:31]

Hi Emma,
Beautiful flowers with such brilliant colours. Perfect natural lighting, immaculate sharpness and fine focus. Excellent POV to portray then and a precise DOF. The diagonal composition looks superb here and the tiny droplets of water is a special bonus. Kudos.
TFS.
Sumon

Hi Emma,
I've been trying to find some folklore information on this flower in the Dutch language or any of its dialect, but I couldn't find any on this plant.
This is a wonderful diagonal composition that brings out the flower much better than the normal vertical position of the flower. The details are perfect and the use of the flash brought out the details and colors even more. Surprising to see that you didn't take this with your macro lens.
TFS,
Niek

Hi Emma ,
very nice shot from this beautiful flower.
well compoaes and it has amazing colours.

Thanks for sharing
My best regards
Saeed

  • Great 
  • SkyF Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2390 W: 194 N: 1991] (8113)
  • [2007-06-19 6:29]

Hello Emma,
beautiful diagonal composition with superb colors and lovely detail.
Great close up work, the DOF is great and the entire flower is in wonderful focus.
Very well done.
Sky

  • Great 
  • SelenE Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2352 W: 61 N: 3814] (12240)
  • [2007-06-21 9:56]

Hi Emma,
Colors and the contrast of this beautiful flower is very nice. I liked the light a lot. Well done on the composition and exposure control. TFS
Selen

Thanks for looking at my ants picture, Emma. I am obliged.
This is a beautiful composition with a neat row of lovely pink Foxglove flowers you found in front of your house.
The 24-105mm comes in very useful for a shot like this where the subject has a considerable horizontal length.
A very sharp image with fascinating colours and contrasts. I like that single drop of dew on one of the flowers.
TFS.

  • Great 
  • jmp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1836 W: 94 N: 2338] (8400)
  • [2007-06-25 16:38]

Hi Emma,
Really neat image of these flowers. Excellent details, colours and dof and note. In Spanish the name is Digital.
TFS, José M.

  • Great 
  • Alex99 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3046 W: 148 N: 4553] (14701)
  • [2007-07-15 0:51]

Hi Emma.
Nice story and amazing picture of these flowers. I like you attractive inclined composition and superb reproduction of all beautiful features of this plant. Sunlight is perfect and decorate the pictured scene very well as well as the remote blurred BG. My compliments and TFS.
Alexei.

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