Weekly Comp #294 - Close Up On Nature Competition

Wildlife is a challenging area of photography, so it's great to see so many entries and so many good shots. Here goes with the comments:

Cleopatra by wvbarnes – A really nice, close shot to start us off. The light areas in the background are quite distracting and confusing to the eye, so a change of viewpoint would be good. A little on the light side also. The placement of the butterfly in the frame is excellent.

Two animals by AxelLuther – Great colour, sharpness and timing! My only suggestion is that the body of the lizard is very distracting, being so bold. As there is so much of it bottom left it pulls our eyes away from the action. I feel a crop of the bottom left corner focuses us much better on the area of interest and makes the image stronger.

Two Common Lizards by coker – A cosy little arrangement by the looks of things! I really like the faces and I feel that a crop that excludes the outer areas of the image makes an amazing shot. Those outer areas as they are at the moment do detract from the overall effect and those faces just cry out to be really closed in upon.

Just having a taste by bigsturgeon – Good control of exposure and a nicely timed subject. I believe that in any image if something does not add to the story it might as well not be there. With this in mind, I would crop much closer and reduce the areas of black (bottom right) and green (left) to the minimum that you need to tell the story.

Lemur by aliengrove – The focus is exactly right – bang on the eye, as it should be with any portrait. The downside is that almost half the picture is actually out of focus, because of the limited depth of field. A zoom in or a change of composition would I think be helpful. This would also avoid having a large white blurred area right in the centre of the picture.

Fly by Sean282 – What a cracking close up of the fly, fantastic! What stops it from being with the winners is simply the over bright background, especially the large blank whitish area of leaves at the left. If this is cropped out and the image made more square the whole thing comes to life. There's no problem with your macro technique, just perhaps look at the surroundings a bit more as well.

Tree Fungi by tyronet2000 – Here we have a impeccable composition, just enough to show the fungi in the context of their environment. Technique is also exemplary.

Fresh and SPICY by aokisani – Nice idea to keep the depth of field narrow and concentrate the focus on one red spike. I would suggest that the right hand out of focus spike could be cropped out – it has a bright highlight on it and also is the largest and the most blurred, making it potentially a distraction.

Mr Toad by geordie01 – Nice close up, with the focus spot on the eye. Try a closer crop and this again livens up the image. There is quite a lot of the picture that is blurred in the current crop and that adds nothing. Given that DOF this close is limited, then closing in on that eye and mouth does the trick nicely.

Flight by DanielH – A great idea, I do like the way the light shines through the feathers. This contrast well with the silhouettes. What an excellent composition.

The Final Push by bforbes – Good vignette on this, it helps by concentrating our eyes on the centre and the main subject. It is quite a complex subject, and always will be, so you've done well with this arrangement.

Peregrine Falcon by paulb531 – There's a good arrangement here and you've closed in on just enough, although you have clipped the tail feathers and if you're going to use images in a natural history competition then details like that need to be watched for. Where this could be improved for me is in the sharpening. Rather over-aggressive sharpening has led to a white line all around the edges of the subject. It has also started to almost posterise, especially around the claws. I think that the sharpening could be pulled back quite a bit. Unsharp Mask is my sharpening of choice, quite modestly applies to avoid these sort of artefacts.

Nutcase by simonarron – You avoided the obvious bit of humour, so I am most impressed by your restraint...The image is a nice idea, caught presumably very quickly and with moderately good sharpness as well. A crop off the top to remove an area that isn't really needed?

Take me to your leader!....Err...Please? By drofmit – Fine little fellow he is too. You have maximised the area you can use in the gallery by making the image square, always a good move. Good sharpness on the weevil, but in my opinion too much space around it. This is especially true of the top areas, which are blurred anyway. So a closer crop should work wonders to tighten up a very good shot.

When I Look Back by withsun – Quite a poignant title and one that brings us into your intentions and adds meaning to the image. All that is great, however, attention is needed to sharpness and editing technique, both of which are a little under par. You have the initial thinking going well, practice will bring the rest.

A bit close for comfort by DrMhuni – Very dramatic, and I don't get any major colour shift when clicking on the image. The larger version is marginally warmer, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's great and I love the dominance of the close up elephant. The lighting round the ear unfortunately gives the impression that the foreground elephant is a cut-out. I assume this is rim lighting causing the effect. Notwithstanding this, it's a great image with plenty of power.

Curiosity by ddharriman – It was a good decision to place the focus firmly on the eye. There is quite a lot of out of focus snout, so maybe cropping some of it on the left would help.

I'm Watching You....by Greenway40 – Excellent symmetry and sharpness where it counts. I would be tempted to experiment with cropping the bottom of the image slightly to reduce the amount of out of focus leg. There is a more powerful image lurking within this one, with just a closing in on the main sharp areas.

Bramble seeds by pixelshot – A good choice of background and a good crop of this quite complex subject. You shot this at f/5.6 and I would have gone fro at least f/16 to ensure more of the seeds were in focus, maybe even f/22 if necessary. This of course assumes use of a tripod as shutter speeds may become quite slow.

Symmetry by paulmountain – Lovely. This almost looks like some sort of atom floating in the centre of the frame. The colours are splendid and the background lines radiate, echoing the shape of the main subject. A beautifully designed and executed image.

The butterfly and the bee by helenpentax – It's always good to see an alternative approach and you've shown this with your unusual composition. The real drawback is a consequence of digital sensors. The background is very bright and sensors tens to record a very off shade of green under these circumstances. This makes the images garish very easily. The answer is to photograph greenery on bright overcast days, or find areas of shade. Do keep developing your sense of style, which is very perceptive.

Cockshafer by camramadbob – Another superb close up. The greens in this are more under control, although also tending towards that bright lime green. However, the exposure is perfect, the detail superb and the composition cannot be faulted.

Imagination by velimir – Very unusual and slightly surreal in its handing of areas of black and white. Curious and yet effective.

In flight by perspicador – I'm impressed by your sense of timing with this. Sometimes images can be essentially blurred and still be great images, especially where this is representing bursting speed.

Watch Out Guys by Chris24 – A good group and a quirky title, coupled with good technique. These creatures are incredible posers!

Spider and the ladybird by JAK – Another good close up. I think it would benefit from a slight increase in contrast and also by cropping the top right corner. This very small area keeps dragging my eye away from the subject.

Tree with fungus by LancashireLad – It's an interesting group of fungi, with realistic colour showing them off very well. F/3.5 is quite a wide aperture for a close up like this, so I'd suggest f/16 as a more appropriate starting point.

Dandelion seed head by roysdboys – The square format and symmetry work very well for this subject. It's always a good idea to match the format to the subject matter where we can. Images do not have to fit into pre-ordained frame dimensions. A slight brightening to retain the brightness of the seed head would help, plus I think a bit of judicious sharpening.

Dragon Fly Smile by HBG – That's great, focus just where it should be. However, f/5 seems amazingly wide for such a close shot. When we get really close, and here we are really close, apertures like f/16 and f/22 are more the order of the day. This maximises the depth of field. It would be nice in your shot if just a little more of the face was sharp. But what you have done is not to be diminished, because it's remarkable just as it is.

Mother-to-be by TimE – The background is quite cluttered, so this does cry out for critical sharpness on the spider. It's just a bit soft, so maybe a higher ISO would allow a higher shutter speed and therefore a crisper image. You have timed your shot very well though, and also found us an unusual and interesting subject.

Peacock on Buddlia by bgould – The butterfly is not alone...there is another one lurking lower down. We need to perhaps close in on our subject, but leaving enough of the flower to show the habitat. After that it's down to sharpness and exposure. An increase in contrast would add bite and bring out the detail better in the wings. If you haven't sharpened the image, then also some Unsharp Mask would be good.

Clock by GaryJohn – Another great idea and I do like the low viewpoint. Two things would elevate this image as I see it. One is more sharpness and the other is removing the flare hexagon bottom left. The Patch Tool in Photoshop would be my first choice to do this.

Beauty – terrible force! By AxelLuther – You've really nailed the focus on this one! In these circumstances, with so much bright light and so many reflective areas, you've also done extremely well to hold all the detail throughout.

Stag Party by GlynM – Here the use of a small aperture, f/20, has given us that much needed extra depth of field. So all the beetles are in focus. The green is slightly over bright, but kept under control. A very well executed image.

Boo! By joanjbberry – A fantastic moment caught for posterity. The technique is good, with exposure handled very well. There could be more sharpness though as the main subjects are quite soft.

Scallop Shell by gartmore – Glad to see that the competition helped to get ken to dig out his extension tubes! To good effect as well, with some innovative lighting.

Grizzled Skipper by darkskies – There's a very classy arrangement to this image, with perfect placement in the frame of the subjects. The background is also very well diffused and a very good colour of green. Sharpness could be better and this is the only thing that lets it down. Not easy, but if the image was crisp as well it would be amongst the winners.

Coming in for a feed by RadReg – What superb timing, composition and what a great blurred background. All the ingredients except, again, sharpness. Add sharpness and this could well have been the winner.

Hello by AndrewA – Your point of focus is correct, on the head of the insect, but the depth of field could do with being increased. Smaller aperture will do it, increasing the ISO if necessary to maintain a reasonable shutter speed. In terms of composition, I would have gone right for the centre of the flower, leaving in just a border of red to frame the shot.

Bluebell by womble – The simplest of images can be very effective. Within that simplicity lies also a good deal of thought as to the precise details of the composition. This is a deceptively simple and elegant image, and it's just right.

A road block by Gamka – That is some obstruction, and certainly not one to be argued with. A powerful shot and just within our brief, despite its size, well shot with good sharpness and detail. It may be a whisker bright, but it hasn't strayed into being blown out anywhere.

One lazy swan by wozfromcov – One lazy swan indeed, but why make an effort when being lazy will do? It made me smile as I finish up this set of comments, not an easy task to make me smile at 2.19am!

So there we have it. Many thanks indeed to all who entered. I always enjoy looking at and commenting on the images and hopefully finding something constructive to say along the way.

The WINNER is Cockshafe by camramadbob

2nd is Tree Fungi by tyronet2000

3rd is Symmetry by paulmountain

The List of Commendations is:
Watch Out Guys by Chris24
Dragon Fly Smile by HBG
Stag Party by GlynM
Flight by DanielH
Scallop Shell by gartmore
Bluebell by womble

Over to you camramadbob!

Congratulations to the Winner and other placings. Thanks to John for an interesting subject, judging and constructive comments. Thanks too for my 2nd place

That was close Stan, whatever would you have done if you'd won this one as well?

Thanks John for all your effort it can't have been easy with such a large number of entries, and I imagine time consuming too.

We appreciate you

Daniel

.....and BTW look what talent is contained within PU!

Many thanks John for setting another great subject attracting a large number of entries. Thanks also for all that effort you must have put into writing the detailed comments and what must have been difficult judging.

Thanks too for the commendation .

Congratulations to our winners and everyone else for a fantastic set of images.

Glyn

Congratulations to the winners. Thanks to John for his dedication with what turned out to be a mammoth task. The size of the field shows how popular wildlife photography is.(no pun intended)

Well done to Camramadbob (a discerning beer drinker no doubt) and well done to John for a marathon judging session. A really beautiful winning image.

Thanks John for judging the large entry. Congrats to those singled out, in particular Camramadbob - nice macro.

Congratulation to the beautiful winning image and those mentioned. Fair play to you John for choosing what I'm sure you'd have known was going to be a large field. Honest appraisal as ever. Well done

Good work John!!!! Wowow...that was a lot!

Congrats to the winners.

Regards:

JA

I have reminded our winner that we need a new competition.