Japanese anemone

Managed to catch a bit of sun in the garden yesterday.

All comments and suggestions welcomed.

Dave

[IMG]http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae69/Whindley/FL5.jpg[/IMG]

K5 18-55 lens 1/1000 5.6

Not bad, although a bit underexposed for me, and the colour seem to be lacking, but the framing is spot on!

I quite like the lighting and the subject choice is very photogenic. For me the composition doesn't work well. The flower looks out of the frame one way and the ex-flowers look out the other way, so attention is divided. If the anemone were looking the other way, into the space, it would work very well indeed.

Thanks for the comments.

Dave

Whilst not a 'classic' composition or expected exposure for the subject, I like it a lot. As DrOrloff says the two main elements pull in opposite directions, but for me this adds an interesting tension to the image which underlines the contrast between elements. The rather 'low key' exposure suits the mood of tension too.

It's a really interesting image and sometimes an image which doesn't appeal to everyone can be more interesting (at least to those who like it) than one which does.

Images like this one will never be universally praised because once you move away from the recognised 'rules' of composition and so forth the appeal becomes very subjective. It's just as likely that next time you might do something I won't like but DrOrloff might think it's really good.

I know you're quite new to DSLR photography (as am I compared to most people on these forums) so I hope you don't mind if I offer a word of advice about posting photographs and asking for criticism: Listening to people's comments and taking them on board will help you to take photographs which have a more universal appeal - which is a great skill to have - but don't let it stop you experimenting and breaking the rules too. If YOU like an image you took it's likely somebody else will see the appeal in it too.

When I post images I most often post things I think (and hope) will appeal to a wide audience because the resulting feedback helps me develop my photography skills. However I also sometimes post images I know a lot of people probably won't like - although the resulting feedback is not as useful it's interesting to gauge what reactions different people have.

Mark makes a good point about retaining your own individual style.

That said I do think the bloom is a bit close to the right hand side and seems to be facing out of shot as Dr.O says

Sometimes it's really hard to find a bloom that's facing the right way, in the right position, and not too decayed etc. If you did a bit of 'gardening' to get everything where you wanted it, I'm sure no-one would notice!

I like the lighting. You could almost call it chiaroscuro