I like Gartmore's image in the other thread.
I'm not much of a gardener. but I used what I had in my garden.
but I think Gerri migh be happy if I buy her some flowers and reshoot.
I opened photoshop elements today....first time in a while.
thanx for the inspiration Gartmore!


(ps...I think yours is nicer....but it did keep me busy for bit tonite, got some great ideas for when I do get some better flowers!).

here's another macro for c&c:

don't tell people I'm sensitive...you'll ruin my reputation!
seriously, I can take a project with 400 images of (other peoples) children on it, pop it into Aperture, cull it down to 75-100 in ten minutes.
Photos of my kids? I'd be lucky if I could throw out twenty five.


also
don't keep your family stuff seperate....learn from it....why is it special to you?
apply that thinking to a "PRO" portrait.....
the end result is an image that is BOTH technically excellent, and emotionally connects with the client!
I've shot images that are similar to the one you posted......
Go with the family to a park that has special memories, wearing that dress that Mommy loves, capturing that quirky smile...

take all the reasons you love it, and get the lighting, composition, a retouching a little better...

I can't tell you how many times, I've dove for a camera, bbq utensils be damned, miraculously not spilling a drop of beer, to get "THAT MOMENT" when the kids do something cute/silly/dangerous, and the resulting photo, regardless of how badly I could pick apart the compsition/exposure/etc...is just to good for me to delete!

it is a nice snapshot.

Two reasons you shouldn't use your kids as subjects if you want to learn portrait photography:

1) the line between snapshot and masterpeice gets blurred, cause you love your kids.

2) it gets harder to accept criticisms...cause you love your kids...

I got hard drives full of images, I'd be mortified to have a wedding client see....but they're my kids and I can't bring myself to throw them out....(kids or photos).

I'd say if there's something about that one that makes it stand out over your average snaps..(and the expression is good) .GREAT! but too many technical flaws to compete with a professional portrait.

A brand new 1 terrabyte mybook drive costs less than the 500gig drive I bough a about two years ago. I can retire my old drive for archival, but also copy it to the new drive and still have 500 gigs to go.
Carrying the files forward seems to be the safest bet.
cost/gig is less, and yes, by the drive in pairs, and make backups.
I suspect by the time I need to upgrade next, 4 terabites of whatever replaces the current hard drive will cost about the same as the current drives.
then I'll just copy them forward, back em up and use the left over space for future photos....

I'll elaborate:
I thought the idea work nicely.
the two view points show the flower in an imaginative, unconventional composition.
it's a tough one to light.
there's lots of nice detial in the texture of the petals (even on the bits of the back flower).
and even the shadow, ties the foreground flower to the background flower, if it had not been there my first assumption would've been photoshop, and that would've made me wonder why the back flower wasn't more in focus.

I wouldn't be embarrassed to print that one on watercolor or canvass and hang it.

I think three flowers would've forced a more conventional composition...
but by having the option of extending the background black, along the top and right side, any gardening magazine editor might give that one serious consideration for a covershot....

oddly enough, I did notice, and it didn't really bother me.
since you are reshooting......
try one shot where the flower position/dof gets the background flower with the (what do you call it...Pistol?) colored bits in focus....

Top Notch!javascript:emoticon('')

also good for our short hot summers.
got a wedding shoot, at a crowded park, at high-noon.....
my client should look relatively cool, basking in soft, even light.
by only zipping in three walls (and maybe a black screen scrim on the fourth wall) I can get the bride looking great, with some nice greenery in the background.....

also it's nice to have the exact same lighting for the video and still cameras

not possible to do that with flash...and can you imagine the wattage you'd need to get hotlights to balance bright sun? a couple of these maybe?

http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-01/handheld-sunbeam

here's one for you really ambitious photogs:
$219.00 (I've got softboxes that cost more than that) for my new favorite lighting tool.
takes 10-15 minutes to set up, and you get perfect light anywhere/any time.
I just bought one of these 10x10 foot in solid white (will be ordering a banner with our company logos on it.)


you can zip out a wall if you need to, add or bounce lights if it's dark/rainy out, and even at high noon, I can shoot with "Light tent" quality light on a huge scale!

http://www.flagexperts.com/canopies/