RECENT NEWS
Comments on DEWDROPS Challenge
What a great response to the first Weekly Challenge in lock down! Thanks for the support all of you, and hopefully you will keep it up!
23/03/2020
The images all arrived- some needed to be named properly and a minorityre sized, but hey, that's OK it was the first week!!! Check out the naming and sizing for the next one, and now make sure you take a look at the pics in the Gallery, and make your comments via Contact Us so I can post them below over the coming week. Here are some that came in recently. let's hear your voices!!!
Re the Header photo which I took, Pamela commented " I love the challenge header. It's abstract, creative and a stunning colour."
Jane R's Droplets
From Jenny Short :I like the Polyanthus one particularly -it is nicely focused on the droplet with the reflection in it really clear.
The blue one is a bit soft in the right bottom corner Might be shallow DOF?
From Janice Polyanthus - Good crop showing only part of the flower. Great reflection in the droplet.
From Pamela . I like the polyanthus. It is colourful and with the droplet in the reflection it's a bit different from just a flower with a droplet.
The grape hyacinth is a lovely colour but I found my eye going to the out of focus part more than to the sharp part.
Graham's droplets Graham says : "Canon 60mm F2.8 macro lens . Both were taken hand held which is unusual for me when taking flowers and auto focus but I managed it with these. The wood anemone was 1/400 F6.3 Iso 640. The Hepatica was 1/1600 F 7.1 Iso 640. I had to play around with the apertures that's why the speeds were different and I also changed the exposure compensation a bit to get a decent photo, one was dark and the other bright white"
From Jenny Short: Love the blue colour and the one droplet that is sharp has a nice reflection. Background great as black -my favourite!
Might try just one droplet or as is with greater DOF so more are sharp, but that is what someone told me to do on mine, and it is incredibly difficult when working macro to get DOF as you want it and actually I did not want to change it!!!
On the Fritilleria: Again I like the droplets are they water or glycerine? I tried this flower and found it hard to get focus as I wanted I will go back and have another go!!
The Narcissus: too is very " you". Wonder if one single droplet in the middle would be possible? Probably throw the rest out of focus but interesting as it is all in the same plane or almost I guess all taken outside?
From Jane : I love the Muscari amazing shape, and a kaleidoscope effect in
the water droplets, nice and sharp.
The Snakes Head is a lovely colour, good reflection on the middle petal, with water droplets hanging down. Mine aren't out yet!
From Pamela I like the anemone best, lots of sharp dewdrops to catch the eye.
Janice's Droplets:
From Jenny I like the treatment of the Peony which is a great colour and quite soft throughout which suits it. Water droplets are softish too so I woundered about going in even closer to the one nearest the middle and getting just that one sharp. Just an idea. what do others think?
From Pamela: [ /i]I like the way this fills the frame. Lovely colour and sharp droplets.
Bill's Droplets:
From Jenny That is really cleverly done Bill . I do like the effect of the sharp reflections in the two droplets and the very shallow DOF that blurs the background Nice one!
From Janice Love the position of the droplets in the frame. Simple but very effective composition, skilfully done.
From Pamela For me, everything works here; colour, composition, clarity. Love it.
Rex's Droplets
From Jenny Great to get yours Rex! love how you filled the frame with the bright red berries Loads of dewdrops- you must have been up early! Do you have a macro? I know lots of your pictures are very wide angles.
From Janice - Great subject but perhaps better to go in much closer.
From Pamela Striking colour but I found my eye wandering around looking for somewhere to land. Would it be better to zoom in more?
Jill's Droplets
From Jill herself! Need to try harder. Too windy, no glycerine and no patience! Had some better ones that I took in the past but that was cheating!
From Jenny: Not your comfort zone I know Jill but great effort without a macro lens as you admit. Hope you enjoyed the toil!
From Pamela: I like the way the flower looks as if it is part of a wreath but it took me a while to find the droplet.
Tony's Droplets
From Jenny: i think i like the Periwinkle one best althought the ulips one has a great diagonal and nice colour- reminds be of a shark! The Periwinkle is just so natural and well exposed too.
From Pamela Periwinkle. I find my eye going to the grey on the left where as with tulip my eye is led from left to right. I think the composition here works well.
Pamela's Droplets Pamela says " Out of my comfort zone with this challenge but great fun, no macro lens. The leaf is a multi-exposure."
From Jenny : I like the idea of the light and shade contrast. Wonder if the leaf might be better fully in the frame and perhaps placed on the diagonal? What do you think?
Suzanne's Droplets
From Jenny I like the March one best I think the three droplets works so well. The composition is stunning and I love the diagonal. Beautiful shape and colour.
From Pamela Out of the three splash etc is my favourite. I like the composition. I wonder if others like the background? For me it works well.
Geoff's Droplets
From Jenny:That is so very cleverly done Geoff it must have taken ages to position those water drops so perfectly! Were they all there when you took the pic or did you Photoshop in- no worries either way I would just love to know! Love the reflections in them and pure simplicity of one of my favouraite flowers. Also like the Blade of Grass Fabulously blurred background and nice diagonal.
From Pamela: Grass. I love this. Simple and artistic. I'm not sure if the shadowy line behind detracts from the composition a bit? 'Beauty in red' is striking but I prefer 'grass'
Jane Lewis's droplets
From Jenny Short: : Now that IS different. What an amazing capture I assume the dew was natural ? I love the colour and the focus across that limited plane .
From Pamela This really appeals to me but I hope the poor little creature wasn't hosed for effect. Great composition and lovely muted colours.
And these comments from Jane Lewis- better late than never!!!
Polyanthus
One of my favourites. I like the composition and reflection in the RHS droplet. Find myself wondering where pointnof focus is. Could depth of field been increased a tad?
Muscari
Enjoyed the image but feelmthe droplers got a bit lost
Fritillaria
Droplets a bit scattered so not sure where to look in the image
Peony
Maybe crop a little closer?
Wood anenome
Nice light on the petals and water.Find background a bit distracting.
IMG0214
May be just my screen but difficult to see any water and background distracting given the flower is nice
Blade of grass
Maybe crop a little closer?
Grape hyacinth
Maybe crop into the top half/larger droplets and/or rotate the image?
Grass
I like the diagonals of the grass and background and the droplet reflection but something didn’t quite gel for me overall
Hepatica
I love the flower. Brightness in top RHS corner draws the eye. I’m not too keen on the choiceb of framing
Rex
I think it could benefit from a more abstract effect. ? Crop
Beauty in red
I like the overall effect but think the middle “hearts” are out of focus
Dewdrops keep falling
Interesting colour and light but there doesn’t seem to be specific point in the composition to
draw the eye. Maybe the droplet(s) are not strong enough compared to other images
March morning
Nice droplets but find my eye led to the background. The tulip angle is a bit for me
Periwinkle
Eye drawn in to nice sharp flower and centre but overall lacks the interest of other pics
Spring jewels
Nice droplet so try cropping to that?
Tulip petals
Find myself wanting more flower in the frame by moving the tip further up the diagonal. Nice drops.
Splash of red and pink
Nice tulip. More background blur would make it stand out more in my view
Re the Header photo which I took, Pamela commented " I love the challenge header. It's abstract, creative and a stunning colour."
Jane R's Droplets
From Jenny Short :I like the Polyanthus one particularly -it is nicely focused on the droplet with the reflection in it really clear.
The blue one is a bit soft in the right bottom corner Might be shallow DOF?
From Janice Polyanthus - Good crop showing only part of the flower. Great reflection in the droplet.
From Pamela . I like the polyanthus. It is colourful and with the droplet in the reflection it's a bit different from just a flower with a droplet.
The grape hyacinth is a lovely colour but I found my eye going to the out of focus part more than to the sharp part.
Graham's droplets Graham says : "Canon 60mm F2.8 macro lens . Both were taken hand held which is unusual for me when taking flowers and auto focus but I managed it with these. The wood anemone was 1/400 F6.3 Iso 640. The Hepatica was 1/1600 F 7.1 Iso 640. I had to play around with the apertures that's why the speeds were different and I also changed the exposure compensation a bit to get a decent photo, one was dark and the other bright white"
From Jenny Short: Love the blue colour and the one droplet that is sharp has a nice reflection. Background great as black -my favourite!
Might try just one droplet or as is with greater DOF so more are sharp, but that is what someone told me to do on mine, and it is incredibly difficult when working macro to get DOF as you want it and actually I did not want to change it!!!
On the Fritilleria: Again I like the droplets are they water or glycerine? I tried this flower and found it hard to get focus as I wanted I will go back and have another go!!
The Narcissus: too is very " you". Wonder if one single droplet in the middle would be possible? Probably throw the rest out of focus but interesting as it is all in the same plane or almost I guess all taken outside?
From Jane : I love the Muscari amazing shape, and a kaleidoscope effect in
the water droplets, nice and sharp.
The Snakes Head is a lovely colour, good reflection on the middle petal, with water droplets hanging down. Mine aren't out yet!
From Pamela I like the anemone best, lots of sharp dewdrops to catch the eye.
Janice's Droplets:
From Jenny I like the treatment of the Peony which is a great colour and quite soft throughout which suits it. Water droplets are softish too so I woundered about going in even closer to the one nearest the middle and getting just that one sharp. Just an idea. what do others think?
From Pamela: [ /i]I like the way this fills the frame. Lovely colour and sharp droplets.
Bill's Droplets:
From Jenny That is really cleverly done Bill . I do like the effect of the sharp reflections in the two droplets and the very shallow DOF that blurs the background Nice one!
From Janice Love the position of the droplets in the frame. Simple but very effective composition, skilfully done.
From Pamela For me, everything works here; colour, composition, clarity. Love it.
Rex's Droplets
From Jenny Great to get yours Rex! love how you filled the frame with the bright red berries Loads of dewdrops- you must have been up early! Do you have a macro? I know lots of your pictures are very wide angles.
From Janice - Great subject but perhaps better to go in much closer.
From Pamela Striking colour but I found my eye wandering around looking for somewhere to land. Would it be better to zoom in more?
Jill's Droplets
From Jill herself! Need to try harder. Too windy, no glycerine and no patience! Had some better ones that I took in the past but that was cheating!
From Jenny: Not your comfort zone I know Jill but great effort without a macro lens as you admit. Hope you enjoyed the toil!
From Pamela: I like the way the flower looks as if it is part of a wreath but it took me a while to find the droplet.
Tony's Droplets
From Jenny: i think i like the Periwinkle one best althought the ulips one has a great diagonal and nice colour- reminds be of a shark! The Periwinkle is just so natural and well exposed too.
From Pamela Periwinkle. I find my eye going to the grey on the left where as with tulip my eye is led from left to right. I think the composition here works well.
Pamela's Droplets Pamela says " Out of my comfort zone with this challenge but great fun, no macro lens. The leaf is a multi-exposure."
From Jenny : I like the idea of the light and shade contrast. Wonder if the leaf might be better fully in the frame and perhaps placed on the diagonal? What do you think?
Suzanne's Droplets
From Jenny I like the March one best I think the three droplets works so well. The composition is stunning and I love the diagonal. Beautiful shape and colour.
From Pamela Out of the three splash etc is my favourite. I like the composition. I wonder if others like the background? For me it works well.
Geoff's Droplets
From Jenny:That is so very cleverly done Geoff it must have taken ages to position those water drops so perfectly! Were they all there when you took the pic or did you Photoshop in- no worries either way I would just love to know! Love the reflections in them and pure simplicity of one of my favouraite flowers. Also like the Blade of Grass Fabulously blurred background and nice diagonal.
From Pamela: Grass. I love this. Simple and artistic. I'm not sure if the shadowy line behind detracts from the composition a bit? 'Beauty in red' is striking but I prefer 'grass'
Jane Lewis's droplets
From Jenny Short: : Now that IS different. What an amazing capture I assume the dew was natural ? I love the colour and the focus across that limited plane .
From Pamela This really appeals to me but I hope the poor little creature wasn't hosed for effect. Great composition and lovely muted colours.
And these comments from Jane Lewis- better late than never!!!
Polyanthus
One of my favourites. I like the composition and reflection in the RHS droplet. Find myself wondering where pointnof focus is. Could depth of field been increased a tad?
Muscari
Enjoyed the image but feelmthe droplers got a bit lost
Fritillaria
Droplets a bit scattered so not sure where to look in the image
Peony
Maybe crop a little closer?
Wood anenome
Nice light on the petals and water.Find background a bit distracting.
IMG0214
May be just my screen but difficult to see any water and background distracting given the flower is nice
Blade of grass
Maybe crop a little closer?
Grape hyacinth
Maybe crop into the top half/larger droplets and/or rotate the image?
Grass
I like the diagonals of the grass and background and the droplet reflection but something didn’t quite gel for me overall
Hepatica
I love the flower. Brightness in top RHS corner draws the eye. I’m not too keen on the choiceb of framing
Rex
I think it could benefit from a more abstract effect. ? Crop
Beauty in red
I like the overall effect but think the middle “hearts” are out of focus
Dewdrops keep falling
Interesting colour and light but there doesn’t seem to be specific point in the composition to
draw the eye. Maybe the droplet(s) are not strong enough compared to other images
March morning
Nice droplets but find my eye led to the background. The tulip angle is a bit for me
Periwinkle
Eye drawn in to nice sharp flower and centre but overall lacks the interest of other pics
Spring jewels
Nice droplet so try cropping to that?
Tulip petals
Find myself wanting more flower in the frame by moving the tip further up the diagonal. Nice drops.
Splash of red and pink
Nice tulip. More background blur would make it stand out more in my view