In The Wild
Few people stop to look at the macro detail all around us. But when the photographer “with the eye” takes the trouble to show us nature in all its amazing specificity we are delighted by what they saw and are shearing with us. Most people have walked through and stepped over these gems all their lives and never know they were there.
This image shows us the common teasel up close and personal. It’s not the pretty flower, but one of the unseen jewels of nature. The subjects are placed low and to the left in the one third sweet spot. I find the muted tones of the background with just a hint of green quite appealing. Most of the ancillary twigs are simple and do not cause distraction. The detail and colors make this an appealing image.
The photographer has done something that they may want to reconsider. It appears that the stem of one of the plants was deliberately left in. This may be distracting to the viewer. It could have been removed at the time of the shoot or in the computer at a later time. It’s the photo-artists call but I find it distracting like the old telephone pole out the the subjects head situation. I also notice a horizontal ling about halfway up the image that looks like a flaw in the “print”. I have no idea what caused this imperfection.
Click on Image 
Marked Up 
Modified 
February 15th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I love the soft background dappled with muted pastel colors. This makes the image for me. The dead stick behind the subject appears to be part of the dead material on the right side of the plant. If that were removed it would greatly improve the image. Simply the two pods, and that fabulous tranquil background. In a perfect world, since odd numbers create flow and even numbers create symetry, it would have been nice to have had one or three pods. I do see the third pod peeking between the subjects. Moving left or right may have proved fruitful in getting the ‘wow’ shot. This shot may have been two frames early in that regard. I try to work a subject and get the best ‘in the viewfinder’ composition I can find before I click the shutter. Nevertheless, this shot for the color alone, is a keeper.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am
This was a struggle for me, to clone or not to clone. On the one hand I like the balance of the tall twig, on the other I don’t like that it’s sticking up out of the seed head. I thought of moving it over more to the left (of course that’s what I should have done when I took the picture!) but that would involve moving all the rest of it to match. I shall have to think more on this one.