I like weed(s)!

[pgriz]

The task of the day was to cut the hay at our cottage. Well, "hay" is a little presumptuous, for it was, in reality an overgrown lawn. And yet, nature was trying hard to reclaim its territory and sent forth all kind of greenery that distinctly did not look like the grass we thought we had growing. The lawnmower was fueled and started, and the bringing of order to the universe (or at least our little tiny patch of it) was started. Of course, when the "lawn" reaches up to your mid-calf, it takes a certain amount of dedication to trim it to an esthetically-reasonable level. And among the various green things that took root in our lawn, I saw some wild-flowers that were quite attractive. So the lawnmower was stopped, and the camera came out.

Turns out, this little "weed" is known as Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigon Philadelphicus), as far as I can identify it, and is a hardy perennial. It has a smallish flower, but when examined closely, is very beautiful. So I spared it the fate of most of the other "weeds" and left it alone, but only after I snapped a few photos of it.

However, I cannot seem to get the right crop of this image. I've tried a few, and nothing really looks as balanced as I would like. Perhaps this "weed" is doing to my image what it was doing to my lawn - letting me know that it won't be tamed?

Thoughts?



Technical stuff: Canon T1i+Tamron 90mm Macro, Iso 100, f/16, 1/200, E-TTL flash (12 o'clock) with -1EC. Processing in DPP, sharpness, curve, saturation adjustments.

 

[IzzieK]

Who would have thought? Pretty stuff...I have some of these in my garden. We just mowed it down.

 

[SDB777]

A weed is a plant with a people problem....or so I've heard.

As a killer of lawns(I actually try to kill the grass to keep from mowing, but that doesn't work here), the only 'weed' we have in the grass is those dang tiny purple flowering thing that come summer will make tiny barbs that imbed themselves in the bottom of your feet....I'd love to have that 'weed'!



Your offering is great, I wouldn't even begin to try to critique a 'crop'.....







Scott (there's another weed that is fun) B

 

[mmaria]

what's the original crop? This is maybe too tight and difficult to achieve a good placement for the flowers individually

I just have to say that I tried numerous times to photograph this particular "weed" but without success

 

[pgriz]

what's the original crop? This is maybe too tight and difficult to achieve a good placement for the flowers individually

I just have to say that I tried numerous times to photograph this particular "weed" but without success

Mmaria, thanks for the comments. Here's the original frame, resized but uncropped.



In retrospect, I should have taken more time to seek out a better angle. At the time, I really liked the profusion of colour that I could see, and selected a view that had lots of flowers in the frame. Perhaps, isolating the flowers somewhat would have been more effective. Oh, well, there will be more opportunity to do some more of this, as we're about to head out to do more maintenance on the cottage.

 

[mmaria]

well, have to say that this crop is too tight also and I think you should reshoot it. They're so complicatedly grouped that it really is a difficult subject to manage. I've never shot a flower that difficult... so I try again and again. Whenever I see them I try but really, no kidding

I expect you'll do good next time though

 

[pgriz]

well, have to say that this crop is too tight also and I think you should reshoot it. They're so complicatedly grouped that it really is a difficult subject to manage. I've never shot a flower that difficult... so I try again and again. Whenever I see them I try but really, no kidding

I expect you'll do good next time though

Well, the re-shoot idea didn't pan out as the wind was blowing all weekend at 40-60+ k/h and with gusts above that. So fine focus macros wasn't in the cards. I'll have to bring some home and try to reshoot under controlled conditions.