Once a year, and only for a week.

Garbz · Mar 30, 2004

Cacti are ugly plants aren't they:

It's such a pity it only flowers once a year.

ksmattfish · Mar 30, 2004

I think it's a gorgeous plant, even without the flower (but the flower adds a lot). I love botanical photography.

My flavor: remove bits of debris, use polarizing filter, crop left side some so that the pot is breaking that edge, crop bottom so the bottom of the pot breaks that edge, set on to more textured background. And of course I'd have to shoot it in BW too, although I really like this in color. Check out your RGB channels; this would be interesting to shoot with a green, then a red filter.

Garbz · Mar 30, 2004

yeah i didn't have much time for this shot becuase it was only sunny for about 10 min yesterday. But yes the debris do look a bit rough.
I don't have a pol filter on my digicam, unfortunatly alhtouhg i do have one on my 35mm. Thanks for all the other tips, i guess it all comes down to getting closer to the plant.

I disagree that it should be BW though. That's prob the most amazing thing about this plant is that it's only red for about a week.
I actually saturated the image slightly in photoshop in absence of a pol filter to bring out the red a bit more.

ksmattfish · Mar 31, 2004

I didn't mean that this shot should be BW, it's just that with a red and green subject I would be unable to resist shooting additional shots in BW using red and green filters.

I like the color of the plant, although I think darkening the background, or choosing a darker background would help bring out the colors more.