Results from my club meeting

[mythlady]

We had a good time today when my camera club came over for a macro shoot. We had several different "stations," one in the kitchen, one in the living room, the dining room table, and outside. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, so that even the light outside wasn't that great, but we managed. We had lots of flowers, fruit, leaves with fall colors, a twig with berries, etc. Being the hostess, I got fewer pics than I would have liked to, but I got a couple. See what you think.

[wilgk]

Well Elise
I think you are the 'Hostess with the Mostess" as you've managed to have the guests over and still get some really nice shots.
They jump out straight away as very sharp with complimentary lighting and background to all.
#1 and #4 are my favourites I think.
# 3 maybe a touch more space at the bottom of the leaf?
#2 maybe a touch less of the backdrop at the top?
Nice work

[mythlady]

Thanks so much, Kay -- unfortunately there's no extra room on #3 -- I agree with you. I wonder whether #2 would work as a square?

[Donald]

A very nice set, Elise.

#2 is my personal favourite. I think the arrangement of the fruit makes for a nice composition, the lighting on it brings out the patterns and texture on the surface of the fruits and the background is complementary.

[Skitalez]

Well done! Really gooooooooooooood

[Katy Noelle]

These are lovely, Elise! I'm amazed that you could think straight enough to do them. I, somehow, get befuddled when others are around and you did this while being the hostess, too? Respect!

I like the first one - the color and the way that it seems to emerge out of the mist of the darkness. For some reason, I want to see it better, it feels far away to me BUT that might be because the photo is in a smaller format than I'm used to.

I really like number 4, also, but I think that it's lacking punch. Again, I don't know why. I'm hoping that you get more comments on these - I'm very interested to learn, here, as these subjects are favorites of mine, too, and I'm wondering how to get more out of them.

Pears, I've noticed are a bit hard to get. Is it their texture or their lumpy shape? I like these. I wonder how else we can explore them. Raylee and Rob have shot some lovely pears, also. When I was trying them, I was really having a hard time with them because of the shiny surface. In real life, they look kind of bland but my photos turned out a bit plastic and the colors were wrong. i think that you've maneuvered this problem rather well. I'm wondering if something could be done more with the shadows to get a more dramatic effect. It makes me think of Dutch Masters, I wonder what they did. Well, this last paragraph is really me, thinking out loud for when I try to capture them, again, myself.

[mythlady]

Thanks very much, everyone -- Katy, you can see a larger version of the orchid pic here. I don't bother resizing my pics to the full size allowed on CiC -- it's easier to just grab the 640 version from flickr. I think in the large version, it doesn't seem so far away.

I did clone over much of the glare on the pears. I can try to work with the shadows to make it more dramatic -- if I have to retake it, though, I have to buy more pears, because I've eaten two of them

[Katy Noelle]

I did clone over much of the glare on the pears. I can try to work with the shadows to make it more dramatic -- if I have to retake it, though, I have to buy more pears, because I've eaten two of them

Yum! I really was just thinking out loud because it's a subject that I want to try photographing more. Interesting to know, though, that you had that same experience. Yes, that's the best part of photographing food. I, suddenly, feel the need to take pics of cupcakes!