Another Sap-sickle

[terrib]

I love the colors of this sap on my plum tree so I decided to take another shot. I couldn't manage to get a starburst this time because there were too many other branches in my way but I worked to get a pleasing background and I like the natural gradient background in this one.

Per Mike's suggestions on my last sap picture, found HERE, I have blurred the background and sharpened the subject. However, I did not have the DOF that I had on the last one due to constraints of where I could put the camera so part of the tree is out of focus but that doesn't really bother me much.

C&C appreciated! Thanks.

[FrankMi]

Hi Terri, as the tree bark isn't where you want the viewer's attention and the sap-sickle is nice and sharp. For me, the combination works to perfection. I really like the sparkles that provide a series of focal points and the bokeh works very well!

Very well done!

[jprzybyla]

I like it Terri, well done.

[Bobobird]

Very nice, very nice indeed.

[RockNGoalStar]

Very nice Terri. When rotated, the sap-sickle looks remarkably like a sperm!

I would prefer it if the bark ran into the top right hand corner of the frame. I wonder if you could rotate it slightly and achieve this. It would also serve to make the sap-sickle drop more vertically.

Otheriwse the concept and execution is spot on

[Tri Danimal]

That looks really amazing. Id be proud to have captured that one.

[Sergio M.]

I too love the colors in this, Terri, and you got it nice and sharp. Very well done.

Serge

[Mike Buckley]

Gorgeous, Terri! Everything about this one is better than the other one for me including the shape of the dripping sap and the background.

Due to the length of the sap, a starburst in this one might have been a distraction. If you wanted to produce a bit more of a commercial look (not something I would advise), you could have used a starburst filter. If you had done that, I think a starburst would have been created on each of the several specular highlights that I think are just fine on their own. There are also ways to produce the starburst during post-processing, though I've never done that.

As others have mentioned, you don't need the entire tree to be in focus. In fact, you might (or might not) like the image even better if you apply a little bit of Gaussian blur to the part that is in focus.

By the way, please don't tell me that you used spot metering on this. If so, I'll bow down to you.

[Andrew1]

If you hang on to that resin for about 50 million years you will have a very interesting piece of amber to make a necklace from. Strange to see it like that but then most of the trees around here are large pines and it's the trunk that stuff usually runs down. Nice find. You'll have to visit regularly and keep a photographic log on its changes.

[revi]

If you hang on to that resin for about 50 million years you will have a very interesting piece of amber to make a necklace from. Strange to see it like that but then most of the trees around here are large pines and it's the trunk that stuff usually runs down. Nice find. You'll have to visit regularly and keep a photographic log on its changes.

The sap from the plum tree isn't resin, but gum, so won't turn into amber. The difference is easy to test: gum dissolves in water, resin doesn't. (Don't worry, I won't go into the detailed differences between the two ) The pine trees do produce resin, that might turn into amber with time.

And if the tree produced a lot of gum, it's a bad sign. The gum gets released from damaged areas, so a lot of gum means a lot of damage to the tree (can be insects, fungi, etc). That can exhaust or even kill the tree.

[terrib]

Sorry to be so long to respond. Life and new contact lenses got in the way...

Thanks to everyone who responded. I appreciate the kind words.

Very nice Terri. When rotated, the sap-sickle looks remarkably like a sperm!

I would prefer it if the bark ran into the top right hand corner of the frame. I wonder if you could rotate it slightly and achieve this. It would also serve to make the sap-sickle drop more vertically.

Otheriwse the concept and execution is spot on

Tommy, I agree about the placement of the top right corner and I can accomplish that with a different crop as I have room. Not sure about rotating, though, since it would change the angle of the background "stripes". Thanks for the suggestions! I will fix the corner.

[terrib]

...
By the way, please don't tell me that you used spot metering on this. If so, I'll bow down to you.

OK, Mike, I won't. I believe it was on Evaluative Metering which seems to do a pretty good job on this 7D. So sorry I missed the bowing down, though.

[Mike Buckley]

I hope the contact lenses are working out OK!

[terrib]

I hope the contact lenses are working out OK!

Worst part is removing them - no problem getting them in. I'm loving them with the camera but still not seeing clearly. Doc said it would take several days for my brain to figure out what to do since I have the mono vision kind - one is for far vision and one is for closeup. On my third day and getting better but not there yet. I'll give an update in the thread I started about them when I feel I've had time to adjust. But so far, I see through the viewfinder really well and can read the screen too which is awesome!