spring painbox
First spring blossom in my neighborhood
First spring blossom in my neighborhood
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Mar, 2017Views
1914
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Pink Photo Contest
Peer Choice Award
Featured
People's Choice in PINK FLOWERS Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
Genius
Emotions
Impressed
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Top 10 rank
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
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PRO+
PRO+
karensommerslohre
April 09, 2017
You are the People's Choice winner in my PINK FLOWERS Challenge~Congratulations! I love the dreamy quality of it!
janetredknap
April 09, 2017
Congratulations. This is a fantastic shot as are all your photos. Well done
amanavinash
September 01, 2017
Join the conversation. Add a comment or even better, a critique. Let's get better together!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in my backyard, leaning (with tripod) over the fence to catch the blossoms on my neighbor's tree. This tree is always the first in the neighborhood to bloom in spring, and I enjoy it every year.Time
This blossom was photographed in the early morning, shortly after sunrise. Delicate blossoms deserved soft, indirect light to show themselves in all their beauty. Also, the wind is usually low in the early morning, and that makes photographing a blossom easier. There was only a gentle breeze, and I was able to shoot this at ISO 250, which eliminated annoying noise.Lighting
I looked for indirect and soft lighting to capture the softness of the blossom. The sun was filtered by a thin layer of clouds, which also helped to soften the light. I wanted a dreamy feel to the image, and needed soft light to achieve this.Equipment
I used my Nikon d810 to photograph this image and my Nikon 105mm macro lens. This lens is capable of creating beautiful, creamy bokeh when shooting wide open. I almost always use a tripod and did so in photographing this blossom. The tripod allows me to get a sharper focus and creates a more precise image. Here, I wanted the blossom stamens to be crisp and sharp, with everything else fading into a pink blur.Inspiration
The coming of spring inspired me to take this photo. I love the first bloom of this tree, and I wanted to celebrate the dawn of spring with a photograph. Since the tree was over the fence in my backyard, I had time to wait for a morning with just the right light. I was also inspired to focus on just a single blossom and to feature its beauty in isolation from others. I wanted to create an image that said, "Here I am, soft, elegant, and beautiful."Editing
The image had creamy bokeh out of the camera, but I added some blur to the lower half, where I shot through other blossoms to isolate the subject of the image. Since I wanted to achieve a minimalist image, featuring a single, centered, blossom, the surrounding needed to have an even blur. I sharpened the blossom just a tiny bit and also boosted the vibrancy somewhat.In my camera bag
My bag is always full! I carry my Nikon d810 or d750 and several lenses, including a wide angle lens and macro lens. My Nikon 24-70mm is my walk around lens and so it is always in the bag. The bag also includes an array of filters, lens cloths, rain covers, extra batteries, extra cards, and a remote shutter release. My cellphone goes in the bag along with a few snacks--usually nuts and chocolates.Feedback
Photography takes patience and persistence. It is important to wait for the right light and other conditions that help you to get the image you want to capture. Having a sense of what you want the image to communicate is also important as this will guide the composition, lens choice, and camera settings. For this image, I knew that I wanted to isolate a single blossom and surround it with creamy bokeh. And so, I knew that I needed to use my macro lens and needed to shoot wide open. Finding the right blossom was also important. It needed to be fresh, and it needed to have other blossoms behind it to create the blur of pink that I wanted to achieve.
