The voting is in and the challenge for May is May flowers- wild or domesticated!

Remember to review the guidelines before posting, ONE entry per month please, the shot must be taken in May of 2008 and if you want C&C please indicated that in your post. This topic is now un locked but will stay sticky-ed at the top. At the end of the month it will be un-stuck and allowed to fall down the threads.

Folks did well posting shots that were taken during the challenge month only! Great work and great photos from April. We should see tons of enteries for this month with flowers being the theme.

Please only photos and critiques and comments in this thread. If you have questions start a new thread to ask any questions so we can keep this clean with entries only. Remember this is open for everyone, not just owners of DSLR's. Point and shoots, disposable cameras... equipment does not matter. This is about learning new skills and getting you looking at a subject in a different light possibly. Choose your entry wisely, remember you only get ONE entry. Thanks and good luck to all!

I'll go first this month. After what seems like the longest winter on record, I think Spring has finally sprung. If not, there are going to be some very ticked off gardeners.


1/3000" f2.8 ISO 100 105mm Sigma macro

Mike, great SOA (shallow on arrival for the shallow depth of focus)! Very nice textures and color. Got exif?

Thanks Steve, what does shallow on arrival mean?

I added EXIF. sorry forgot about that.

Mike, I like the color blend on this one!

I like the colors and Angle. I wish my macro worked that good.

Mike,

Macro photographers sometimes break two distinct styles into the catch phrases shallow-on-arrival (SOA) or deep-on-arrival (DOA).

Depth of focus at a fixed aperture varies depending on how far away the subject is. For example, my Canon 100 macro may have a depth of focus (depth at which subjects appear in focus instead of fuzzy) of 6 feet deep at f2.8 when the subject is 100 yards away. But if I'm focusing on something much closer at f2.8, say 12 inches from the camera, the DOF is much shallower, well under an inch.

So, since DOFs are inherently shallow on close-in subjects, one school of macro photography takes advantage of that by carefully evaluating the angle and closeness of the subject, gaging what will and will not be in focus to give added impact. They are the SOA folks who generally shoot at wide open apertures (as your image is). And by adding extension tubes to the macro lens you can get even closer and inherent DOF even shallower, so you can sometimes capture an edge of a flower petal in that razor thin focus plane with everything around it soft and dreamy.

Another school of macro shooters likes things ALL in focus, and they stop their apertures way down to achieve it. Even f32 at that close distance won't always produce an image with all things sharp within it, so the DOA folks also sometimes take multiple images with different focus points and "stack" them using special post-processing software into one image with incredible sharpness throughout its range.

While your image shows the majority of the bloom, it offers a distinct SOA style, and that's the style I like, that to me says "art" in closeup flower photography. That's just my preference, however.

I know, I know, ask a simple question . . .

Thanks for the explanation Steve. I wouldn't have expected any less of an explanation and that's why I asked. What would a guy learn with little 2 word answers?

Thanks again and thanks everyone for the kind words.

These are my mom's flowers i got her for Mother's Day.

Great flowers Hegs and great image also.

I just had to do a dandy!

That is a dandy dandelion! Nicely done.

And a dandy you have done!

Nice looking weed eye guy. I am so happy to not have those anymore. they are cool looking though close up.

Thanks, now I gotta find one with a big ole bee on it.