There's a photo contest at the Johnson Space Center for employees. The theme was "Nature at the Johnson Space Center". One entry only, and the picture had to be taken during the first 2 weeks of February on site at JSC. Unfortunately, the weather was really lousy almost the entire time. I took the normal shots of ducks, deer (there are lots of deer inside the center, taking advantage of the free range grazing and lack of predators), and a few birds. Then I saw this one (and believe me, it was the ONLY one) indian paintbrush blooming near the rocket display, so I made this my entry. I must have taken 20-30 shots of this flower and finally settled on this one.

Please let me know how you would improve the shot. I took it laying flat on the ground with the K100D and the Tamron 28-300 XR zoom, 53mm, F/4.5, ISO200, 1/320sec. I went back with my FA50 1.4 but due to a lack of contest time, I couldn't get the shot with that lens. All in all, I'm pleased with how the Tamron did.

Anyway, comments or critiques welcome. I'd like to know how to improve this shot. BTW, I processed it using Benjamin's method and I think it helped.

[vievetrick]

I like it but if had to critique I would say I wish you would have moved a few inches to the left. So you could "see" the rocket in between the two flowers a little better. Good Luck I think you have a winner.

[Alvin]

I like the shot, just the rocket (?) in the background, doesn't seem plumb (vertically straight)...looking at the red, white and black on the right.

[rfortson]

I like the shot, just the rocket (?) in the background, doesn't seem plumb (vertically straight)...looking at the red, white and black on the right.

Yeah, I noticed that too. This isn't the exact final edit that I submitted (though it's close). I'll have to go back and look at the print I submitted. I didn't notice it being crooked, though this one definitely is.

[rfortson]

I like it but if had to critique I would say I wish you would have moved a few inches to the left. So you could "see" the rocket in between the two flowers a little better. Good Luck I think you have a winner.

Thanks Pat. I agree with the centering comment. I think the final crop may have been a little more centered. One of the reasons I took so many shots it that the wind was blowing pretty strong and the flowers were bouncing some. Still I should have centered it a little better.

As for whether or not it's a winner, my wife said I had some strong competition. She actually dropped off the print for me since she's closer to the building than I am. She said there were some beautiful shots. I hope they decide to do an exhibition of all the shots so we can see them all.

[Nixarma]

An interesting idea given the theme. Looks like a couple of bottles of wine in the background

Nikhil

[davemdsn]

Normally I am a fan of really blurry backgrounds, but in this case a little more DOF might have made the rockets a little more clear. Both in focus would have made the photo flat but a little less blur would have made it more clear that those are rockets in the background. Just a thought.

[slip]

just an opinion....

it has good lighting, but there should be something that is the center of focus for the viewer, and all the flowers seem to compete for the viewers attention.

I think that you need to crop in and take advantage of the beauty one or two at the most of the flowers in bloom. do you have any like this that you can crop to see what it looks like?
I realise that you are at the space station but I am not sure how important it is to have the rocket in the background.

like I said just an opinion

good luck!

let us know how you make out,

cheers

randy

[rfortson]

Normally I am a fan of really blurry backgrounds, but in this case a little more DOF might have made the rockets a little more clear. Both in focus would have made the photo flat but a little less blur would have made it more clear that those are rockets in the background. Just a thought.

Good point. I think in this case (limited to just JSC employees), the rockets will be recognizable. However, I'll keep in mind that elsewhere people may not recognize the objects as rockets. I may go back and try it with my FA50 and try different DOF to see what I can do with this subject. Of course, that's if the flowers haven't been mown down.

[rfortson]

just an opinion....

it has good lighting, but there should be something that is the center of focus for the viewer, and all the flowers seem to compete for the viewers attention.

I think that you need to crop in and take advantage of the beauty one or two at the most of the flowers in bloom. do you have any like this that you can crop to see what it looks like?
I realise that you are at the space station but I am not sure how important it is to have the rocket in the background.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, Randy. There's certainly no reason the rockets need to be there. Lots of other shots I took pains to try to isolate them from the surroundings. This one just seemed like a nice contrast between natural and man-made beauty (yeah, I think the rockets are beautiful ).

I do agree that trying to isolate just one one of the flowers would make it a more interesting shot. I'm also not sure of the rockets being in the center. Hmmm...I guess I need to spend more time laying on my stomach. At least it's stopped raining.

[clarenceclose]

I like the shot for the flower BUT if you were going to integrate have you considered backing up a bunch and using telephoto to stack the flowers on the green in front of the rockets OR use wide angle to get the lone cluster of red paintbrush in foreground with rocket, hardware and concrete in background...kind of a contrast in organic vs. totally man made.