Oct 132010
 

Arching milkweed tufts artfully arranged on the ground.

{click image to view large}

Just the other day… I spent a happy three hours of the morning taking photographs in a nearby park which features wetlands and a lagoon. I was surprised to discover over a hundred geese “sleeping”  in the marsh  before sunrise. Panning to capture geese in takeoff will take a lot more practice to pull off well. 😉

Meanwhile, here’s one scene I photographed while looking down instead of up.

Lumix DMC-FZ40; f/5.6 @ 1/50sec, ISO 400 (handheld);
Focal length: 25mm (139mm EFL)

  8 Responses to “Milkweed”

  1. OK…This is it. You nailed it! Had an immediate attraction to it….You GO girl!

  2. April,

    Wrote a comment on Strata pictures I missed. I’ll be back tomorrow or later for those “dancing” weeds. Are they angels’ wings, water fountain or spray? So delicious.

  3. Thanks, Usha. Now, if I could just learn to recognize what’s different! 🙂

    There’s a fair amount of post-processing in this. But the original impression was vivid, so that gave some guidance.

    Micheline, your associations are a delight and make me smile!

  4. This weekend I’ll be back forthe Milkweeds.

    I add another comment on the STRATA.

  5. April,

    I had never seen any Milkweeds in all my life. This plant is so gracious, I am fascinated. This name is so appropriate to the color.
    But as those plants are so light, aerial and white, it evokes, fo me, The Milky Way. To look at your picture is very nutritious for the heart. So much beauty.

    I love the fan shapes, the curve lines. It is very dynamic. The white threads seem to be floating and moving in the air.
    The colors are also attractive: the blue or cyan tint within the white mixed with the orange buds, the green grass underneath and the brown and black earth, create a harmonious contrast into your picture.
    I enjoy also how the dark tones in the first third of the picture counterbalance the light and white tones of the bottom 2 thirds. Great composition.

    April, looking at your photo was a real “plaisir”.

    A question: do you think a 16*20″ print could be done with your new camera?

  6. A 16×20″ print might be a problem.

    This camera offers a number of different aspect ratios. The largest is 4:3 at 14MP, or 4320×3240, 18×13.5″ @ 240ppi. When I enlarge to roughly 20×16″, resolution drops to about 200ppi. (The photo lab I use requests 300ppi.)

    I’ve heard good things about Genuine Fractals for enlargement, or Photoshop’s interpolation might be sufficient. But that would be after-the-fact, which makes me a little nervous.

  7. April, since I already commented on this image in the TME forum, I’ll comment about image size.

    If you enter 300 ppi first into the resizing page and then put in the desired size, I think you can pull it off – getting the 20×16″ size with a nice resolution.

    But you MUST enter the ppi FIRST before the new size.

    So please try this and let us know the results. I’m still hunting for a nice little camera and am wondering about whether to get this Lumix or something else.

  8. Thanks for your input on resizing, Flo.

    I’m still hunting for a nice little camera and am wondering about whether to get this Lumix or something else.

    I will say that though this camera has impressive stabilization, noise is a problem at ISOs higher than 200. Outdoors on a bright day, I can often handhold to less than 1/60s at ISO 100 or ISO 80 — but that also depends on how far I’m zoomed out.

    We’re still getting to know each other. 🙂

    It would be nice if you could borrow one to test in the sculpture park one day…

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