Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by Zoomdak:
Learned about these in marine biology, cool black and whit, almost looks like an optical illusion.

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by Man_Called_Horse:
the b&w is nicee, but knowing that these animals put out some great color I think loses the punch and spectacle in this attempt, blacks need tweeking, whites barely in, nice comp, light ok, angle interesting, dof??, nice lines, overall could be better

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by owen:
Nice idea and capture. We have lots of these on our beach but I've never conceived of a shot like this. Looks great.

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by sherpet:
The simple things can be one of the best subject matters to photograph. This is very good, & I love the textures, very well done.....

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by KarenNfld:
Nice composition, the dots almost seem to glow.

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by A_lack_of_color:
very cool

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by dahkota:
simple yet effective. Beautiful tonal values. subtle. well done. 9

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by smyk:
good move in makng it black and white. It brings out the pattern. Well framed as well. 7

Red
by Bethan

Comment by ubique:
Hello Bethan, from the world famous Critique Club.
I will have to rate this image very high indeed, because not only do you & I share the same name (not Bethan ... the other part)), but also you took this: and I took this: We must be cousins.

Actually, I do like it a little more than the voters did. The composition is very good, and the idea to zero in on such an iconic Burst of Colour was a worthwhile one. That's the origin of the practice of wearing lipstick; as a deliberate burst of colour to attract a certain kind of attention.
I guess the problem was what some of your commentators identified as poor focus. Actually it almost certainly wasn't poor focus in the camera sense; it was more likely that the shutter speed was so slow that a tiny movement of the subject was unavoidable. But the problem with an image such as this is that it really MUST be all about perfect execution. It is really a graphic art image, and so the smallest technical (graphic) weakness will sink it. Which was a pity, because this was potentially otherwise a much better photograph than the score it attracted suggested. I think a much faster shutter speed and therefore a wider aperture may have helped, although that does introduce shallow depth of field challenges (no big deal when you have a controllable "studio" setup in the basement ... you can take your time and also shoot a hundred shots to get it absolutely perfect). A terrific idea, though. If you can bear to do it again, I'd like to see it.
Cheers,
Paul

Message edited by author 2006-01-20 17:10:50.

Sea Urchin, Beauty in Death
by Bethan

Comment by elee3009:
Nice idea and yes they can be real beauties. (My uncle used to dive to collect them and dry them to make decorative pieces). Unfortunately, the beauty is lost here and here are the main reasons I see:
- the composition is not too bad altho' the center point could have fallen into the vertical third partition on the right
- but the subject itself looks out of focus overall and this is really the main thing that hurts this image
- as it's so dark in itself, perhaps a white background would have worked better to reflect the white spots

On the side, wondering why you didn't just leave the colour in? Altho' the b&w does play up the pattern...