Gold
by navilor

Comment by posthumous:
undulating

I'm hanging this in my abstract gallery

Gold
by navilor

Comment by jmritz:
Good job.

The Stairsteps of Industry
by navilor

Comment by Gordon_1:
good exposure of this image but i feel the city has taken back row seat i see it but just

The Stairsteps of Industry
by navilor

Comment by Chandi:
Nice cool lighting on the stairs. Thankfully, this isn't yet another skyline of Seattle in the challenge :) Just enough interest in the background to be intriguing.

The Stairsteps of Industry
by navilor

Comment by NeVeRyn:
Interesting subject choice - lots of color and a fun play of light and shadow.

The Stairsteps of Industry
by navilor

Comment by littlemav:
Very nice colors and softness really grabed my eye!

The Flower of Gabriel
by navilor

Comment by navilor:

Originally posted by blindjustice: Georgia O'Keefe would be proud. Nice work.

You are the third or fourth person to mention that. I had to go look up her work to see what you meant.

Thanks for the feedback.

The Flower of Gabriel
by navilor

Comment by navilor:
Gosh darn browser double posted.

Message edited by author 2011-07-11 19:50:25.

The Flower of Gabriel
by navilor

Comment by navilor:
Joao,

Thanks for the feedback.

A review of the Canon 500D close up lens:
//www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-500D-Close-Up-Lens-Review.aspx

//www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/87500-REG/Canon_2823A001_72mm_500D_Close_up_Lens.html

It attaches to my lens like a filter.

I learned of that lens from Vincent Versace while on a photo walk with him through the Seattle Pike Place market last year. He taught the group that I was in how to take pictures of flowers. See also this from his Photostream and that walk:
//www.flickr.com/photos/vincentversace/4697211167/in/photostream

I did try to increase the contrast but it has a poor effect across the rest of the picture. Increasing the contrast drew in some of the detail but going much higher than I did made it look wrong to me. The white of the flower with the yellow reflecting off of it became a pit of despair and took the bright yellow tip in with it. I'm sure someone with better photo manipulation skills than I have would have resolved the problem in seconds.

Typically I like to make my photos a bit off center but the cropping just didn't work out well for me. I was literally at the edges of the flower when shooting this. To crop this would have made the yellow center dominate the picture assuming I kept the same aspect ratio.

Oh, and I have a flower/bloom set on Flickr:
//www.flickr.com/photos/navilor/sets/72157626422663064/

These are the ones I took on the photo walk:
//www.flickr.com/photos/navilor/sets/72157624143988055/

Heavy editing and mixing of multiple images (via Photoshop's stacking ability) on the two pictures with pink peonies. The calla lily in that set was masked to smooth out the white parts of the flowers and bring the detail out (via Topaz Detail) on the outside of them.

Again, thank you for your detailed feedback.

The Flower of Gabriel
by navilor

Comment by sarampo:
Hi Kevin, greetings from the Critique Club!

Congratulations on your top 10 photo, it's really a great placing :)

The lines on your photo are very clean and smooth, and the toning is just right.

The pollen and flower tip is very sharp, and I would love to get more details on the Nikon+Canon lens thing going on there.

It fits the challenge perfectly as it's a good example of high key.

I would like to see two things in this shot, I think that it could improve it a bit.

First, get a bit more contrast on the yellow part and its shadow. Make it less "grey", by adding a bit more depth to it. Most of the top places have a contrasty element in the photo, to direct your viewers' eyes to it.

Also, I would take advantage of the direction the tip is pointing and not center it that much, I would place the tip more to the left, so to guide the photo.

Other than that, it's a great result and your first top 10. Well done!

Please feel free to PM me should you need anything else.

Cheers,
Joao