I loved the backgrounds in the photos.

Charlotte, thank you for entering the competition.

Happy accidents or not, you are one of the most artistic photographers on NGA and the backgrounds you posted are all very nice.
My only suggestion is that you make a new post and select your favorite three photos, because that is the limit of the contest.
Or if you prefer, the competition will be running until May 31, so you have plenty of time to photograph something else, if you want to.

Thank you for the kind words @Seedfork and William.

While I might not participate in the contest, it's fun to join in on the discussion. I'm excited about the new photography threads and feel certain that they will provide a lot of good information.

And I sent you some acorns to match those that you are giving away as prizes.

Look forward to seeing many more submissions!

I'll play along! I love taking pictures with a shallow depth of field to make the subject really pop.

Cosmos can reach 6-8 feet tall, so pointing the camera up made the light blue sky and clouds the background.


I just like the way the light blue sky complements the eastern redbud blooms in this picture.


If I can isolate a bloom like this daylily, all the better. The green grass is many feet away in this background.

Having a hard time deciding on my other two--going with this one as my second because I love this picture.
I might be odd. Redtails are rather common around here and still enchant me every time. I find it a little haunting, something about that dead tree and the dreary sky (background), weird light and that huge predator taking off...
The background just was what is was, but it really helps this photo. Of course, I wish that one branch wasn't going right across the bird, yet I was lucky to catch what I caught

Pentax K-3, Sigma 18-300mm at 280mm, F 7.1, 1/1250 sec., ISO 200
cropped

Thanks to Charlotte's and Dirt's most generous donations, the new photo prices are:

60 acorns for the winner
40 for second place
26 for third place

Woohoo!

I'm In ....

just uploaded this pic to the Database ...and thought, hey that's a decent background





Lyre Leaf Sage ~ Salvia lyrata

Back drop ...Bed of Pine Needles

Facing North ~ Early Morning Sun, +/- 8:30am

Nikon D300 + Micro-Nikkor AF 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED

F-Stop: f/36 ~ Exposure Time: 1/13 sec ~ ISO Speed: -200 ~
Exposure Bias: -1.7 Step ~ Focal Length: 180mm

Tripod

Not an entry...but more to point out that sometimes Mother Nature provides the background...and you're grateful for the beauty she provides:

This thread has made me pay much more attention to what's BEHIND the subject. I kept shooting this katydid nymph from different angles until I finally got a frame with decent contrast. I did a little bit of cropping (but not much). A fun experiment!

an artificial background



Desert Rose ~ Adenium obesum

Back drop ... removed original background - added black - using Photoshop

Nikon D300 + Micro-Nikkor AF 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED

F-Stop: f/8 ~ Exposure Time: 1/250 sec ~ ISO Speed: -400 ~
Exposure Bias: +1.7 Step ~ Focal Length: 105mm

Tripod

This is actually the image I used to create a Desktop icon / hot link (an ico extension) for Garden.org

Wow, James, that is gorgeous!!!

@GrammaChar you are

here is the original

I applaud your talents with photoshop. I'm not that good.
This is my "tech-challenged" solution; I just used a sheet of black paper - worked for me!

Most striking, Charlotte. Are you really sure that you don't want to enter the contest with any of your pictures?
Truly this contest needs them.

thanx I appreciate that

efficiency at photoshop..... is doing 100's of repetitions ...the maker of PS calls that "workflow" ....

anyway ...how I pulled it off .......eraser tool & paint bucket tool

According to the rules posted regarding this contest: "All pictures must be at least 1000 pixels wide".

I have no clue how determine pixel measurements.

do you have PS or any other photo editor ?

Thanx for the tip @GrammaChar

Ha! Yes, James, I have an early version of Photoshop. Most of the little icons don't seem to work, so I'm content with zoom and crop. I even read the book, Photoshop for Dummies; it just confused me. At 73 years of age, a lot of this new-fangled stuff is beyond my comprehension. I need simple explanations.

GrammaChar said:According to the rules posted regarding this contest: "All pictures must be at least 1000 pixels wide".

I have no clue how determine pixel measurements.

If you don't crop or resize your photos to be very, very small, they will automatically adjust to be at least 1000 pixels wide on upload to the forum.
I only actually checked the last one, but I think all of your photos posted so far are okay.

try this a few times

open image in PS

look across the top of window:

choose > Image > then choose > Resize > then choose > Image Size

a pop-up window comes up

there you will see:

"Pixel Dimensions"

Width:
Height:

just to the right - you will see 2 drop down arrows and a " ] "
choose > Pixels

look at your picture > decide if it is a "landscape" or "portrait" picture

if it is a landscape picture - then your longest dimension will be the "Width" box under "Pixel Dimensions" mentioned above

change whatever number that is in the "Width" box, to whatever new dimension you need it to be

hope that helps