Very good effort with the photos, Della! I'm afraid I don't have the time right now to provide feedback on all of them, so let me make just a few general comments:

- On the processing side, try not to shrink the images too much. Some of those photos have a very low pixel count, like the fifth one; the small size makes it more difficult to actually see what is happening in the photo. Images are restricted to 1024 pixels wide on this site, but for web use I probably wouldn't go below 800 pixels wide (especially as many devices have high pixel counts these days).
- Some of the photos seem to have a very limited focus (i.e. the third and sixth), where it bugs me somewhat because part of what I would have expected to be in focus isn't.
- I really like the composition of the first two. Did you add blur to the iris? If so, perhaps back it off slightly. I think the idea is to allow the eye to be naturally drawn to the key element of your photo; the blur shouldn't be so much that the edges are obvious or that it detracts from the image.

Keep practising - I look forward to your photographic efforts in future and think you have a lot of potential.

Thanks Joshua, that's just the kind of stuff I need to know.

Didn't use blur on the iris... I think that may be called "wind". Or alternatively, "photographer sway" I was using just a monopod as I'm having a challenge getting my mind and body to grapple with heavier, more complex equipment. (Yes really, physical encumbrances do my head in.) Clearly though I need to get around that and I'm making progress. The weight of the camera is already beginning to feel natural, and I've started carrying a tripod around and using it - even though the wind has scarcely let up - just so I can get used to it as a physical extension.

I don't know if other people experience this or if it is part of my own sensory idiom related to the spectrum. Or just stubborn-mindedness. Or a bit of both. I don't even wear a watch or jewelry because they feel like chains.

Did/do you have to overcome an aversion to physical impediments in order to accept useful/necessary tools as part of your 'body'? I'm curious. I just haven't seen anyone else mention this. Maybe it's so normal that no one talks about it...

Ah, photographer sway My workaround is to take 2-3 photos of the same shot in rapid succession. One of them is almost always clear (unless I'm in a hurry and then have too much motion blur). If you ever try video, there's also "videographer shake" (also known as "shaky cam"). My tripod is very useful at reducing that!

I didn't really have an aversion as such, although it took me ages to get used to wearing my wedding ring (now it doesn't come off unless absolutely necessary). I used to wear a watch when I was much younger, but since getting my first mobile phone about 12 years ago, I haven't done so since. I also have a good sense of time - yet my time management needs a lot of work!

What I do have to deal with, though, is sub-par coordination. I can be physically awkward at times and I think it is only my hobbies (such as model trains, which have involved a lot of practice at fine motor control) and almost hyperawareness of my physical surroundings that mean I am generally well-coordinated. At this stage in my life, if I'm not tired, I will pretty much look "normal" (in fact, one of my colleagues was rather skeptical when I mentioned being on the spectrum - the result of years of practice!). However, once I start to get tired, sensory overload can become a serious issue and it can feel like everything starts going wrong - I'll catch my foot on the door as it closes behind me, or won't put things down the right way and they'll tip over, etc. It's like my spatial abilities suddenly decide to go on vacation. As I result I make an effort to keep the floors and walkways clear at home (every so often when there's something in the way I'll stub my toe, which isn't much fun).

Having fancied myself as a nature photographer long before digital cameras, going digital still seems like cheating. It's incredibly easy, comparatively speaking, but I am CERTAINLY not complaining! Any kind of close up film photography (not even macro) required a tripod. Most often, I take multiple pics of the same subject. Sometimes at different settings, sometimes not. End up deleting probably half of my original shots. Part of your experimenting, maybe give it a try.... What is your camera?

Something else you might want to think about with processing in general, is to keep uniform sizes and shapes (for the most part) in your finished products. My "smaller library" I talked about in the Aftershot Pro 3 thread are uniform. I think I would drive myself crazy if they were all different shapes and sizes. When I crop my pics, I just preserve the aspect ratio of the original camera photo. All editing programs have this feature.

Patience, yes patience. You wait and wait for the wind/breeze to die down, or the sun to become less intense, or whatever.... that would be an especially good reason for a tripod. Holding the camera at odd angles fro any length of time isn't very fun. I have so much "stuff" in my yard that most of my pics are taken right here. My neighbor says I must have the most photographed yard in the world. I probably do! I have a little bench about a foot high and 2 feet long that I carry around the yard to sit on, so that I am stable enough to almost ever need a tripod. My camera, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 II, has very good image stabilization.

I always struggle with accuracy and detail versus composition. I want my pics to look good, but also record the details that I want. I always err on the too much detail side, but I am getting better now with my better camera and lenses, producing more pleasing shots rather than too busy. Not being the one taking the pics, it hard to know what you were striving for. Take for instance, the one of the round seed head. Really cool as a minimalist image, and the secondary out of focus ball is required to complete the composition, IMO. but it leaves me wanting for more detail I think. Did you try cropping it more to remove the third ball on the left and increase the detail of the subject?

Maybe you are doing his already, but are you taking the same pics at different exposures, especially different aperture settings for more or less of the subject(s) in focus? It's all very tedious in the beginning, but once you get a feel for how these things work, it will become easier. I agree with Joshua that a lot of those pics either need more in focus, or cropped to increase what is in focus in the pic.

P.S. Love the little kitties!

Thanks Joshua and Rick!

When I was little I had an otherwise unlovely uncle who frequently wore a t-shirt that proclaimed "I'm so poor I can't even pay attention!" In a world with too many distractions, it made perfect sense.

Well, I've just gone back to one image to have another play - the minimalist one! For me, visual detail becomes clutter that creates confusion - I can't process it all - so I don't want too many sources of detail in an image, or I need the detail balanced with lots of 'blur'. (Too many different colours too are )The bits I wanted to be in focus though weren't the ones I ended up with in most of those images - which does create incentive to get to grips with the tripod in future!

Anyway, what I wanted with that Anemone hupehensis hybrid, was simply the intensity of focusing on a single seed head, with no distractions. As it was, I didn't get the clarity I wanted. I'm not used to playing with different focal lengths in taking images yet, but I'll work up to it! I'd like to be able to achieve the depth of field I imagine for each image. (Really am a total novice here )







Worse? Better? Gah, worse! I tried cropping out the third head but without changing the aspect ratio I couldn't get a composition that didn't bug me.

When I think about my own way of viewing the world, I think I am happy with a very small focal target within lots of big picture blur. Most everything is big picture blur until something captures my interest and then I can focus very intently... unless something else demands attention. Naturally, attention is either 100% on a single focus or it's off (completely diffuse). Or maybe 90% on if the background 10% is also pleasant. I wonder if life is like this for most people? I have this image in my mind that others can operate with something like 20% focus on the TV, 20% on a conversation they're having, 20% on a task at hand, 20% on planning something ahead, and 20% on ... I don't know, the kids screaming round the room maybe. Or maybe the switch is off! I can't live like that.

I get the clumsy's and the unco's. Oh dear lord, what a nightmare sports were. Even now, I'm capable of tripping on flat ground. Sometimes when I have to get change out of my wallet, I can't get my fingers to work and I just want to disappear. Sales points have been a significant source of anxiety. We need physically soothing hobbies, I think. Gardening is brilliant work for the body and mind! Anything allowing one to practice and perfect muscle memory is good. (So attention can be fixed elsewhere ) I especially love moving rocks. I wanna build my new garden with stone.

When I'm wrangling with camera, tripod, lens caps, bags etc... I wish I could just have a cybernetic implant.

Well, I'm wandering. I love the idea of just following the light around the garden with a little stool, Rick. I have one that I use among the seedling boxes because when they're in growth I can just sit and stare all day! I'm wondering if I can get a really short tripod. I find myself wanting to take pics from angles that just don't seem tripod-friendly. Oooohh, maybe I could adapt a body board to wheels, add a secure camera mount and padding and just push myself around capturing bugs-eye views of the world!


Oh: using a Canon 550D with a Tamron 90mm Macro lens. Thanks so much William for camera advice.

I love the kitties too, Rick, thanks! They're Oreo and Fudge, Snowshoes without the white (it happens!) and the latest additions to our family. Wonderful therapists!

Oh wow, so scattered here. I do try taking lots of shots close together hoping one will have the focus I want... have never fiddled with digital aperture settings in my life! Plenty to look forward to.

dellac said:When I think about my own way of viewing the world, I think I am happy with a very small focal target within lots of big picture blur. Most everything is big picture blur until something captures my interest and then I can focus very intently... unless something else demands attention. Naturally, attention is either 100% on a single focus or it's off (completely diffuse). Or maybe 90% on if the background 10% is also pleasant. I wonder if life is like this for most people? I have this image in my mind that others can operate with something like 20% focus on the TV, 20% on a conversation they're having, 20% on a task at hand, 20% on planning something ahead, and 20% on ... I don't know, the kids screaming round the room maybe. Or maybe the switch is off! I can't live like that.

I don't think anyone is like that, Della! Multitasking is an illusion - the brain just context switches between different tasks. I think those with Asperger's tend to have sensory processing issues, so whereas the Neurotypical (NT) brain might easily filter out ambient noise, the Autism Spectrum (AS) brain does not. My personal experience with this is that I can be part of a conversation and everyone else can seemingly have no issue making out what someone is saying - but the ambient noise means I can have trouble distinguishing their speech.

It's interesting how you are representing your view of the world in how you are taking the photos. That makes a lot of sense.

I'm glad multitasking is a figment of imagination!

Sounds right, it's the same for me - can't filter out meaningful signals from 'noise', in both visual and auditory contexts. When I'm able to, I choose environments without distractions, to allow me to focus on what matters. I think photography will help.

Della, that is a very nice start.

I like pics number 2 and 11 the best. The iris photo has a very pleasing composition and and the seed pod in N.11 has excellent rim lighting and it also has a nice mix of autumnal elements in the background. Only suggestion for N.11 is that a slightly higher shooting angle might have allowed you to eliminate the light area at the top.

Picture N.3 is pretty, but needs a better focal point as it is unclear what it is you want to tell or show with your pic. I'm sure you have an idea here, but it isn't completely obvious to me as a viewer.

You are on the right track, simplifying your images. Remove everything that does not need to be there and you have a very good start. The last version of the Anemone hupehensis seedpod appeals to me the most for those exact reasons.

Remember that if you have a flexible arm such as The Plamp or similar it is easy to both steady your subject in the wind and to position it optimally. As an idea, those seedpods might have made a nice vertical, tighter composition, perhaps by moving the seedpods a bit closer together...

That is a difference between you and me, Della; you (and I think most, to some degree) have a much more artful mind than me, especially when plants are involved. Regarding the subjects and outcomes you prefer in photographing, I am not surprised at all.

From the "original" you posted, I tried cropping the minimalist photo, and I didn't like any of the results either. I couldn't position the subject in the cropped results to my liking. I think you did it perfectly in the "original" you posted. Additionally, I don't care for any of your reworks, either. I think the more monochrome hues of the "original" is exactly what is called for.

How I wish Anemone hupehensis was hardy here. I've tried a few, including one called "Pretty Lady Emily", which just so happened to be a heart-felt moniker for my Mom when she was alive. But at least I got a hold of an unregistered Aurelian lily name Emily. I'm propagating it for all my sisters.


So as I was writing, when I refresh the screen I see Joshua already addressed this, but a little more encouragement never hurts...

20% this, 20% that..... some people are certainly better "multi-taskers" than others, and I wouldn't be surprised at all that women are generally better than men. But our brains (both male and female) only have one "computer" core, and there is no such thing as focusing on two or more things at the same time. Like a single core computer, attention switches back and forth. In my mind, one of the major things wrong with our "advanced" society is that most everyone wants and tries to do "everything", and consequently nothing is done well. AND they don't even realize it! From my late teens forward, I have purposely led a comparatively simple life that feeds my sanity. Early in life, I came upon a phrase that kinda sums it all up: my thought life is very important to me. And now I realize how I have formed and trained my mind to think and approach problems and tasks the way I do. I have never regretted it. Well, except that it is incredibly easy to see the antithesis of what I strive for.... an example being that so many people have difficulty telling the difference between on the one side - constructive criticism and fact, and on the other - personal degradation and falsehood. Sadly, our U.S.president is one of them.

Well, you are not the only one who digresses.....

You've got a nice camera, and a great lens. With my Minolta film camera I had a Tamron 35-70mm macro lens. Loved it. Perhaps the image stabilization in your lens is enough for good picture taking without a tripod, if you are stable sitting on the stool..... I'd at least give it a try. often I will be bracing my hand(s) against my knee or the ground, etc. to steady the camera. You will find what is best for you. I don't mind using a tripod at all, except that it takes so much more time (and often is just not practical)! As you take more and more photos, you will notice how quickly natural light changes, and if you are as fastidious as me, you'll be lamenting that shot that you weren't ready to take before the "perfect" light was lost. Like this one.... not that it's a great photo, but if I had just been a bit more "johnny on the spot", I could have gotten the sun's rays perfectly on the Jeffersonia.


I have a 60mm 2.8 macro lens for my Olympus, equivalent in focal length to your 90mm, but not equivalent in aperture (even though both are 2.8). So I can't get as much background blur as you can, due to the smaller four-thirds sensor in my smaller camera. A trade off I was willing to take for more portability. Yours can take better detailed photos, too.

I'd say 90% of my photos are taken at or below waist level, and most of those 14 inches from the ground or less. Because I grow so many short alpines, when I bought my camera I knew how I would be using the camera, and a tilt screen was a must for me. I don't even use the viewfinder. In fact I have it turned off to save power.

Della, you're already doing way better than when I first started!

Thanks William and Rick!

First:

William said:Della, that is a very nice start.

I like pics number 2 and 11 the best. The iris photo has a very pleasing composition and and the seed pod in N.11 has excellent rim lighting and it also has a nice mix of autumnal elements in the background. Only suggestion for N.11 is that a slightly higher shooting angle might have allowed you to eliminate the light area at the top.

That's something I hadn't noticed till you pointed it out, now I'll be aware of it when I'm looking for angles - very helpful. And it's good to know which bits do work.

Picture N.3 is pretty, but needs a better focal point as it is unclear what it is you want to tell or show with your pic. I'm sure you have an idea here, but it isn't completely obvious to me as a viewer.

It's a fuzzy idea! I'm not totally cuckoo (promise! ), but it seems to me that plants are having conversations around me, and I'd like to capture moments of that dialogue. Hard to translate.

You are on the right track, simplifying your images. Remove everything that does not need to be there and you have a very good start. The last version of the Anemone hupehensis seedpod appeals to me the most for those exact reasons.

Ta.

Remember that if you have a flexible arm such as The Plamp or similar it is easy to both steady your subject in the wind and to position it optimally. As an idea, those seedpods might have made a nice vertical, tighter composition, perhaps by moving the seedpods a bit closer together...

Oooh, I had never even heard of The Plamp! Now I've found a make-your-own-plamp video. I like new ideas. Though.... I wonder if I start arranging the plants to make better compositions... will I ever stop!

And now...

Leftwood said:That is a difference between you and me, Della; you (and I think most, to some degree) have a much more artful mind than me, especially when plants are involved. Regarding the subjects and outcomes you prefer in photographing, I am not surprised at all.

Considering all the creative projects you've shared, Rick, I wouldn't have said you weren't artful! But I'd like to think that I have some potential for artful expression.

From the "original" you posted, I tried cropping the minimalist photo, and I didn't like any of the results either. I couldn't position the subject in the cropped results to my liking. I think you did it perfectly in the "original" you posted. Additionally, I don't care for any of your reworks, either. I think the more monochrome hues of the "original" is exactly what is called for.

Good to know. There's something I like about monochrome. Maybe it's to do with visual over-stimulation, but I'm finding the colour auto-adjusts in processing software often too bright and harsh. How do you get luminous colour without it being harsh? Hmm...

Thanks for trying to improve the crop - it can be challenging learning to trust one's own judgement.

How I wish Anemone hupehensis was hardy here. I've tried a few, including one called "Pretty Lady Emily", which just so happened to be a heart-felt moniker for my Mom when she was alive. But at least I got a hold of an unregistered Aurelian lily name Emily. I'm propagating it for all my sisters.

Lovely Aurelian! Plants have that extra dimension of special when they're associated with loved ones. I'm surprised the Anemone won't grow for you - do other species fail or just A. hupehensis? I probably underestimate just how harsh your climate is! I love that Anemone and all the varieties of it... I grew up with them, and contrary to the Botanical Name Rule, we knew them simply as Windflowers. One of my life-long favourites.

Found a very late bloom today, at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens:

So as I was writing, when I refresh the screen I see Joshua already addressed this, but a little more encouragement never hurts...

20% this, 20% that..... some people are certainly better "multi-taskers" than others, and I wouldn't be surprised at all that women are generally better than men. But our brains (both male and female) only have one "computer" core, and there is no such thing as focusing on two or more things at the same time. Like a single core computer, attention switches back and forth. In my mind, one of the major things wrong with our "advanced" society is that most everyone wants and tries to do "everything", and consequently nothing is done well. AND they don't even realize it! From my late teens forward, I have purposely led a comparatively simple life that feeds my sanity. Early in life, I came upon a phrase that kinda sums it all up: my thought life is very important to me. And now I realize how I have formed and trained my mind to think and approach problems and tasks the way I do. I have never regretted it. Well, except that it is incredibly easy to see the antithesis of what I strive for.... an example being that so many people have difficulty telling the difference between on the one side - constructive criticism and fact, and on the other - personal degradation and falsehood. Sadly, our U.S.president is one of them.

Well, you are not the only one who digresses.....

Love a good tangent!

I'm still learning how to look after my mental well-being. What flows naturally in the right environment (nature!) becomes a minefield in the societal context. For starters, simply being born introverted is a social no-no. Hooray for fora! But I think I will tiptoe through a lot of that as I continue to write. I'm glad you've been able to craft a life that fits you. I'm always working on it. Considering we're human I guess we'll keep perfecting our systems. (Even if it looks like unaccountable chaos or perplexing order - or both - from the outside to some!)

Oh, what yourself and Joshua said helped me understand why the multitasking thing has always been so mystifying to me. As it's really a case of focus-switching, and some people are really good at switching back and forth... the trouble for me (and many others!) rests in the fact that we can't switch focus quickly enough (to meet 'modern' demands). We can't just sink into a problem, topic, question, project, etc... process it deeply and follow it through. We're torn away before we can finish the processing task. I get anxious having to act on half-processed data and make increasingly poor decisions until my 'processor' locks up completely.

Would that sound true for you too, Joshua?

You've got a nice camera, and a great lens. With my Minolta film camera I had a Tamron 35-70mm macro lens. Loved it. Perhaps the image stabilization in your lens is enough for good picture taking without a tripod, if you are stable sitting on the stool..... I'd at least give it a try. often I will be bracing my hand(s) against my knee or the ground, etc. to steady the camera. You will find what is best for you. I don't mind using a tripod at all, except that it takes so much more time (and often is just not practical)! As you take more and more photos, you will notice how quickly natural light changes, and if you are as fastidious as me, you'll be lamenting that shot that you weren't ready to take before the "perfect" light was lost. Like this one.... not that it's a great photo, but if I had just been a bit more "johnny on the spot", I could have gotten the sun's rays perfectly on the Jeffersonia.

Oh yes, think I might know that lament! It's always been a case of never having camera in hand at those perfect moments. Now I'm actively chasing the light; learning to identify the right light for the results I want - I'm not quite sure yet what to do when I catch it!

It was a still day so I tried a bunch of unsupported shots at our Botanical gardens. Didn't get sharp results, so I'll just have to get used to cumbersome stuff. William convinced me that getting the best lens I could was more important than the camera, so that's what I did. I wanted to blur out those annoying backgrounds! I'm happy with it.

I have a 60mm 2.8 macro lens for my Olympus, equivalent in focal length to your 90mm, but not equivalent in aperture (even though both are 2.8). So I can't get as much background blur as you can, due to the smaller four-thirds sensor in my smaller camera. A trade off I was willing to take for more portability. Yours can take better detailed photos, too.

I'd say 90% of my photos are taken at or below waist level, and most of those 14 inches from the ground or less. Because I grow so many short alpines, when I bought my camera I knew how I would be using the camera, and a tilt screen was a must for me. I don't even use the viewfinder. In fact I have it turned off to save power.

Della, you're already doing way better than when I first started!

Looking forward to learning more about the capabilities of different lenses and cameras, and gaining the experience to get the best from them. It's exciting. Thanks for all the encouragement!

dellac said:
It's a fuzzy idea! I'm not totally cuckoo (promise! ), but it seems to me that plants are having conversations around me, and I'd like to capture moments of that dialogue. Hard to translate.

Della, I like the idea very much and while it is not a new idea, it is a very good one. First time I saw it myself must have been 8 or 9 years ago on a photography forum. The guy, (I believe his name was Mike, but not totally sure) arranged tulips to perfection in his inside studio. I think one of the photos was called "Pillow Talk" and the two tulips looked surprisingly friendly when they sweet talked each other.

If you are interested in dressing up plants with human emotions and conversations, I would say that controlled light is very helpful(use the light to bring out your subjects, make them look human), so is clean backgrounds. Now a tulip is a rather human like flower (think two leaves as arms and a big fat flower head) so it was a very suitable subject for Mike to shoot.

William said:Now a tulip is a rather human like flower (think two leaves as arms and a big fat flower head)

Ummm........

Tulips are such shameless exhibitionists! But my shy friends may get stage fright!

Thanks for the encouragement, William. I received one of those little plastic lightroom things this week. I haven't used it yet... I just haven't finished enjoying keeping it neat in its package

dellac said:I'm still learning how to look after my mental well-being. What flows naturally in the right environment (nature!) becomes a minefield in the societal context. For starters, simply being born introverted is a social no-no. Hooray for fora! But I think I will tiptoe through a lot of that as I continue to write. I'm glad you've been able to craft a life that fits you. I'm always working on it. Considering we're human I guess we'll keep perfecting our systems. (Even if it looks like unaccountable chaos or perplexing order - or both - from the outside to some!)

Oh, what yourself and Joshua said helped me understand why the multitasking thing has always been so mystifying to me. As it's really a case of focus-switching, and some people are really good at switching back and forth... the trouble for me (and many others!) rests in the fact that we can't switch focus quickly enough (to meet 'modern' demands). We can't just sink into a problem, topic, question, project, etc... process it deeply and follow it through. We're torn away before we can finish the processing task. I get anxious having to act on half-processed data and make increasingly poor decisions until my 'processor' locks up completely.

Would that sound true for you too, Joshua?

Ah, social rules... that's a whole other topic right there! Suffice to say I am definitely an introvert and had to learn a lot of the social cues. Now I can carry a conversation with a stranger (not that it's necessarily easy) and can do "networking" for my job (although I will never be a sales person).

Switching between tasks can take effort. There's actually a brief gap in mental processing as the brain changes the task it's focussing on; too much switching and the "gaps" exceed actual thinking! I can handle juggling a few tasks, but there are certainly days where there's a heap of things happening. I think my experience is similar to yours, Della - I get frazzled and eventually I struggle to focus on anything at all (my brain keeps flitting between things, trying to remember everything I have to do). It can be quite stressful and the only way out is to deal with the most prominent task in my mind (whether or not that's the most important) and try to reduce my mental load as quickly as possible.

Emergency Irrelevant Task Selection follows closely upon Loss-of-Focus Task Paralysis! Sounds all too familiar. Rome's burning? Wait, I just have to tune this here fiddle. *concentrates really hard*

Ooh, the regularity with which I find myself doing the least-important thing whilst the Things That Matter wheel dizzyingly above like a flock of pigeons, pooping all over my mental landscape!

You have such a colorful mind, Della.

Don't ever change that!

Sounds like a procrastinator's creed, though. I don't think you're alone there.....

Been there, done that, still doing that.

(Sorry Rick, only just realised there was a new post here... )