Sally Apfelbaum ( for theme 2)

 These are close up images taken by Sally Apfelbaum.  The first one is quite busy it shows the rule of thirds in the positioning of the red flowers and also shows the contrasts of the blur with the focus.  Details are there where it is in focus and the blurry stems lead the eye up to these focussed features, top left of the scene. The perpective is intresting as it appears to be looking down on as well as looking through to the flowers. It shows perspective, shape, lines and colour.

                                                             taken by Sally Apfelbaum

I compare my image above to that of Sally Apfelbaum's in a compositional way and of showing the contrasts of the soft  flowers to the hard sharp stems and the way we have both used the rule of thirds in a similar way. I chose to blur some of the flower heads but not all of them showing some clarity like she has the focus on the left middle pink flower.  Her top left background thin stalk is very aparent, as is that of my bottom right fore front thin stalk.

                                                             taken by Sally Apfelbaum

This black and white shot shows textures, hard and soft looking and shows form of the flowers as they are well focussed, that of the spikes, leaving only the background to fade into blur.   She uses the rule of thirds in an horizontal way, and a similar perspective is produced ie. it looks like the camera looks down on the bottom flower, and fro  the side of the top flower, because of its size,  so this image highlights scale, form and shape.  I do not have an image that would justify black and white yet.

I took this image in my garden at dusk  and compare this one with Sally Afelbaum's top image: - as flowers go off the frame to the left and you can look down on some flower heads whilst others are viewed from the side.  There are the  main colours of white petals with inner  yellow centres together with  green stems,  comparative to the pink petals with inner lilac centres together with green stems.  I also show texture of the leaf, being sharp against the softness of the blurred flowers as in Sally Apelbaum's.   I set focus on the centre leaves to show their clarity, throwing the flowers out of focus, though they are not as blurred as in Sally's top picture.  I have used the rule of thirds however in a similar way, with the separation of the flower heads.  I am pleased with the colours, composition and details showing and the way a hint of pink can be seen in the broken flower shown in the left rule of thirds vertical line.

I took this images at dusk with a Cannon Eos 5D camera hand held on a centre focussing meter.  Using the sun to backlight the petals in the top image, I laid down in the street where I live to angle at the flower eye level, and focussed for only the front flower to be clear. I had been driving home from work when I noticed how the light was catching the flowers on approach to my drive and quickly went in doors to grab the camera.  I did get muck on the sleeves of my uniform jacket lying in the soil parts, but it didn't matter  if the shots worked.   The above shows the scale of the fore front flower  to the size they looked taken a little distance away, as in the background two which I decided to throw out of focus.  I like the way the sunlight catches the inner centre yellow core and the details showing contrasts of curly and rounded edged petals.   If you zoom into the flower you see detailed core arms.  I am pleased with both these shots.

Throughout Sally's images in this blog and the previous one her theme seems to be using contrasting  hard/sharpe objects with the softness of blur.

Here are more images I took:

I am showing different colours and shapes of the open/closed petals here contrasting to the straight lines of the stalks.  There is more depth showing too.

I am showing scale here with the sizes of the flowers growing at different heights and the tips of the stems grown at their height top.

I like this one the way the stems curl round and over and capturing 2 different  two tone colour heads at opposite angles with the curly stems between.  There is also some space in the background of this one so compare that aspect to  Sally Apflebaum's.

I like the bright whiteness of this one and the contrasting petal shapes to the more plainer green background.

I like this one for the inclusion of the soil bits and the draping grasses bending in various directions that somehow seem organised, so I tried to set the middle flower in the centre of this organisation. On  later inspection  I was pleased to see I had unknowingly included a ladybird on a right back stem.  This composition is about lines of the grasses, pattern of the grasses, flowers and soil clumps, shapes of the flowers, grasses and stones and colour.  It is also about contrast between the hard (soil clumps and stones) to the softness of the flowers.  This also relates my comparison to Sally Apfelbaum's images of hard and soft contrasts.