Submitter's name:	Chuck Norcutt
Title:	Virginia Spiderwort at Horn Pond.
Gear used:	OM-2sp + Vivitar 90mm f/2.5 (w/o 1:1 adapter) on splayed out Bogen 3401.
Diaphragm:	f/2.5
Shutter speed:	1/500
Film used:	Kodak Royal Gold 100
Technical information:	Scanned on Acer Scanwit at 2700 dpi using MiraFoto2 and MiraFoto's custom profile for this film. Strangely, Hamrick's VueScan totally failed on this film profile by producing something that seemed to be totally lacking in green. Gotta investigate that.
Subject information:	I'm not much of a botanist but I believe that this is a Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia Virginiana). I had spotted it on a morning walk around Horn Pond which is the local reservoir. By the time I got back late in the afternoon to take this shot the petals had wilted considerably and didn't show the points that are characteristic of this flower. I decided to take a few shots anyway and took several at f/5.6 to f/11 which are much more crisply focused. This shot is really a mistake since the focus is really too far back and at f/2.5 there isn't enough DOF to get the stamens in sharp focus. I was going to discard it but the lovely green bokeh (not seen on the in-focus shots) just kept working on me and this is the one I decided to submit. Appreciate this one for it's play of color and light and not for its technical expertise.
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Comments:

Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

I like the nice purple flower against the smooooth green bokeh background.

Comment left by: Mike Cormier (ronaldcormier@hotmail.com)

Nice shot. I like the purple against the green bg. I wonder what this shot would look like if it were cropped with the flower in the upper RH corner using the thirds rule...

Comment left by: Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com)

Beautiful 3-D effect! You could have been tempted to go in closer but, personally, I like the magnification as it is. Bokeh is very nice and smooth, as you say - I don't blame you for choosing this one to submit.

Comment left by: John A. Lind (jlind@netusa1.net)

This could easily be cropped to accomplish Mike Cormier's suggestion and increase the size of the flower in the print slightly. If you do this, try keeping the vine disappearing out the upper right corner which is visually pleasing. The vine (??) makes for very nice "leading lines" drawing the eyes to the blossom which gets attention on its own from the color contrast. Excellent bokeh, and the overall background color is harmonious with the flower. As you stated, a little more DOF might have been nice, but there's enough in focus that it works. (Might be more of a problem with extreme enlargement.) Very well done on the lighting, not only on direction, but use of it to help isolate the vine and flower from the background more.

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