Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__EF50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro__10.0 sec at f / 27__ISO 100
This last weekend, I was mowing my grass (electric mower, not gas!). I noticed a mushroom and picked it. Then I plucked out the stem so I could photograph the radiating pattern. I tried various framing options including full mushroom and black background, partial mushroom in the frame, and filling the frame with the pattern with no black background. As I photographed, it occurred to me that the composition would work well in B&W. It also occurred to me that I might print this very large someday, and that I wanted a square format. So made two frames, one with top half filling my frame, and one with the bottom half, then used photomerge in PS4 to create a higher res, square framed image. The lighting is from my office window. The file size with adjustment layers is 334 MB. Here it is! Let me know your thoughts.
Cheers, Bill
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Tags: black and white, canon eos 1ds mark III, nature patterns, pano, panoramic, William Neill, williamneill.com
If you wanted a square, and your intent was to make a large print, why not use a 500-series Hasselblad, and either shoot B&W film and have it drum scanned, or attach a CFV digital back and nail it in one shot? Either way, you’d end up with a file with more detail and more subtle tonality than could be achieved using the smaller format.
Thanks for your comment but I don’t have the money to buy a Hasselblad.
From a photographer’s point of view I see a series; mushroooms, donuts, Polo mints (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_(sweet)) etc. From a viewer’s perspective I see a contemplative image where I don’t know whether to look from the hole to the edge or from the edge to the hole. Is it drawing me in to a black hole or am I escaping to the outside? And it’s a nice pattern. Regardless of the number of MB or degree of absolute tonal subtlety I think it was a good thing to find inspiration whilst cutting the grass!
The mushroom patterns are so captivating. Like it.
Thanks Colin and Ron!
Stunning! I imagine this looks even more impressive printed as a large print.
Thanks Mark. I hope to print it someday soon…
I have been drawn to your singularly subtle color land/ocean-scapes, William, and inspired to eschew the current trend in oversaturating Everything in digital editing.
With This image, I parTicularly like the suggested rotation near the stem hole, as well as way you positioned it with respect to the lighting direction. I also fully appreciate the tonality and mandala quality of the shape. Very satisfying, and, as one other poster says, also disquieting in its lack of finality. That rotation may be part of that quality, too?
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