Demeaning Meaning

Two categories I often don't give too high of a rating in are technique and impact. It is rare that a photo is technically proficient as well as has a large impact on me personally. This photo pulls that off. Getting me to say wow, as well as add a photo to my personal collection, is becoming quite rare these days.

The composition of this photo is about the only thing I could really say isn't just perfect to me, and is one of the very few things knocking down technique at all. While the center leaf is very close to, well, center, there is so much dead space in the top right corner that makes the photo seem just a bit off, and almost made me pass over this had I just looked at the thumbnail.

My mind is extremely OCD, and things being a bit off is worse then being really off, cause my mind sees it as so close, and wants to reach out and move it. The main leaf in the center is just ever so slightly off from being nicely vertical. It is such a minor niggle, but one I have so often.

The black and white on this is the true perfection. I admit to having a weakness for great B&W, and this one is done to perfection. It looks very much like a photo filter was used either on the camera or during post processing, turning the normal colors of the world, to something quite magical.

While I bet some extremely bright lighting (the sun more than likely) caused the very small aperture, if it could have been turned down at all then some of the sharpness out past the center would have looked a bit better. I myself have run into that problem, and have cranked my shutter speed as high as it will go, trying to drop that damn f-stop down at least some.

The overall feel of this photo is more of a painting, it also fools your eyes, and if you submitted it as such, most would probably not argue. I do admit to almost never adding anything to my personal favorites these days, as very few get to me like that. This photo though, was an instant add the minute I opened it.