Charlie asked what family of plants this genus of plants is in - it is
Scrophulariaceae, as far as I know.
Doing "Wikipedia Hebe hulkeana" should confirm. Or not.
Chuck advised on relative focus etc.
I have added another shot which gives a good idea of the size of these
flowers ( see URL below).
http://www.brianswale.com/zuikoholics/October-2011/Oct-2011.htm
The flowers have long gone - the photos were taken on 1st October - if my
memory of the EXIF is correct. It was really tricky to get good light, subject
not moving in the wind, and the correct lighting (none) on the backdrop
cloth.
I had nearly the max DOF I could extract from that lens. Maybe I didn't
guess the hyperfocal distance well enough.
Approaching this from another tack, with portraits, one is advised to focus
on the eyes (and by inference the rest doesn't matter too much).
I think there is very little difference with what I have managed here. Maybe
we are all too used to locking at art through the eyes of photographers
seeking sharp images. Buyers of art often couldn't care less. Some photo
art I see on the walls of people's houses are not sharp at all, yet they paid
good money for it/them.
I think I will improve the photo through
(a) cropping out the left,
(b) painting out the bit of extraneous flower on the right
(c) careful matting of the image in the frame.
I took perhaps 50 shots of the flowers of this plant. I didn't get many
keepers. Try again next year.
Re: the broadband / ISP conflict and *sending* e-mail. My mail ISP techie
advised me what to do about setting SSL setting and ports. I am not going to
change my e-mail address. There are too many people to advise. Another
solution has to be found.
It used to be possible without problems to use an ISP other than the mail
host, but there has been varying degrees of restriction imposed of recent
years to counteract spamming etc.
Anyway, thanks for your comments and advice.
Brian
> Here is one of a series of flower studies I have done over the last month.
>
> This one has just been entered into an online competition at Photo and
> Video (Merivale). I am also considering using it as a Christmas present.
>
> What do you think of it as a candidate for framed art? I'm considering
> removing the partial flower on the lower RHS.
>
> The left image. It is a native New Zealand plant. Rare in nature, but it
> lends itself to garden culture. I grew this plant myself from a cutting
> about 4 years ago. For me this is rather a special species.
>
> http://www.brianswale.com/zuikoholics/October-2011/Oct-2011.htm
>
> I've now got broadband. What a difference it makes to uploading images !!
>
> However, it gives me problems at sending mail and I have to revert to
> dialup for that. This is because the bb is though slingshot, and my mail
> ISP is snap.net. I tried using SSL for sending but that failed to work :-(
>
> Brian Swale.
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