The Lowly Dandelion

[alfredo]

[hippywife]

1. Great detail, 'fredo!

I love dandelions. They are some of the first color of the season around here, which is always welcome. Plus the leaves are edible. :D

[alfredo]

2. And the flowers make a good wine.

[Celebration]

3. I'll never understand the disdain for dandelions

I just do not understand the mentality of my neighbors who put poison on their lawns and kill dandelions, clover, and violets. I like eclectic lawns. :)

[hippywife]

4. And in a food crisis...

we'll still be able to eat because we didn't poison ours in the quest for the perfect lawn. }(

[Tindalos]

5. That first one looks so delicate

Dandelions may be one of the hardiest plants out there, but their flowers are very pretty and surprisingly dainty.

[HappyCynic]

6. Fantastic close-ups!

I love how vibrant the dandelion looks.

[JeffR]

7. Lowly perhaps, but raised here to the stature of a sunflower.

I love the first one. It makes me think of my high school art teacher's obsession with negative and positive space in a picture.

[alfredo]

8. I had the ND filter on when I took those image. It gives

me more flexibility with shutter speed and apature.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

9. I'm still a beginner and only

have conceptual knowledge of aperture and shutter speed. But I know what dandelions are and some of them have already been here and are now gone...

[alfredo]

10. I consider myself a beginner. I like the way you composed

the image. The depth of field is just fine. If you are shooting a point and shoot you won't have as much ability to adjust your DOF. I like the way the blade of grass directs your eye to the dandy on the right.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

11. I'm using a Sony Cyber-Shot

12X. My issues with aperture and shutter speed arise because I don't think in those terms when out taking pictures. I'm more like a baby attracted to a shiny, noisy object as in 'look, take a shot of that, and that over there' etc,etc,etc.
Then when I get home and look I realize 'Crap! I shoulda adjusted things when taking that one' and so on! :)
Thanks for the nice words. Composition is something I do pay attention to. Most of the time..........

[alfredo]

12. Here's what I do to learn a setting or technique. I study it

until I seem to understand, then I set up the camera with that setting preset. I then do a shoot using that setting, and conditions suitable for that setting. I recently did a shoot with my camera set for black and white. Yesterday I did a shoot with the camera in the foliage mode.

With focus I think in terms of how much in front and back do I want in focus. I don't know what the setting is on your camera, but on mine I have an Apature Value setting that allows for manual adjusting of apature. So the next time you go out, use that setting, and pay attention to the setting and what it does. Use it to isolate a subject. Note what it does with shutter speed.