Pine cone

Up close and personal with a pine cone

I don't mind this. My eye is drawn to the blurred needle in the foreground a bit.

On-camera flash photography will almost always give you ordinary, flat, lifeless shots. Sorry, but I think you might as well hear it now. With natural light and a blurred background, this could have been an interesting shot. Natural light will usually make your picture come alive with various tones of color and highlights that outline the shape and texture of your subject/object. As an exercise, next time you shoot, try an exposure with flash and one without. You'll see what I mean. Then you'll start experimenting with light, playing with light and painting with light. That's when the real fun starts. Happy shooting and keep posting.

Freedom1500 - I appreciate the input but.... The flash was not used for this photograph - it was taken late in the afternoon with natural light.

Your file's EXIF data indicates the flash did fire.

hmmmm ... n/a for not applicable, not active ?

Anyhow, the shadows look wrong for on camera flash.
Light is coming on from the left on the branches.
Diffuse flat daylight on the pinecone in the shadow.


# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/125 second = 0.008 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 63/10 = F6.3
# Original Date/Time = 2007:04:14 17:36:15
# Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 223/32
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/125.26 second
# Aperture Value (APEX) = 170/32
Aperture = F6.3
# Flash = n/a (80)
# Focal Length = 66800/1000 mm = 66.8 mm
# Image Width = 2816 pixels
# Image Height = 2112 pixels