Before I show you the photo, a little bit of back story. Until resently, the only type of thistle I had ever seen was the common variety with the pink flower. Then a bout a month ago I went to Lick Observatory, and I saw some thistle with a red flower, but otherwise normal. Then about three weeks ago I was again at Shoreline Park and I saw a purple thistle, but it wasn't just purple, but it was huge. The pod under the bloom was a little bigger than my fist. I took a couple pictures of it but I was unable to impart the one thing I wanted from the image. I want to have a good nature shot that would show the unusual size of this thistle. It was on a slight hill, with short brown grass and nothing else (i.e., nothing I could really use for a size comparison).

Here is the picture, and what would you have done?

You can see the one other picture of the thistle HERE. And you can look at my Lick Observatory Page to see the red thistle.

Thanks!
-Adam Harrison

-- Adam Harrison (eros@ncd.com), August 06, 1998

Answers

Unfortunately you are right, there is no way of telling how big this thing was and so it looks like "just another thistle" to me (actually a nice photo of one).

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), August 06, 1998.

Actually you can add a 'scale' to show size. An insect e.g. a bee will be a good indicator.

-- wong wee-kong (wongwk@imr.gov.my), August 06, 1998.

I would have tried to make one of the thistles show out more instead of the blured back and forth that draws attention away from the forground thistle. By the way the color and the sharpness look really good.

-- Tait Stangl (taits@usa.net), August 11, 1998.