* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #791 / Revived #011 on 2023 06 14 *

Intriguing visual conglomerate of color, detail and line. At least a couple of graffiti layers and possibly a non-graffiti layer? Composition dominated by the central anthropomorphized lady giraffe attired in business-casual, arms folded, staring at the observer as if daring us to enter her world. In case we missed her stare, lots of the lines in the composition lead to her and force us to confront it. Nicely assembled.

Made me smile! Miss Mockingbird is considering consulting the Cornell app on her iPhone to figure out the identity of this new variety of bluebird. Great detail on Miss Mockingbird (and Mr. Blue). I do like Linda's version with the background foliage darkened just a tad. And if the new kind of bluebird's tail-tip is available, I'd include it if possible.

I hate powerlines and first purchased photoshop long years ago specifically to rid myself of them. Now you have convinced me to view them as possibilities for artistic images. These have a mixed rhythm like a piece of jazz music, spread out across a sky that is equally nuanced. Placing the entry of the lines in the upper left corner has made the image readable instead of confusing. The scattering of birds and the edge of dead grasses remind us that even in the places we have most desecrated with our conveniences, nature survives.

Interesting how different the image is in color and in black and white. The color one has a sort of Steven Shore/William Eggleston feel to it, a simplistic capture of something mundane and ordinary, a set of brightly decorated cupcakes, with an electrical plug and a box of something on the borders that make it even more mundane, which is the charm of that type of image. They add something to it.

The black and white version is more graphical than vintage. The anniversary decorations stick out like 3D objects. This kind of visual hook makes us look again to figure it out, which is a sign of an effective photo. For the black and white version, I'd get rid of the plug and the box. They are visual bothers that don't add to the composition in monochrome, IMHO.

And yes, thinking about B&W before capture is important. But there are two pathways. You will, as you keep at it, see scenes that you know would do well in B&W, and can capture them with that end in mind. Still, there are also scenes that you discover as you are doing your basic editing, and it dawns on you that a crop or rendition of an image is worth converting to see what it looks like in monochrome. So always be alert to both: the on-site spotting and intentional capture, and also the discovery of hidden gems!

Simplejoy and Brian,

Thanks.

Serendipity plays a role in a lot of photography.

This was not a "scene" that could be seen in any sense when and where I shot it. I couldn't see it because it didn't exist at all other than on the focusing screen of the camera. And only then if the camera were pointed or tilted "just so." I didn't plan it or have any opportunity to.

I was concentrating on getting shots of the wrought iron gate. I took 10 in all. I really didn't try to get the "bokeh balls" into any particular composition, because they weren't evident during the shooting. They are out of focus lights from store windows and signs very far down the street from the old gate and its textured, painted surface - which is all I was trying to capture.

I really didn't notice the lights while I was shooting. The slightest shift in the camera's position wildly changed their position, relationship to each other and intensity and saturation as their geometry and perspective was splayed all around the focusing screen by the 180mm lens at its closest focus. In some of the shots, they're not in the frame at all, although the foreground objects are hardly changed in position. In others, they are pale and uninteresting.

Lucky shot. Hey, when yer good, yer good!

Rich

This is rather wonderful but the gate is simply an excuse for the scrumptious bokeh balls in their various bright and unexplainable colors. The metal design features seem to be producing the bokeh balls almost like they're bokeh machines. The blue background with its subdued bokeh is nice too. Well done.

This is a scene that would be appealing in its normal colors. Compositional features like a frame-encapsulated lake, a backdrop of frothily leafed trees, a nice clear reflection, and a sky full of pleasing clouds are a recipe for a solid landscape photo. That is at the core of the image. You've tinkered with colors and now have rust colored trees and grass and deep blue sky. The rust color works because it "could" be a natural tone for foliage, but the foreground is less appealing than the distant trees and the uncut grass along the left border of those trees because there's so much reflective gray in the shorter grass that's been cut. Still, it is appealing in its unique way.

I can only agree with all the praise that has been heaped onto this image already.
It is simple and elegant. It brings a smile to anyone watching (if it doesn't, please get your head checked!)
The idea is a stroke of genius and the execution is flawless.

What's next? What will you turn into a cauliflower?

All graffiti.

Gonna doubt that since the water is actually as brown as the river in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and the area around the lake is even browner.

Thank you!

Rich

"Pup Cup"

I would almost certainly crop this image to square, from right next to the right hand yellow bokeh balls until somewhere to the left of the middle gate post.
Everything further to the left is not an asset for the image: the left most top of the gate is too small to matter (and stands crooked) and the bokeh on that side is far less attractive than the one one the right and also the middle (thanks to the patches of red and white).

Did somebody already mention that the shape of the gate post reminds us of a chess piece?

Roel,

Hmmm. Tried it cropped as suggested. But didn't like it. I kind of like the crooked "chess piece" at the bottom left! And all the lights. (and I significantly crop probably 99% of every image I take! )

Thanks for the suggestion!

Rich

What an adorable little guy! Brilliant colors, sharp in every aspect including his beady little eye, unique pose, buried in a bottlebrush (I think) bloom. You've made the most of the light awarded to you, and used the harsh shadows to trace his outline, making the photo that much more impactful. There's no shadows impeding our view of him, always a challenge in bright light. The leaves are rendered in detail in spite of their light tone and the bright light. Just wonderful!

Regardless of the cultural implications, what we see first is that the men are looking directly at the woman and she appears to not be looking at them but at the statue above/behind them. Whether this is cultural, individual or both, it does offer a story. The statue and the building behind it are impressive from artistic and architectural perspectives. The splashes of red color in her clothing and the red carving above the door behind the statue form a diagonal moving left to right to parallel her apparent purposeful movement. Another engaging image from a country many of us will never see.

This makes me think of those museum experiences where one cannot tell what is supposed to be an art display from what tourists or cleaning staff left behind. It could have some deep meaning as a famous piece of text displayed on the end of a pole to represent inaccessibility to the masses, or it could be a pole used to clean light fixtures hastily improvised as a prop for a sagging ceiling edge in a display.

From a photographic perspective, you have a nice semi-abstract image with lone parallel verticals supporting a curve of the opposite tonality, leading to other diverted lines both horizontal and diagonal. Every 1/6 of space is used as part of the total image, but subject matter is pared down to the minimal.

Interesting offering, I'll look forward to your explanation.

Not sure what you might have done to get the exploding line effect coming out of the flower but it's very interesting. And the flower itself seems to be a good anchor for the centerpiece. The flower seems to have been photographed on different planes that are allowed to show their forums through transparency of their layers. Not sure at all but I like it anyway!