* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #795 / Revived #015 on 2023 07 12 *

I often make photobooks from my holidays, or longer trips, and this is definitely a shot that would be added into such a book. (If I had taken it)
It speaks of relaxing, while enjoying the great view after a long ride. Something worth remembering !

The embedded images here don't do these justice, you have to view them big to see the great texture in the brickwork,

...but that is only one click away ;-)
I'll pick just one image to comment.
Nice use of perspective, I usually try and remove any keystoning effect but it is used to good effect here. The second tower looks really tall!

No idea what these particular towers were used for, but I read an article a few days ago about similar looking towers , that were used to make "shot"; those little lead balls used in shotguns. They were called, aptly enough, "Shot towers".
In the past , they used to pour molten lead onto a fine grid at the top, and the lead fell, through the air, for the full height of the tower and solidified into little round drops on the way. Captured in a pool of water at the bottom. The higher the tower the bigger the balls could be.

I'm caught and mesmorised in that stare!
The shallow DOF effect works so well here, ...emphasized by the tilt shift lens I suppose.

To be honest, it was only after reading the comment, that I began to really appreciate this good image. And in a new and better way !
There is a quite an imaginative art to finding a story, real or not, in an image :-)
I think that stories like that work best when there are people in the image.
My images often just show the landscape without people, so maybe I'm missing out on story telling opportunites

Great shot !
When I view this on my (calibrated) monitor there is enough detail in the dark shadow areas to make it work just fine for me.
The shadows are rich and that darkness adds a lot of intrigue. Of course, the contrast to the bright white bird is what makes the image sing.

This works very well !!
You've created your own colourful and perplexing fantasy world here.
I would have had no idea how you did it without the explanation you posted later.

Interesting essay. Good reading
Sometimes I have a pre concieved idea about an Image I'd like to get from a trip, but most times I'll go hiking and let myself be surprised by the opportunities that appear.
A good image is often more about the light and conditions at the time; things that you can only control in a limited way, or perhaps not even at all.
I'm always on the lookout for such surprises, The light is often "right" only for a few seconds or minutes; so you have to be quick.
A tripod would often work against you in that respect, and with the fantastic IBIS these days, a tripod is hardly necessary for any shots quicker than about 1/15s
But, even after being surprised, I will mostly have a feeling visualised, at the time when the shot was taken, and I'll do my best to ensure that this "reality, expressed by that feeling" is preseved during my PP. Often the camera does a poor job at that, and the image will need some help.

Many thanks!

Welcome, and thank you for your comments! I've been with this group a short time, and like you, I often feel others are able to write their observations far better than I. It is a lot of fun to learn from everyone about every photo posted.

New thread starts Wednesday. See you there!

Thanks for stopping by and the critique .... It was a bright overcast summer afternoon and I saw the fisherman on the bridge. and was trying to find a composition using him when the young lady with a kayak came down stream on this creek the empties into the Tennessee River that can be seen in the background .. and then she positioned herself well and looked back toward me .... fortune sometimes happens ....

WhyNot

Thanks for the comment .. I don't do landscapes often but I always find people add scale if nothing else but almost always useful to the composition unless you are A. Adams. ....

WhyNot

This is a topic that could easily host a lively discussion about the pro's and con's of both approaches. I spent a number of years fretting over people and landscapes, pacing and sulking while tourists got in the way of a pristine view I wanted to capture. And I still seek classic kinds of views for some images. Your landscape that you posted this week was superb without people. But I have learned to find a different kind of photo by including some people and looking for their stories. I tend to keep my people fairly small compared to the landscape, and have a collection of what I call Tiny People that are folks doing something within an iconic landscape. Here is the lady who taught me that lesson, many years and several cameras ago, in Nova Scotia. Shortly after I arrived, I found my way to this iconic lighthouse. But this woman spent half an hour posing for selfies while I steamed. In utter frustration, I took pictures of her. To my surprise, I liked them better than the ones I took after she left.

People in landscapes can be a real asset (story, sense of scale), provided that they are in the right spot.

Your selfie-lady at the lighthouse looks good because of where she stands: nicely isolated against the sky but still in relation to the lighthouse.
It would be less succesful if she was standing in a place where she half overlaps with the building.

Obviously, in many case you can move around as photographer to create your own ideal triangle between yourself and the two subjects.
But not always.

The lighthouse shot is good!
I do put people in my shots, but not all the time. They are often there to give scale and to give the viewer the idea that someone else was there too and was enjoying the scene :-)
Here's one that worked for me. That person is my wife, so its was relatively easy to place her in the right position :-)
We go hiking together in the mountains in Austria. This was from one of our favourite routes in the Höchkönig region, on the way to the Riedinger Waterfalls.
I displayed this shot in our local village open air gallery.
Trevor

Very cool image.
You have a very convenient wife. (haha)

In a few days I will be leaving for a trip to Oberbayern (a little south of München) to visit lifelong friends.
We have a few good hikes ahead of us.
Your image makes me wish we were already there.

And here is one of mine from last year on the Orkney Islands, making use of roughly the same idea, with my good hiking friend Jan providing scale to the "Old Man of Hoy"

The eyes are difficult to leave. You have used the shallow depth of field to good effect, with the eyes very sharp, and the rest attractively blurred, but with enough sharpness to see the other features of the face. The face seems friendly and whimsical and I would say I can see it in his eyes, but, in truth, I am sure the upward curl of his mouth plays an important role in that assessment.
The eyes are the most important and must be sharp. Everyone knows that and so do the rule books, but I think playing with portraits, where anything but the eyes are sharp would be an interesting project. I must follow through on my thoughts one day.

Pete

The photo is a fine study of an interesting building in strong light, with endless lines and geometrical lines to explore.
Then we discover the man looking at us, which makes us question his presence and his purpose. Does he add a friendly human touch or is there somehow a sinister twist? He completely transforms the picture and triggers story lines, which the lines in the photo could not do on their own.

Pete

The flowers look very sharp, but actually the depth of field is quite shallow, if the larger version is studied. I don’t think this matters, as it is the overall effect, which counts, and that is the front flowers and opening flower are sharp and then rolling into unsharpness in the background.
The stamens are extremely sharp, so the lens passes that test with flying colours.

Pete

Yes, the dam certainly provides some great shapes and tones. The quandary is how much to reveal. I like the idea of not revealing too much in the darkness, leaving the viewer to guess a little and not provide all the answers in brightness. The larger version provides enough of the little details to satisfy the appetite, so there is no need to make it brighter, but like thinking about good food, I am tempted say, “just a bit more”, but like good food, you only know it was enough when you’ve overdone it. So maybe leave it as it is.

Pete

A truly minimalistic harbour scene, although the patterns of lights are actually quite complicated. In any case the colours are attractive, set against a pure black background, and the three groups have different shapes, which makes it easy on the eye and the image has a peaceful feel to it.
The bokeh balls are quite sharp and flare kept to a minimum.
It is an image I can look at for a long time.

Pete