* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #825 / Revived #045 on 2024 02 07 *

Those bridges are quite something, and I am sure you can spend hours exploring different angles, and then adding in different weather conditions, different amounts of traffic, with and without blur or light-trails, the possibilities start heading off towards infinity.
I like the second, because it explores the symmetry of the structure and the third, because it ignores the symmetry and concentrates on differing lines and shapes.
The first one doesn’t really come off in my opinion. It is almost symmetrical, and the fact that it isn’t jars a bit. I think if you crop out the join in the road in the foreground, and straighten the photo so the bridge seems level, even if it wasn’t, then the arches would seem almost symmetrical and the photo would be more successful.

Pete

Thanks Pete. From my many pictures of brickwork in Italy, these three were grouped together for exactly the reasons you saw.
Re shot 3. The Spanish fashion house Desigual plays games with their name/logo. sometimes the U is inverted to become an n. Sometimes the S is reversed. On this store, it isn't a reflection, the have reversed the whole name. I was amused by the art deco modern, the logo reversal and the reflection from a different era.

So simple with so much! A good example from the school of thought that thinks visual art need not be set within standardized borders but can be framed within whatever proportions suit the image. A triumph in a taller, narrower frame.
It feels perfectly balanced while the components are offset. The wider black of the right has fewer strands than we have to the left but the black emphasizes them. The bent grass on the right is a foil to those on the left and the slope of the greenish rectangle. The 3 short right leaning grasses at the very base assist the bent grass on the right in giving balance to the tall grass and the left leaning grasses.
It glows.
It can be explored up close with interesting details along the stems.
A very special image.

Fashion show. A really weird one that was set in something like a sewer and everyone had something weird and plasticy on their faces. One outfit made me remark to my wife, "Who would go to work dressed as the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz?" It was quite bizarre.

I needed the title to understand what I was looking at. Then I was able to make some guesses.
It reeks of old wood and old and heavy machinery. The grinding wheel? I think that is what it is, is especially impressive.Your color range appropriately suggests age and warmth.
After that, I think there is a bit of a problem. Is it a contemprary portrait of a couple, a vistor and a tradesman, or a study of the mill? The interaction between the couple seems totally divorced from the mill setting. As it stands, they might be on a bridge, by a river- the setting feels irrelevant. At the same time, the girl, while looking happy, doesn't appear to be communication with the man - although he is looking at her.
In conclusion, There are a number of elements in the picture that offer opportunities but here I don't feel that they are "gelling" into one story for the viewer.
Of course, if the shot was taken as a record of a particular person and their visit to a particular place and the image was made to share that moment with friends, that's a completely different scenario.

Super.
This has great lighting and a very nice composition.
The way that the people in the boats under the bridge appear as dark silouhettes against the golden light, makes that light shine out even brighter.

"Gummy"

Well crafted brickwork can be just as artistic as any kind of stonecutting and sculpture.
Bricks may seem a boring and mundane material, but the patterns that can be achieved are endless.
Too bad that in current buildings, bricks are mostly used for flat vertical surfaces without any imagination.
Your examples (from Bologna, that I consider as my second alma mater because I have spent half a year there in the final year of University) are eloquent and well chosen. They are also diverse, and are testament to the versatility of the brick : bricks can be used for religious buildings that are more often associated with marble and other natural stones, but also for military/civil purposes and also for embellishments on commercial property. A good sampling, thus.

Unless the situation was really foggy or you had (David Hamilton-esque) a layer of vaseline on your lens, it seems that there has been some softening in PP applied to this image, giving almost a "counter/whiteness"-vignette like you would find on a certain type of wedding portraiture.
While I don't mind that look, I also don't think that it really adds much.
If it were mine, I would probably reduce this image to roughly 1/3 of the total surface, cropping from left, from right and from top, to concentrate on waves and birds.

I kinda like the effect (and I am sure that the LGBTQ+X etc community would approve of your colour scheme).
But it does not grab me as many others of yours do.

I like how you brought out the characteristics of the shapes of the different bridges.

If you are interesting in bridges and how they are constructed, transported and put into place, you may like a documentary photo series of mine, that was shot over the course of roughly 36 hours in winter 2017, to show the final stages of a bridge replacement.
I will add the link later. The gallery seems to have been auto-archived on zenfolio, so I will need to restore the link first.

Your title is instrumental (even crucial) in shaping our perception of this image.
Without the title, it looks like a fun experiment in light and colour.
The title makes us regard this as an image of human life in early stages, just like what we can see in proud ultrasound images that parents-to-be show their family.
Cool!

Bhutan...
Hmmm.
Never been there.
Want to go!

This image could easily have been a standard picture postcard (albeit with a more overcast sky than we would ideally expect in picture postcards) : the grand building sitting amidst greenery, with mountains and clouds behind it and a stream running in front of it. Maybe also that bridge a bit further up (but I would expect the building to be shot straight-on for a picture postcard.
In fact, if we were to crop this image (maintaining ratio) from just right of the elbow of th man, and from bottom and top, excluding the ledge he is sitting on, then there you have it, that picture postcard.

Including the man adds a layer, and creates a story. Or multiple stories.
He is our Everyman over whose shoulder we look, together with him. We see what he is watching.
Did he come from that building/village, over that far bridge, to this panorama point, to look at his own place from a distance?
Is this a last look back, upon leaving?
Or is he a weary traveler who has come from far and is enjoying his first good look at his destination, thankful that he is almost there?
The story/stories elevate the image.

There is clear joy here.
The woman in red is enjoying the talk of the craftsman, explaining the workings of his ancient machinery.
(We seem to have a theme going on, spanning weeks, where women in red are the character of the tourist exploring.)
The miller is equally enjoying himself with the explanation that he has undoubtedly given countless times but does not get tired of. (Having the attention of a beautiful woman always helps, I suppose.)

Like you said : it is a moment in time. But an enjoyable one.

Could also have been called "Brace for Impact".
A great documentary shot of the perfect diving technique that some species develop.
I love it, not just for the bird, but also for the geometry of the image.
It is an image that can be used in a classroom instruction on "rule of thirds" and why that is an effective composition tool.

Sorry, replied to the wrong post

"A Light In the Dark"

Yeh, they were chatting, being flirty and I saw an opportunity and jumped in and took the photo.

@MikeFewster makes a good point, the subject isn't totally clear. Clear to me of course, I remember what I saw and why I took it.

It is a place maintained for educating people about the purpose of Dutch windmills, like Colonial Williamsburg in the USA or Louisbourg Fortress in Canada. I was exploring this one after the gentleman demonstrated how peanut butter was made (on the right). The tour guide, in red, gives this tour frequently so she knows the guy, work colleagues in a sense. After the demonstration we, the tourists, are free to wander while they chat 'by the water cooler.'
Their body language told this story of how they had crushes on each other but had never said anything. They talked an laughed and tried not to send signals of interest even though they were clearly interested in each other. She's telling a story that isn't quite funny but she loves telling it to him and he is ready to laugh, to be empathetic to whatever she's going to say. She's a little blurry because she was animated as she was talking.

I had setup my camera for architectural images, big depth of field and slow shutter in a relatively dark space. I just didn't want the moment to go buy and be lost to the aether forever.

I can't figure out whether to title these images, explain them or just let it stand for itself.