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

A little masterclass in how we interpret shapes and angles when looking at images.. One angle says "question." The other says passivity. The angle is interpreted and we believe we have entered the though space. Very cute.
As everyone has noted, the darker background brings out the characters better.

Good pick up Bryan. I assumed this was a genuine piece of art on the tank and I was about to write something based on that. "Tanking" should have alerted me but it didn't. The B&W helped fool me. I now realize that I expect B&W to be serious and journalistic. So it is but the PP is fun as well.
Good one Lou.

I am told it is a Bromeliad

.

Early on, I looked close enough to see the name OilTanking - and found via Google that it is a real company. I also looked for a logo. However, until just now I had not noticed the "tools" of the knife in this photo. Brilliant!

I have quite a few from different positions.
For this area of the skatepark, standing up and looking down was the best way to get the shot, in order to also catch shadows.
In other areas I stood lower and saw the riders run up a ramp and then jump higher.
Those are also cool shots, but I cannot yet share them, because they are landscape orientation, and under consideration for the book.

I did not use a wider focal length than 8 mm (MicroFT, so 16mm EFL).
That is really more than wide enough to get close. The riders sometimes almost landed on my lap.
I once used my 7mm (14mm EFL) at another skate park and I have some images from that session that still scare me. (Not really, duh).

Great capture - I like the composition and colors! There also are some nice details visible... only thing I'm wondering about is why you choose to use 1/40s at ISO200? I suspect it would be significantly sharper at ISO800 or thereabouts (of course I don't know your camera).

That being said, I have to add that sharpness is only important, if you want things to be sharp... And I feel like with flowers there's often no need for it anyway. Here's a recent example, where I completely ignored that factor:

I just love a look like that from time to time.

Thx, and sure. My camera only has a "pinhead" 1/2.3" sensor with a small pixel size. So in lower light noise is becoming apparent as low as ISO 400. Anything higher is losing it.
Re sharpness: I took plenty of shots front on to the flowers and being a macro with the anther in focus, the stamens / pollen are already losing focus. Some were ok with the closest part of the petal close enough to see some detail. But I chose this side on shot because more of the whole flower was closer to focus, and as you said, the softness it gives looks pleasing. I have tried closing the aperture but at such a close focus point, there really isn't much of an improvement to the depth of field, and of course I am losing shutter speed by doing that.
My camera will do focus bracketing but it doesn't stack them in camera. So next stage for me is to grab some software to do that. Some of these small flower macros are quite fantastic with their colors and structure and to be able to get the whole thing in focus will hopefully take it to another level.

Replies To Those Who Commented:

LAF! Indeed the dam birds' public toilets are very noticeable. I have been asked why I don't clone out all that poop. For one thing there's too much of it and for another it's, as you noted, part of the environment. I appreciate those of you who've been following this story with me for years. You've helped me more than you know.

I have recently concluded that I am more storyteller than photographer, and that I take pictures only to illustrate the stories.

I'm not sure it is persistence, or more likely addiction. They fascinate me, and when they're at the dam they perform more interesting dramas than I might find on television, all for free.

Thanks for sharing your goose story. I am always intrigued by the social and emotional lives of animals. They think, as we do. They feel, as we do. They have relationships, they work and play, they have personalities. We just fail to understand their life-view.

Ya, the thumbnail view seldom does any justice to larger scenes with multiple elements. Glad they got the enlargement option worked out. The dam intrigue is all about the lines and shapes, the light, the textures, and of course the actors that use that as their stage. And I do so appreciate your sharing your ideas for a crop. I suspected it needed a crop but I included all the elements I had in it in case someone offered an idea. I like the color treatment you added too.

I concur. I have seldom added anything to a dam bird photo, but on one of my favorites, I dragged the bird a bit to one side. I'm not a purist and will do anything that suits me to a photo but fun is catching them doing something rather than forcing it with Photoshop. And it would interrupt the solemnity of the funeral.

It is rooted in the series, as most all them are. Our new members of this thread have not been inundated with my birds for years like you have, so it may be like coming into a movie that's 3/4 over. As to the lighting here, it's about where they are situated, beneath the grates. Even on cloudy days some light comes in the grates, but it doesn't form beams as it does on brighter days, just diffused patchy lighter/darker areas. Some of the birds are caught in that mixed lighting. All are egrets and blue herons. The central blue heron is further back so less in focus, which shows up more in contrast to the front row of mourners. I think of him as the undertaker though your explanation may be better. I think of the high roosting egrets as the Amen Corner, and the squawking Broke Beak egret as the preacher.

Thank you. The birds' grace, even in such mean environments, always has a hypnotic draw for me. I will try the crop. I think it will work well.

Yes, it does require some study. Which is fairly usual with my storytelling photos. I include "too much" in the frame, and refuse to quit doing it though I've been told repeatedly to do so. I like this crop, and I think it's similar to what Pete suggested. I expect the final version will be cropped this way. Thank you!

Nice capture of a beautiful flower. I use an m43 camera and run into similar issues, so if I were to shoot this flower, it would look a lot like your version though I would be able to wring some extra background blur out of it I think due to the differences. I would not be shooting at ISO 800 either, though the new Lightroom feature offers some more noise control than the prior versions. I get better results underexposing a raw file and fixing it in post than I would by raising ISO. I might do a stack (my camera will capture and process stacks pretty well), but either by taste or adaptation, I've got used to shooting with the camera I have and find ways to mitigate, accommodate, etc. Camera and computer software are your friends in mitigation.

Minniev you started your answer about my reaction to the dambirds with the word / abbreviation LAF! could you please describe to me what this word or abbreviation means. Thank you, Lou

Lou,

I assumed it was internet or text message slang and looked it up because I was also not familiar with it. I would use "LOL" for "laughing out loud".

"LAF" is an abbreviation of "laugh" based on the phonetic spelling of the word. It is not very common, but people may use it in place of other popular laughing terms, such as LOL and haha. You'll likely see laf used online or in text messages.

Very friendly Roel to do this for Minniev 😃
Again Thanks Roel, very appreciated. Lou

IMNHO, colour is preferable in this case. There are no strong lines here or significant tone ranges that make the picture. Each piece is similar in size and shape. It's the variation in colour that makes the image.
If you really, really wanted to do this in B&W, I'd suggest cropping tight around all the cakes so what we see is the pattern, the repetition of shapes and only the pattern.

I don't want to spam this thread with images, so please feel free not to comment on this one, but it kinda is a self-reflection piece about my thoughts and considerations in regards to this site and how long I'll be willing to stay on here:

You‘ll feel the absence of the odd one… by simple.joy, on Flickr

(It is in response to the ongoing discussions like this: dprevived.com/t/the-whining-crybaby-fanboys-at-dpreview-are-still-busting-people-who-criticize-their-faves/4105/5/#post-49230 which seem to take up more and more space around here, while some - perhaps quiter people, with less strong opinions - are slowly leaving or don't even start participating)

It seems like I'm pretty much the only one here in my 'former sub' (adapted lens talk) with any real enthusiasm so I'm not sure how long I'll stay in case things don't change.

But regardless, I think it's warranted to mention that I'm really happy to have discovered this thread and you - some very considerate, well spoken, friendly and helpful people - in it. I really appreciate that. Thank you!

And we love having you, with your unique vision and talent, involved in our thread. We are glad you, and our other new participants, found us. I hope you'll stay around, even if only to hang out in this Wednesday group. Confession: during the 10 years I participated in the Wednesday thread on the old DPR I never participated in any other section, and seldom even glanced at them. I may end up doing the same here. (And I agree, that thread is very disheartening, and there are others like it.)

Thank you for letting us know what you're thinking, both in words and beautifully, in your attached image.

Roel is right, I use it for "laugh" instead of the more common LOL which has never quite suited me.

Thanks, Mike

Beautiful flower and a nice shot.

Thank you

I second what Minnie already said.

Now about DPReview and abusive forum posts: * I personally have moved on and never looked back. While I was still at DPR, my activity (that previously was VERY intensive and included discussions about gear etc) had become limited to the Wednesday C&C and very occasionally another thread that centered around images (not gear) - so I did not leave much behind * I seem to have a built-in anti-vitriol filter. If a thread looks abusive or a discussion toxic, I just ignore it or walk away. I won't let bad vibes infect me.