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

There are lots of connections here. The bridges across the water, linking the dense growth on the banks and they are close enough and they seem to converge, giving the appearance that they too are linked. The two people are linked by their interest in fishing and so too their links to the water. The woman is linked by the perfect colour match of her boat to the man‘s fishing float, and from there by a leading fishing line to the man. Both are connected by the seeming contentment and tranquility they are experiencing. Although their surroundings look peaceful enough, the mix of brutal, functional engineering and the natural filigree chaos of nature creates an atmosphere of tension, which is offset by those two peaceful islands.

Pete

Welcome! We hope you'll come back again and share more images and your own ideas about the images you find here. This is certainly a wonderful opening shot so you'll have us watching to see what you do next!

This is surely a wall hanger and I bet it looks great printed on canvas. the muted fall colors are lovely. It's perfectly suited to the elongated portrait format you've chosen. The meandering parallel lines of the road and river are guiding our eye through the shadowed valley to the overlapping layers of hills/mountains with their outrageously beautiful light and color. The clouds are an extra bonus. Any Hudson school landscape painter would have set up in your chosen spot and created a masterpiece.

This is a wonderful image. Full of great detail with a perspective that just pulls the eye deeper and deeper.

Rich

I like both images here.

The B&W conversion of the first image is succesful in creating a sense of timelessness: I am pretty sure that this is an art installation that you photographed recently, but the resulting image looks like it could have been shot in the early 1940s or 1950s. I love that.

The further manipulated image, resulting in what looks like a glass marble or a swirl of icecream, is a joy. The only thing that gives away that this is a digital manipulation, and not the result of using a strange lens (or a good dose of hallucinogens) is the perfectly straight line halfway the image left. If you would turn your image any degree between 0 and 90 (but not 90, 180 or 270), this would be less apparent.

A big welcome to our weekly gathering, and I do hope that you will also make it a permanent fixture in your schedule.
As you have already seen, an image posted in the weekend will still get sufficient feedback, normally.
Only on Tuesday we are clearly winding down, mopping up, writing responses to comments or last comments on images and keeping our own image powder dry till the next Wednesday.

Please do participate with images, but certainly also with comments.
That is the whole point of the "peer-to-peer give and receive" philosophy.

Now about your image: that is a really attractive scene you present us.
Portrait orientation is not used as often for landscapes as ... well, landscape orientation, is.
But I am a big fan of the vertical and I personally use it for at least 50% of all my landscape shots (I have a portrait grip glued to my camera permanently).

Vertical orientation is often useful in better showing the layers of a landscape, create depth and pull the viewer onto a trip towards the horizon.
Your image does exactly all that. As viewers, we can choose to let ourselves drift on that river into the sun-drenched forests in the distance, or we can hike the road that snakes its way on the left, in the same direction.

The lines are complicated, but appear to have a pattern, like threads in a cloth, even if that is not the case.
The lines follow each other, but do not have a uniform brightness, which suggests depth and structure to our senses.
What is it? I don’t know, but it is interesting enough to spend time thinking and trying to decipher it and, on a wall, would probably give pleasure over a period of time far greater than a beautiful sunset, for instance, which is instantly recognisable and quickly analysed visually.

Pete

The lime green leaves really stand out against the magenta, giving a nice focus point.
I like the inclusion of the horizontal lines of the road and pavement, and the slivers of houses, which add a frame, and information about the place. The wavy fence is also a playful addition.

Pete

This is an incredibly successful manipulation. The ladders have been morphed into Daliesque structures and play well with their own shadows, and the wall is now a beautiful fan.
Luckily the space at the top has not become a circle, but a “6”, which is much more interesting, and the detail of the moon gives a good visual balance to the strong shapes below and to the right.
The colours are strong and complementary, and the shapes strong and intriguing.
The image is not obviously a photograph, and would also succeed as a painting.
Definitely one for the wall of a home or a gallery.

Pete

Many thanks to all the responders for your very positive and well thought out feedback about my first image posted here 😊
Glad you liked it too.
I posted it, then drove off toward Vienna to take my daughter, with a full car load, to her new student dorms.
There was an incredible storm on the way back! Would have been good to photograph that, but I didn’t dare get out of the car.
Anyway, back now, and time for me to add some comments about the other images here.

I am nowhere near as lyrical or good with words as the group here. Giving critique is an art form in itself
… but I’ll give it a go 😊

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