* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #799 / Revived #019 on 2023 08 09 *

Welcome to the Wednesday Comments and Critique (No Theme & No Brand) thread!

We are dedicated to continuing the great tradition of this C&C thread because we are convinced that looking at, and talking about images is vital for better photography.

Our tried and tested concept (15 years and running!) is a weekly "peer-to-peer" photo comments & critique encounter, in which you GIVE and RECEIVE.

The idea is simple: you post an image and get critique on it, and in return give other people your opinion of their images, or vice versa.

Any Theme, Any Camera, Any Style, Any Subject.

We are still figuring out how to create the convenience of threaded view on this new forum.
For now, let us agree that you post an image with a title and short explanation, and that all comments include the image as a quote.
Replies to comments may or may not include quotes.

THREAD GUIDELINES – THE SHORT & SWEET VERSION
• This thread does not care about brands. It’s not about the tool, but the image.
• Post one image that you would like to get comments on (exceptions: see below).
• Add a clear title to your post to reflect the image’s title and distinguish your entry.
• Look at the other images and give your comments on at least one of those.
• For comments, try to go beyond a simple pat on the back or a short dismissal.
• Do you like an image (or essay) ? Try to explain WHY it appeals to you.
• Negative feedback is OK (we all want to learn), but be polite and constructive.
Try to explain why the image (or essay) does not appeal to you and how it might be improved.

We will start with single images.
Re-establishing our C&C for essays will be a next step.
Please limit any individual contribution to a single image. This avoids confusion.

The critique you give is vital.
What was your first impression? What catches your eye about an image? Why?
What do you like, and what distracts you? What would you change?

Fiddle with the image in your head - composition, perspective, color balance, exposure.
It is understood that unless the original poster specifically states that they do not want an altered image posted that you are free to alter the posted image and repost it in a reply for C&C purposes (no use for other purposes!). That reposted image may remain permanently or you may remove it after a short period of time if you prefer. No copyright disputes here!

More general feedback is also welcome.
Do you know something about taking the same sort of image that would make matters easier - share your own as an example in your reply.

Encourage - it is a scary business putting your work up for other people to judge!

And finally, here are some useful hints for navigating and familiarizing yourself with the forum mechanics of DPRevived:
• Unfortunately, there is no threaded view (yet). We can’t simply keep images and their related comments together like we used to. So please make clear about which image you are commenting.
• To do that, you may make good use of the “quote” feature. This allows you to keep the image in your reply. Excess content can be deleted. The “preview” button allows you to look at what you are going to post.
• There is a difference between the “reply” button that sits at the top of the forum, and the reply buttons under every post.
• A few threads in this new forum with useful navigation information:
dprevived.com/t/how-to-use-this-site/387/
and
dprevived.com/t/how-to-embed-photos-into-your-post-directly-from-flickr/456/
(this applies also, with modifications, to other photo hosting websites)
and
dprevived.com/t/how-to-quote/1014/

Have fun and let’s stick together!

PALIO 2016

Mike's adventures in Siena last month and the fact that the August Palio will happen soon, have prompted me to take a quick look back at some of my own images from July 2016. In that year, I had the incredible good fortune to be able to spend a full week in Siena, as embedded photographer in the Contrada della Giraffa (thanks to my dear Tuscan friend Annalisa who brought me in contact with a former Capitano of the Contrada and vouched for me that I would be respectful if granted full access).

My adventure resulted primarily in a B&W documentary series (all in square format) that tells the story of "One Week in Siena", sharing the excitement of the preparations and the race. I did attend several trial races on the Campo (at various locations, including on a rooftop). But for the actual race, I opted to stay off the Campo and register reactions in various places in the city (being on the Campo on race day would have constricted my movements too much for many hours).

If you are interested, that series is here : Una Settimana a Siena
I still consider it as one of the series most representative of my style and what I aim for in photography.

But we are about single images here, so here is an outtake from the series.
I did indeed also start work on a colour essay, but that work is still in the pipeline, so many years later.
This is an image from one of the trial races, and for this one, I was on the center space of the Campo itself:

This is miserable.
In the Lecce region of Italy, the olive trees are dieing. Magnificent old specimens are being chopped down and burnt to try to stop the disease spreading. Unfortunately, the disease continues to advance. I decided I had to do this as a series.
The first shot is an ancient olive as it should look. I took this shot ten years ago in Sicily.

Hiker on a hilltop
My wife has this picture, as a screensaver, on her laptop, so I see it almost every day and it's growing on me :-)
I took it on an Autumn day, while on a hike to Schneeberg (which translates to "snow mountain")
A fairly simple image, but has something special for me, it's just a older hiker standing proud on a small hilltop, not too far from the summit, he's looking out and pondering the view beyond and he's contrasted nicely against that band of mounatins in the background.

Being so small the person also gives the scale to the large expanse, so typical of the scenes up in the mountains.

This first one would be the single image to comment on,
...but just to set the scene on that day, I've incuded a few more shots from that hike :-)
It started out quite foggy, but cleared as we got higher.

my wife on a rock :-)

Ph-Art Abstract

enlarge: click image>click downarrow

Lou

Lavender fields by simple.joy, on Flickr

Along a path
through the lavender
four trees are lined up
tall and slender

Their shadows are
so it is said
fork-shadowing
what lies ahead

Summer 2

WhyNot

It seems that every country and every generation since the 1800's has had to deal with and adapt to some major ecological tragedy. And often, humans caused or exacerbated the event.

One in the U.S.: in the first half of the 20th century, the American Chestnut tree was decimated by a fungus brought to the U.S. via Japanese ornamental chestnuts. 3.5 billion American Chestnuts died - the source of a multi-billion dollar (today's value) timber industry, and comprising major ecosystems in the Appalachians and the east coast.

Breathtakingly beautiful. I particularly like the soft blues of distant range and the gentle clouds.

The hiker is a huge bonus for attempting to understand the scale; however, my first experience visiting Mount Rainier (Washington State USA volcano in the Cascade Range) made me realize that no matter how many stunning photos you see, until you've personally been there, you can't truly appreciate. What a magical world you call home.

Not our Grandmother's Apple Trees

This is one of the trellis-style commercial operations that have become common in the past 10 - 20 years.

I generally don't post images of flowers. I love images of Calla Lillies, as they are so beautiful and I have said that it's impossible to take a poor picture of a Calla Lilly. But images of flowers are more about the flower than the image itself. The "creation" is already there, and for better or worse, the photographic image is just a reporting of that creation by Nature, not by me.

I'm posting this image as I had almost forgotten about it until I posted it a few days ago on another site simply as an example of the functioning of a particular adapted lens on a particular camera. It was my first ever image on my GFX 100s camera two years ago. The light was just magical that early evening in May when I took this in my garden. It was just a quick focusing exercise without any effort at composition, but the beauty of the Lilly just took my breath away when I brought it up on my monitor.

I was especially struck by the similarity of the edges of the petals and sea foam.

Rich

No Graffiti

Taken in Brighton.

Pete

Diversity and Harmony

A basalt rock formation, home to cliff swallows (note their mud nests), several species of lichen, green plants and flowers.

Wind From The Forest

A couple of weeks ago we had a lively discussion about the use of art filters in photo editing. It wasn't my image being discussed but since I do use those kinds of things pretty often, I thought I'd share one of my own playful concoctions. This image is loosely based on my own very favorite painting, Andrew Wyeth's Wind From The Sea www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.143926.html which has always reminded me of this particular window in my old house.

Since none of this was done in camera other than taking the picture, I'll explain it for anyone interested. First I first softened and saturated the image in NIK color efex and PS to get an Orton type look but brighter. (I often soften my images rather than sharpen them which I know makes me weird from the start). I adjusted the colors in an ancient discontinued program called Restyle, then applied an impressionistic art filter effect variably to different areas using brushes, masks, layers and blending modes in PS. Finally, I added a texture created from old paper, also with masks and brushes. For anyone tempted to use such filters, I'd encourage you to play to your heart's content but learn the controls of the program so you are not bound by the manufacturer's presets, and use it within the confines of a host program like PS, Affinity or Elements so you can have total control of what it does where.

Except for the photo of the father with his son, everything seems out of proportion. Is that a bonus? No, I don't think so, especially the building behind, above the father, is ugly because of the distortion. However, it will partly support the atmosphere of this event.

Lou

I like the composition with the single tree with higher branches and I absolutely love the colors in your shot - very, very beautiful! They're powerful enough to capture my eyes attention and don't let them be distracted by the wires. Is it an HDR shot? Or just some effective post processing or very special light in that moment? Either way, excellent work!