* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #802 / Revived #022 on 2023 08 30 *

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!

Red rock river
Everytime I hike to the place we fondly call the "red rock river," I get another opportunity to take photos of the water cascading and splashing over the rocks. Occasionally, the sunlight plays a magical role, transforming the water's appearance into something quite different.
On this particular occasion, there were also dark, clouds looming over head.

INDIAN SELF-PORTRAIT

Pete's image of worshippers (and photomakers) in an around the Ganges from a few weeks ago, inspired me to dig up this one from our trip to India.

On the first days there, we were in Mammalapuram (or Mahabali Puram), a city on the Bengal coast close to Chennai (aka Madras).
That city is known for a few architectural highlights of Hindu culture and religion : a few temples hewn from sheer rock, and a Shore Temple, that sits almost right at the beach because the shoreline has changed over the ages. There were a lot of pilgrims there. Clearly a place where people come in groups to worship but also to enjoy themselves, and for many a first encounter with the ocean.

At first light, I went out and found the beach already crowded with groups, many in religious red and orange, but others also in just their festive attire.

There was a small fairground with oldfashioned (handpowered) merry-go-rounds, food vendors, a guy with a horse that had a business of letting people sit on that horse to get their photo taken etc. Many were already using smartphones, but definitely not the majority.

To cater to the people without smartphones and cameras, a couple of enterprising locals roamed the beach, armed with a small compact camera and a portable printer that is used for "instant" photos. They offered their services to provide pilgrims with family portraits on the beach, made and printed on the spot.

Obviously, I was interested in their activities and made some images of their operation, as part of the general atmosphere, thrilled to see and experience all that on our very first morning on the subcontinent. I had a blast of a time.

A white European guy roaming that beach between 5.30 and 7.00 AM long before breakfast and before more tourists would show up, I drew some attention myself.
I was asked to pose with several small groups of people.

One young lady went a step further and wanted a photo with me solo, standing as close as possible.
She went and found one of the photo vendors to get our portrait made and buy it.
This transaction enabled me to catch this "selfie by proxy":

For the Led Zep true believers.

That looks more like Pink Floyd to me.
😁

Great shots - looks like a really fun place to be and shoot! I like this one best. It's a very nice composition and shows lots of interesting shapes and tones. I also love the look of the water which looks very playful and fresh the way you've captured it. I'd personally try to have a bit more detail in certain areas and increased saturation (even though it might not be totally realistic that way) because it could help emphasizing the composition.

It's a great story and a really effective portrait of several people at once. Unless it was your intention to display her shot as overexposed, I would try to get a little more detail into the bright parts of the images to make it feel less "out of place". Of course that might be the very intention... I'm not sure about that. I like how colorful everything is, because of the clothes, despite the haze and brown and grey tones in the background. So in a way - because of the very fact that you're not wearing any attention-grabbing colors - you seem to stick out even more, which I find fascinating. Of course being white and (I assume) pretty tall, there's no way of keeping a low profile anyway... 😄

I also like the angle which establishes the printed photo as the new horizon. The highlight of the image are the expressions of the two women though. While the one on the left seems very enthusiastic about the whole thing, the almost detached looking hand and the fact that she is looking away seem to make it clear that it's more of a job for the photographer. You would assume someone constantly shooting others would be more comfortable with being photographed and have a professional 'look, that's my business' pose ready, but I guess in a way it's her way of being professional, letting the people on the photo interact and getting out of the way herself.

Really interesting shot, creating a lot of questions and inspiring to think about possible scenarios. To me it seems highly likely that someone took the 'brick and mortar store' descriptor too literally... 😉

I like the light and composition as well as the overall mood of the image. The shadow of the rail onto the bricks is a striking detail, surely worthy of a separate image from a different angle (which perhaps you even took...) I would try how it looks if the bricked-up doorway would be placed completely parallel to the frame... might work, might not!

Putting bokeh into perspective... by simple.joy, on Flickr

I suppose the title should be enough of a description... Only thing I'll add: it was in equal parts challenging and fun to create this. 😅

[/quote]

Really interesting shot, creating a lot of questions and inspiring to think about possible scenarios. To me it seems highly likely that someone took the 'brick and mortar store' descriptor too literally... 😉

I like the light and composition as well as the overall mood of the image. The shadow of the rail onto the bricks is a striking detail, surely worthy of a separate image from a different angle (which perhaps you even took...) I would try how it looks if the bricked-up doorway would be placed completely parallel to the frame... might work, might not!
[/quote]
You are right. I took a second version but it is quite different. Still thinking Led Zep. The stairway not chosen.

Good and interesting shot. I keep looking back at it !
It would certainly be disappointing to climb the staircase up to heaven, only to find out it was all bricked up years ago :-(

Thanks Simplejoy :-)
Thanks for the edit
I often find that, after processing my landscape shots, I'll take a final look and feel that the saturation is too high and reduce it by a few clicks. Sometimes without that last correction it would look exaggerated and unreal.
In this case, to bump it up a bit seems to work :-)
I went back to my original and increased it, it but not as much as in you edit.

The photo is a nice souvenir of that fun moment. When was it taken ?
Now that it was mentioned by Simplejoy, I can see that the horizon of the photo is straight and it is placed right in the center of the picture. That is effective!
The lady looks proud that she got a photo of you :-)

That looks good, I can see now how you created it with those 3 overlapping hexagonally shaped bokeh elements.
Must have been a real challenge to set that up. Well done!
Even having the idea to try is amazing.

Dinosaur Bones

After re-working the color image for more detail, (the one I posted in my reply-to-all last week) I decided to try a black and white version. I am particularly interested in hearing your opinions about the strengths/weaknesses of the monochrome, and also if the interest of the subject and scene changed for you. Thanks!

A special shoutout to @Fireplace33 for the title idea 😁

Looking at Me? #1

WhyNot

😀

I really like your B&W conversion !!
It has increased the general contrast and made the "bones" more prominent. Also that band of mist in the background has now become less dominent because it's now the same "colour" as the yellow grass, which again gives the viewer less distractions and so those bones now just jump out at you. Cropping the sky a bit also helped a bit too