* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #808 / Revived #028 on 2023 10 11 *

Thanks for alerting me to the second version. It interests me for many reasons. I was curious to see some examples of LR bokeh and generally it's me suggesting crops. Actually, I prefer the original with a slight modification. This is a matter of personal preference. I like, usually, a little more detail in the backgrounds to give context. I think I'd prefer the original with a touch of vignetting to give more centering push to the flowers while leaving plenty of detail behind that could be explored but wouldn't compete with the flowers.

Not sure about the crop; I'm enjoying the aloneness :) Thanks very much for your detailed comments about why to remove the bud on the left.

What seems a lifetime ago, knot knowledge was an admired skill. Think boy scouts, camping, mountaineering before ratchet straps etc. They are still worth learning. This one seems very complex for what it appears to be doing. The photo brings out the quality of rope and knots - the texture in the rope and detail of the knot form. I like that what Rich has caught is a knot at work. It shows in the metal stains, the rust of the iron and the frayed end. You feel that this is a rope that could tell stories.

This is a very outerworldly processing for a wedding picture, but oddly, it does work for me.
I don't think that many couples would be willing to experiment as much with their wedding photos, but I am sure that at least some will agree to something that is really special and extra-ordinary (in the literal sense of it being out of the ordinary).
Niche wedding photography.

Wonderful use of light on a very mundane object: I am pretty sure that this is a simple kitchen whisk.
The golden light, reflections and shades of colour receding towards dark, combined with the shallow DOF result in an image that looks like an illustration of planet or asteroids circling around the sun and captured with a VERY slow shutter speed.... The bokeh is not half bad either.
I am a fan.

I was looking in all the wrong directions upon seeing this image.

Is this a (not very typical) image of Napoleon, shot on the island of Elba where he was a resident for a short period?
But Napoleon was not there on a voluntary basis: he did not come for the ice cream.
Or is it a general of the Carabinieri, but where then? and when?
Etc.

I was trying to figure this out as a historical trivia quiz.
While, quite obviously, we are just being amused by the ice cone shape of the cocarde on top of the hat.

I agree on the assessment here.
Frankly, the dinosaur gets dwarfed by that gorgeous sunset, that is clearly taking the spot of main subject here.

Look at the two of us with hope and delusion.

Thanks, Mike

Unfortunately these are not knots. No self respecting sailor would ever wrap lines around a cleat like this. Or leave a frayed line. Or wrap a chain on a cleat. It's just a mess of chaotic rope and rusted chain on a rusting cleat in the "small boat harbor" off Molokai's only town, Kaunakakai, HI.

I've owned several sailboats. I've never seen a cleat rust like this or a harbor in such a state of neglect.

The scene is photogenic and makes a great print for its detail and color, but despite the interesting rust formation and coils of rope and rusty links of chain is sad and dismaying "in person."

The "small boat harbor" is just a tiny section of a long causeway out from shore ending in a hardened dock for the huge sea-going barges that bring Molokai all its provisions from Honolulu on Oahu once or twice a month.

This cleat, like many others on the dock, looked like it hadn't been disturbed for at least several years, with several decaying boats and dinghies secured by the ropes and chains. A very sad, deteriorating, abandoned place, with a few unattended boats rotting away.

Interesting to photograph, but very sad to see.

Rich