* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #815 / Revived #035 on 2023 11 29 *

I hate these. They remind me of the hours and hours I have spent in multiple locations trying to get good dragonfly shots and I never get them anywhere near as good as these..
You have caprured the exquisite shape of the elegant body and the tiny details on the legs and wings. Razor, razor sharp. And you have the softly blurred background that shows these details off. It's the perfect DOF setting.
I'm green with envy.

Shot 1. You have committed to an extended panorama format that suits the patterns and placement of the ducks. You could take this further. Possibly crop down from the top to remove the far bank and most of the water above the birds. I like the suggested lines of the birds coming from the front corners to the large dick that has its wings extended. The image is a bit flat. Play around with the black and white points on a histogram to give some extra contrast.
Shot 2. Crop from the top about halfway between the edge and the top of the ducks head. The wonderful extended wing line now exits along the diagonal and this feels much stronger than leading into a largish area of out of focus birds. The spots of water from the flapping wings stand out nicely against the dark feathers.
Shot 3. Perhaps a small amount off the left but it isn't too important. The duck is looking off into this area so some space over there is quite fitting. A touch of experimenting with the black and white points here to give more dynamic range?
Ducks usually make good subjects. Some nice curves and eyes plus iridescent feathers and you have all of those qualities here.

To me the goal of this photo is to show the focus and intent of the pugilist in action. And that is just what we see. The look in his eye, the raised eyebrow, the brush of his nose with the glove (as many of them seem to do), are well captured here. I think that seeing only one eye accentuates the effect, and the out of focus back of the trainer's head is an allowable prop to achieve that - rules such as no OOF foreground are made to be broken. Otherwise, I shall remain outside of the ring as a respectful observer. Well caught photo.

A nice story for background serves as a good prop for a series and your captures and story blend well here. In the horse photo you have captured the eyes of every horse and their awareness of your presence. I can ignore minor things such as blown sky. There are plenty of other colourful elements to that photo.

This is a very well conceived and put together photo. There are many individual elements that might not work, or say much. But taken as a whole they all work together. The lone tree is indistinct, but without it what would be the picture be? It draws our eyes in and we explore from there. The almost b&w colour palette enhances the wintry expanse. This is one of those photos I am happy to just gaze at, which means it ticks boxes.

Another example of words setting a scene for the photo. Albeit a brief description this time. I love what our minds can do with language and the term lunch crunch, which I had never heard before, made me smile - simple but appropriate.
This is definitely a pic to be viewed 1:1. Following the line of the tabletops we see rows of sunlit glasses and bright red chairs. The sky is not above but to the sides, half being a sharp reflection. There is just enough ocean visible through the railing to let us know there is a view to be had while dining here.
If I may add a crop...

I was very happy with my dragonflies but birds / insects in flight have eluded me so far. As mentioned yours provide more context to the scenes. What I love is, although not macro, you have still captured the oftentimes other-worldly aspects of insects. If ever one needed a picture in a mythical story of mechanical flying machines, it could be based on these. The third has a "Huey" look, and the last even has nicely bent exhaust pipes hanging from the engine, over a nicely blurred water surface. The third, also having a bee and a somewhat battered looking butterfly, is pretty good all in one picture. Oh and the pairs of probably mating ritual. The clarity your camera allows is evident and you have incredibly fine detail. If Mike is envious of mine, I am envious of yours...

This collection sent me off into my own journey into the memory banks. When I was in Primary School I was infatuated by three books set on horse ranch in Wyoming. My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming. Life was difficult for the family in the first two but by Green Grass of Wyoming, life was good and the ranch was lush. What I saw in my imagination in book three was a place like Uncle Montfort's Horse Farm.
So thanks for the ramble back through two lots of memories minniev. The Living is easy.
It's interesting to compare minniev's last photo with Linda's contribution this week. Colour v monochrome. The seasons could hardly be more different. And yet they trigger much the same response. A receding fence line goes east west and picks up gently rolling countryside. Behind are hills that more or less echo the fenceline. A wide image of gently incoming waves does much the same.

The colours are unsettling. Green ought to invoke calmness with the natural world. Not here, the green is strident, especially paired with that pink. This is a natural world that laughs at us. Calm and comfortable it ain't. Neither are the hard metal edges. An image that relishes the discomfort.

It's a very different idea and it's a challenge to bring this off. You need the repeating set tables and you also want the repeating umbrella shapes. Raising the camera to make more of the repeating set tables would probably destroy the line of umbrellas.
What happens if you raise the shadows so we get more details in the table settings? The amount of contrast sort of spoils the invitation of the tables.

It's a pleasure to have such different approaches to the same subject in the one week. If you have read my reponse to Bryan's dragonflies, I'm no better at getting them on the wing either. I think minniev has covered much the same territory that I'd have commented on. I agree about the last shot too. Boy meets girl with all the energy of fighter planes. I very much like the positioning of the right hand fly against the framed bright background. The upward curved tail and out of focus tail on the closer dragonfly adds lots of speed and urgency to the approach.

I knew it. I guessed that when the curtain was pulled back I might find myself far from Asia. The little buildings in the original look like the kind of shelters that are built for workers in the rice paddies of Asia.

A note about the camera. It was a Mamiya C330 interchangeable twin lens reflex. Heavy and bulky but wonderful for street shooting. If you think about the position the camera must have been in to get this shot, You will see the point. It was carried on a strap and sat a little below hip height. You glanced down to see into the hooded viewfinder and pressed a shutter release lever that was at just the right angle to operate with your hand at hip height. Perfect for unobtrusive street photography, even if it was a large gadget.

Thanks to both of you.
I printed that 3rd image nice and big on A3 size photo paper and it looks surprisingly good, despite only coming from a phone :-)
Trevor

Thanks all. It had been a funny week or so. Absolutely no good photos - mind you I had had some great subjects in a variety of colourful, twitchy, small birds but neither my skill nor gear were up to the task - "and then one day he was shootin at some food"

Shhhh, we all want to believe it is taken with a "proper" camera... 😉

I am a bit late - the new thread has already started... But just have to say great capture and interesting to learn about the camera and technique.