* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #817 / Revived #037 on 2023 12 13 *

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.

PLEASE NOTE CLEARLY
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!

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

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.

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!

KERALA AT DAWN

Once again an older image from previous travel.
An encounter on a pre-sunrise walk on and around the estate of Philipkutty in Kerala (South-India):

Because Christmas is around the corner, I'm sharing two shots, one in red:

Il-litter-red rose by simple.joy, on Flickr

and an older one in green:

Spiding in plain sight by simple.joy, on Flickr

Rolling Fork: Rise Again - a Short Photo Story

If you're in the US, you may have read last spring about Rolling Fork, a small Mississippi town completely destroyed by one of the strongest tornados ever recorded. They recently had a festival to celebrate their efforts at rebuilding. Here's a few photos and a substory. Rolling Fork's only claim to fame was a visit by President Teddy Roosevelt to go bear hunting, which ended when he failed to find a bear and refused to shoot a bear someone caught and brought to him on a rope in hopes of assuaging his disappointment. From this incident the Teddy Bear was invented, to poke fun at his soft-hearted response. Before the town blew away, all the old downtown buildings were covered with murals depicting various aspects of the Roosevelt story and his stay there. None of those buildings or murals survived. In fact, the courthouse was the only building that partially survived. During the festival, a young local woman began putting up the first new mural, on one of the walls of the destroyed buildings, this one to honor the difficult process of rebuilding a town that was less than prosperous already.

Stegmoosalm
This weekend we walked up once again with our snow shoes to the rocky outcrop at Stegmoosalm.
The sun was shining for the most part and for a short while I even enjoyed walking up with only a T-Shirt.
This is a fairly easy route, although it was a bit more effort than I thought, with about 40cm of fresh snow.
The avalanche warning level was "moderate" and, every few minutes, it was rumbling loudly from the higher areas.
In the steep parts snow will sometimes fall down in streams, just like in a sudden waterfall, but that was all quite far away from us.

playing with shadows

Zooming in on one of the snow falls far away, sounding like thunder as it crashes down, it's just about visible here in the centre of the picture.

"The Dogs of Fire & Ice"

More from Europe in 1974
Both taken with Mamiya C330
Spain. Peniscola
Greece. Samos.

Wow, 1974 was quite a while back!
Good shot with his eye on the ball and full of concentartion, a future professional ?
You can feel that he is about to run straight towards you, giving some movement and direction to the photo.
But could it be that the bruises on his legs come from falling down those stairs, or is that just a healthy portion of good old dirt fronm the football field ;-)

I can't imagine a tornado with the power to destoy everything like that. Must have been an absolute horror to experience it.
Good luck to them with the rebuild!

Two good shots. They fit well together with those bold colours to a Christmas theme.
I thought it was quite a strange flower, until I read it was just a piece of litter. But you have transformed it into an almost real red rose :-)
And it was only after your prompting that I noticed the little spider on the green leaf. He is really well camouflaged there!

He could be a grandfather by now and probably can't remember.

They're all very good captures, but this one stood out to me immediately! Love the composition and stark contrast between the dark shadows and the snow cover. It almost looks like a B&W shot at first, but when viewing the bigger version it surprises with the beautiful colored bokeh in the foreground. Just fantastic.

This capture

feels like it has similar potential, however I feel like it could benefit from some more post processing (if possible). I would certainly try to darken a couple of areas and perhaps try a slightly different crop without any distractions at the bottom.

Anyway - excellent work!

A really fascinating and moving story. To me your shots are really effective in terms of "documentation quality". They give a good overview of what was taking place there, provide some context, but they don't seem to be idealized (press-like) versions of what was happening, which makes them a perfect fit for the situation and thus more truthful.

Very well done!

I don't have a lot of thoughts on them, but I really, really like those shots. The composition is fantastic in both of them and the processing pretty much perfect for my taste.

There's a calmness to the photo that doesn't only come from the smooth water. An X composition contributes. The diagonal of the boats, then the palms, their reflection and the boat mast and seats, takes us nowhere. It simply balances. And the same for the pink and blue of the buildings and the clothing. The mood is set and then we can visually explore the details of life in this corner of the world.

Your use of scale and color never ceases to amaze me.

"Life & Death"