* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #845 / Revived #065 on 2024 06 26 *

Another pretty colorful Australian bird that I'll never get to meet. He gave you a nice pose with a glimpse of his eye. It's sharp as sharp can be, almost leaping out of the screen at me. For those who cherish absolute sharpness, this is a fine specimen. In less contrasty light, you might have been able to more easily retain a little detail in the near side patch of black feathers, I expect the detail is there in the raw, and indeed it may be present onscreen. I'm looking at it on a tablet and that always seems to make images more contrasty.

What a grand thing to keep the historic trains alive and working! Good documentary photo with all that billowing smoke for drama, the use of the various lines to guide us through the image and some primary colors for punctuation. A human for scale and interest is a nice addition. Interesting image.

Thank you Chris. The original looks pretty much like this except for the removal of some unsightly fencing. The PP was directed at that removal. Icefields highway is a photographer's dream, especially as a storm is breaking like it did on this particular evening.

Thanks! It was truly an amazing sky that afternoon. I confess I liked the lopsided tree even though it was a snag.

Thank you Danno, and I especially appreciate you taking time to show me an edit. But oh please don't take away my Bob Ross snag! 😀 I liked it as a counterpoint to the outward directional flow coming from the center. I can see why some may find it intrusive, but I tend to keep the natural flaws/intrusions more than not. Those manmade intrusions in nature photos, though, like the hideous fence in this shot, may have to go!

Thanks Roel, and yes, the mountains on both edges of Canada remind me a bit of Scotland. (I would love to go back to any of them). You would probably be surprised how little PP was added here, just the usual raw adjustments. The skies in Alberta are very dramatic and seldom want much enhancement. The main thing I did was rid the scene of an unsightly fence that was 5 strands of shiny metallic and electrical stuff used to discourage the animals from taking shortcuts across the highway instead of using the elevated critter crossings. So I'm glad to hear you didn't notice where it was! The new LR tools are much better at such things than the previous ones.

As a side note, this is an excellent example for Rich42 and MikeFewster on how to correctly quote other members' posts 🙂

As posted earlier, all you need to do is have matching opening and closing tags for each quote in a post.

Thank you minniev 😊 I'm glad you like it.

Very nice photo telling a very interesting story about the relationship between man and machines 😊

Unfortunately it looks a little too dark in the shadows on my screen which makes the details a bit hard to see.

Fwiw, I have lightened the shadows and darkened the highlights just a bit in ACR and this version looks better on my screen with more easily seen details.

Thank you for sharing 😊

Now that's an interesting image for discussion. Except for the leaning dead tree, it's saccharine sweet perfect. Soft colours with a touch of the always good gold blue complementaries. Radiating lines from the clouds zeroing in on the peaks. The lakes giving front to back visual movement as well. Then the stump. The inclusion is deliberate. The rest of the image tells us that the photographer knows their stuff.
The dead leaning tree becomes the point. Nature is like that. It isn't all managed perfection. The stump doesn't distract, it makes a statement.

I posted earlier that I find the stump distracting (and so removed it as an alternative version) so I'm curious what statement it makes to you.

It is a subject we have seen many times before so such a photo becomes a demonstration of technique and equipment. Viewed large this moon is impressive. We are invited to explore details of something we are so familiar with that we take it for granted and don't spend time on the close up.
I looked at Dan's suggestion of more contrast and I looked at the OP's addition of the haze filter. I don't think either give anything except a bit of drama to the original. A full moon is bright.

I like a bit of "drama" in images.

I'm with Dan on this. The polished brasswork , the substantial levers and things to twirl and lock, are a significant part of the mystique of steam trains. They are important here. They are the interface between the man and his machine. The lighter version makes more of them on my screen too.
The golden dangling down thingies add pleasing complexity and depth to the brass railingsaround the driver's platform. The spurt of steam that unites man and machine couldn't be more appropriate. Perfectly caught.
A train on my bucket list.

As I said, nature isn't perfect. The photo shows nature in exquisite perfection. A reminder of death and the harsher aspects that are always there.

ok no problem. That is an opinion but what if someone came along tomorrow and completely removed the stump. I don't see the photo showing nature in exquisite perfection because I don't see any animals of any kind in the scene.

If the stump was removed tomorrow, imo the same scene would still be just as worthy to photograph without the stump being there.

Just my 2c worth.

No problem minniev. I wouldn't dream of removing your Bob Ross snag if you like it. I wasn't sure what the "worrisome distraction" you referred to was. Since the stump was a distracting eye-magnet for me I thought that might have been what you referred to and so removed it.

Interesting. In my previous comment on the moon shot I almost added that I thought it had been run through Topaz so I'm not suprised to see that it is something you use. I "Topaz" regularly although I don't always like what it does. The results are often mixed with great sections and not so great sections on the same Topaz image. On your original, I didn't think "Topaz" until I looked at the largest version I could see. Looking at it big, many of the edges appear as over enhanced bright lines. The same happens with plenty of my shots. I've started to experiment more with dialing back the sharpness level. The ability to control many different aspects of the AI process is a big plus for Topaz however I'm a long way from mastering it.
And yeah Dan, I know I don't use Quote correctly, I'll get around to it. I hate the flat view forum structure.

Some forums give members the option to list posts beginning at the last post and then the previous posts. Unfortunately this one doesn't.

What works well for me, especially in long threads, is to first go to the last post and then read the posts back from there.

This minimises the chance of reposting something that has already been mentioned.

Wow, thank you. I greatly appreciate that.

Thanks, Mike. You have read my intent quite correctly. The snag was deliberately included as a counterpoint to the starburst effect of the rest of the composition. Imperfections, when created by nature, appeal to me. When I first started in nature photography I sought out landscapes without intrusions, flowers in their perfect prime. I waited impatiently for all humans to get out of a scene. Now I look for interesting intrusions, while I still feel free to get rid of those I find bothersome like the fence in this one, loose trash, etc.