* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #853 / Revived #073 on 2024 08 21 *

I can confirm that the only damage was to the ego... 😳 And it seems to have recovered OK - certainly today helped... 😊

I had to look up where this is, because Mühlbach did not sound familiar.
There appeared to be Mühlbach communities in France, Germany, Austria and even Italy according to Google Maps.
The name of your cable car narrowed it down to Austria.

You captured some great scenery here, that looked quite similar of some of the views we enjoyed in Oberbayern on a few gorgeous hikes (Upper Bavaria, i.e. on the southern border with Austria). Your views were a bit more rocky in the distance though.

Of the images shown here, my favourite is the last one with the cows.
Not only do they provide foreground interest, depth and scale and a "living" presence, but also the view in the far distance and the clouds look most appealing to me.
It is a very balanced composition.

My second favourite is photo #3: it lacks the cows but shares the other advantages : a crisp foreground, good far view and nice clouds.

The other two are nice to have in the bunch because they flesh out the whole view, but I would be less enamored with them on their own.

I like this treatment.
It gives the city in the distance almost a slight halo.
It's maybe just a bit over the top to still look natural, but it is surely effective.
Like it is Emerald City and the railtracks are some yellow brick road leading towards it.

Wow!

Bein' a Parrot Head, thanks, Mike!

Rich

I usually like the broader views with lots of context, but in this case I think the tighter view says all that needs to be said. It contains the subject, churning uphill in deep concentration, but also the industrial backdrop, the other humans, and the fog. Each of them is equally well taken, but the closer in one tells the full story in fewer words. (And the rider seems to be working harder in the closer one too, which adds more tension).

The landscape is magnificent, the skies are awe inspiring, the foliage is lush. But the cows are indeed the winner, gathered as they are as if for a ceremony honoring that landscape, while becoming part of it. All the images are well taken, with broad views and glorious colors. A set that makes this viewer yearn to see it for myself.

The panorama itself is properly executed. It is amazing that we can handhold such things these days. I do think it needs more room at the top, either by including more of the real shots or asking VR tools to create it from what's already there. It might benefit from some PP dehaze treatment.

The colorful robin is quite as sharp as he needs to be, but somewhat hidden in that tangle of twigs and vines. The only one that seems to be causing any trouble is the pale one that runs across his beak. I'm not sure how an editing program would get rid of it but it might be worthwhile to try and see, since it is both hiding his facial features and is blurred as well.

This is quite an interesting shot. It has two equal subjects joined by countless vertical leading lines but also blocked by at least a dozen horizontal lines. The distant city with its clean modern black and white architectural lines joins but contrasts with the dirt brown and more mundane lines of the railyard. The bridges hold us up in between. It is an interesting study of line and balance.

I love this image! The lily-princess is beautifully dressed for the ball, and the prince-frog is chilling in the shade of her skirt while he awaits his kiss and his transformation into his true self.

The colors are brilliant and rich, the composition is perfect, the capture is wonderfully sharp. I especially love the pose you caught the frog prince in, with his behind tucked under the dead lily leaf and his tiny feet cooling in the little puddle on the lily pad.

Thank you Roel.

The main purpose of the edit was to show Chris the sky was still recoverable.

Most of my pants are shot hand held these days. I'm too lazy to set up the tripod.

I do a few practice pans across the scene in portrait orientation and then take at least 2 sets of sequences.

Good eye to spot this shot which had to be hiding from the average viewer, and isolate it for capture. The Parking sign appears lightly balanced on the fingertips of the cartoonish character behind it, anchored by its teeth. The lines up from the bottom and flaring out at the 2/3 point provide balance.The colors are bright and fun. I think a bit more contrast and maybe a slight reduction in brightness would make it even more interesting.

Vivid colors and details in warm sunset light are almost always a winner. A striped lighthouse is something that's hard not to love. Very atmospheric documentary shot that might appeal to the restaurant owner for a menu cover (clad in protective plastic of course). Or a reference image for a painting of the scene. Makes me feel like I've been there.

I think your revised version is indeed an improvement. I was about to suggest a crop and raising the shadows, here you've already done it in response to Mike's suggestion. The bikes, which are some of the main subjects in the photo, become more visible with these two adjustments. The scene becomes more interesting and the two distant human figures who are representative of the riders of all those things draw closer to us. The image is well balanced visually either way, but the cropped/brightened version is more alive.

Glad you and your camera/lens survived. All of us have suffered mishaps. With me - I'm sometimes distracted by the pictures I mean to take, and may not be paying attention to my surroundings.

Your dragons are cool, as usual. I'm fond of 4 and 5 because the background and bokeh balls add interest. They might could use some shadow-raising to find some more detail in darker shadows parts of the dragons.

You really focused on shadows in this photo, Mike.
Of course I only shoot my photos in RAW.
What were you thinking?
Shadows are set to +84 in Camera Raw, and in my opinion that should be enough.
At the end of the day, a photo is mostly about light and shadow.

What I should have corrected from the beginning: the photo is about the architecture and not about the bikes.
But this should be very easy to recognize for trained eyes.