* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #876 / Revived #096 on 2025 01 29*

Great travel portrait, reminds me of some of David du Chemin's travel images. Your re-edit makes it much more vital and engaging. The colors and lighting are better emphasized and we are more drawn in. With the original, our engagement is more with the scene, which is plenty nice, but the revised version connects us to the man. It's a reminder that our old cameras were plenty good, and our new software can make those old shots shine even brighter.

Interesting displays that look very familiar because I survived the eras they are illustrating. I guess I am now museum-ready. Looks like the visitors are having fun with items that are more novel to them than they are to me. My favorite is the schoolroom. There are loads of smaller images of individual items hidden in these, and perhaps you spent some time collecting close ups of some of the stuff. Could be hours of fun cropping and editing smaller images.

Love the foggy walk through the forest. There is always a gentle mystery about fog that gets me out of bed before dawn if we are lucky enough to have some (not often). The ones with the road/path weaving through the trees are my favorites for the simple reason that they hit on all the visual perception hot buttons of leading lines and patterns and shapes, adding mystery as a bonus point. Do you know what caused the situation in the last one? I ask because I ran across something similar on my own foggy forest walk yesterday, way over here in a Mississippi swamp, and was curious about it.

That's a lot of cold air.

Reflective windows on modern buildings do give us great opportunities for photography. There's plenty of contrast, and interesting lines. I think it might be nice, too, in a black and white version where you could make even more of the contrast and design.

Nice Lone Tree image, made wonderfully moody by the season and the fog. A classic image of the Bleak MidWinter. The lone figure making his way to the tree, presumably to sit upon the rocks beneath it, adds to the story. A thoughtful figure sitting on the rocks would make an interesting variation, but would lack the implied motion of this shot. Like Chris's offering, and like Fireplace's series, this would look very nice in monochrome, especially with an antique look.

Sharpness can be over rated. The blur in this one is a feature not a liability. There is a sense of speed and power that you'd not have caught with a sharp capture. It deserves to be included in your grouping. I am reluctant toss pictures out too soon because I often find hidden keepers later. Even pictures snapped in error can sometimes be interesting.

What an interesting capture! You'll have to tell us about how it was done. The ornately filagreed lamppost is lovely, and its design is as rhythmic as a piece classical music. The half caught line and what looks like a falling bicycle and human figure are mysteries but they are perfectly placed in terms of triangular compositional design. I love it.

The details of the tree are lovely and well captured and presented. The lower part of the tree seems like a pair of hands supporting the rest. The fan of golden foliage and the frond of green foliage are framing those hands. What bothers my eye is the balcony and those contrasty bars. I can't resolve them visually with the rest of the image.

YES

Thanks.
I really don't know "who did it" in that last shot. It's a bit low down for a woodpecker, but he could be one of the usual suspect.
I think it looks different if a beever had been the culprit, and there's no river near the tree anyway.
I was hoping someone here could tell me who it was ;-)

Thanks Minnie

This is a crop I had considered, but I actually liked the background of the other.

Gnarled part Deux

Rich

Your post, including the story and the film, stirred up a heap of thoughts. I "get" desert country and I'm always awestruck by the cultural/technical adaptions of those who live in them. Yes, Dune is one of my favourite sci fi books. Paul Bowles "The Sheltering Sky" and the Bertolucci film both hit chords with me. Much more disturbing though are Bowles collected short stories about the same region.
I rarely use square format. Here it's warranted. There's a circular composition line of roundish shapes from the rock. head, hand with pouring pot and the two pots on the ground. It fits nicely into the square whereas the taller shot introduces an awkward vertical movement that doesn't go anywhere.
The shadow lifting in the new version not only gives face detail to the subject, it is justified by the glow from the campfire.
A shot that speaks of the traditional hospitality that is often deep;y embedded in cultures in harsh places.

These are stunning. They are linked as a series by the repeating narrow vertical lines of the trunks. The mist accentuates the vertical lines while suggesting the depth of the pattern. I've regularly pointed out here previously how this pattern generates responses in viewers so I wont bore everyone by repeating it.
The shots can all stand alone. The following reflects on them as a series. The shots vary with differing proportions of the images given to the trunks with the misty sky behind and the forest floor. As in 1 and 3. I'm suggesting a series of 1, 2 and 3 where some cropping has been done at the bases so the proportion of land to sky is close to the same in each. It would create another link to put them together.
To use a phrase from the past. Just food for thought.

As soon as I looked at it large. I liked it more. The colours and details like the cloud reflection become significant.
Reflecting surfaces have to be modern architectures gift to photographers.
Here, the parts feel better than the whole. Too me, there are too many lines and bits that aren't working together. Especially on the right hand side of the building, there are many crop opportunities that would use the clouds and keep the warm/cool colours and so tell us much the same about the day. Here's one suggestion.

There's light mist and mist with a touch of sun and there's heavy mist. This is the latter. The kind when it seeps through your clothes as you walk. The line of rushes gives direction into mist but keeps much hidden. The fractured dark grey slate on the left further builds the dark, heavy atmosphere. It's a completely different mood to the mist Fireplace shares this week.
A Chris says.

Australia has very few deciduous trees and I'm envious of the photo possibilities they give. I'd dispute your
"little to commend it."
Zeke has done his bit. He may be some distance away, but even seen small, he's positioned himself so we can't miss his "C'mon. Which path do I take?" look back over the shoulder. It's important to our response.
Zeke is tailor made for the season and place. He belongs here. A black or white dog would have been an intrusion.
Zeke has chosen his path with care down a little avenue of grass. It isn't all Zeke.
The credit doesn't quite go all to Zeke. The photographer has helped by selecting an aperture with lots of dof so we are immersed in the spot and along on the walk with them.
I haven't even started to consider the complementary colours and the effects of the light and dark patches.

The half body to the right and the space to the left add speed and direction as much as the blur. Together, yes, a stunner.