* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #881 / Revived #101 on 2025 03 05*

What at first glance seems to be a random collection of shapes, becomes a wonderful composition.
The largest bike is on its own and this makes it a starting point. Immediately it bumps into an arrow heading left and then further arrows and bikes at different angles. We are off on a stop/go circuit of the image. The eye can't settle. Smooth curves, hard edged lines, sharp angles and a central vertical line and triangle anchoring everything.
It's a lot more than "remotely interesting." It's fabulous.

You go very close to seeing this just as I saw it. and you almost got the year right as well.
I was on the roof of a Gaudi building. The tiles are a section of the famous Gaudi chimneys on Palau Güel. I wanted to relate the tilework to the feel of the surrounding buildings.

Minnie and Alan,

Thank you for the comments.

I remember when the song, Little Boxes came out in the early '60s. It was a commentary on the sameness of all the "cookie-cutter" houses being built at the time, each one like the other. The aftermath of population spread post WWII, especially in California. It was also a commentary about social behavior.

It was actually inspired by particular rows of almost identical little houses strung out on a San Francisco hillside. People had to have a place to live.

I never knew that Pete Seeger sang this song or had a hit with it (reportedly his only "charting single"). I only remember a female voice, which turns out to be the author, Malvina Reynolds (one hit wonder).

Alan, great story about Seeger coming to your house!

Anyway, these cottages are quite the opposite. While they all resemble each other, they are quite unusual, somewhat bizarre, even garish. Not resembling anything else in popular home architecture. Two rows of tiny, fantasy-land, "play houses" for vacationers playing make-believe along the San Diego (County) sea shore.

Rich

Oh yeah, Seeger didn't write that one. I had it on Broadside Ballads that included a stack of good songs. He's have gad no problems finding subject material today.

Sunset at Caribbean

Alan I have a problem with these. It's related to submissions in general rather than individual shots here. I understand that the collection is from a night's shooting with the club. As a collection, I feel that this is too broad. IMNHO. the images themselves need a stronger link. As a group, I don't feel they are cohesive enough.
While the first and last shots may have been taken in the same vicinity, they don't feel as though they belong with the bridge series, graphically that is.
I reckon you have enough material here for several week's posts.

Envy. A sunset and a moment that suggests going home, cold rum with something in hand.
It's interesting to reflect on the lines in the shot. A series of repeating, horizontal lines. It feels calm. It will be a relaxed rum and something. The right to left unfinished line of the boat and wake is important. We automatically interpret right to left broken like this as "returning." If it had gone left to tight we would have been more inclined to see the shot as "setting out." It's something to do with the way we read text, in the west.

Uncanny. Compare this photo from Pete with the shot from Saggitarius this week with the shot from Fireplace 33. So much is similar.

Thank you all for the discussion around my fotos. I'm using the opportunity to respond to all the comments left over the last few days. So, the reason the crop/view downwards is different from the view upwards is more a matter of possibility than choice. From the bottom up, I was able to stand in the center of the structure, but looking down, I had to photograph it from the side of the structure, as there is no way to reach the center at the top. The simple truth is that my phone camera just didn't fit the full fibonachi spiral into the frame and I opted for a more abstract crop of the structure, rather than getting the full slide in there.
I am quite impressed with the AI completion the slide, but I also have a fondness for the the slightly off-kilter crop the original. I sometimes quite like pictures that leave you hanging a bit. But yes, having a foto that would mirror the bottom-up version would be amazing. Maybe with a very long stick? 😂

Speaking of the artifacting that occured in the first image, it might be worth it to retake the image with a camera that's not a phone camera (and implement some of your tips). I do personally believe that the haziness caused by the high contrast actually ads to the feeling of the image, as it gives it a very hazy, unreal feeling, that makes the structure feel even more alien, than it already does. I think there is merit in taking the "flaws" of any given camera and trying to see the benefits of envoking feelings you wouldn't necessarily get with a perfectly sharp and artifact free foto. But you know, I might change my mind if I ever make that perfectly artifact free foto 😂.

Longer I look at it more I like it. Mesmerizing.

ChrisOly, minniev and MikeFewster,
Thank you for commenting on the crazy roadmarkings for the local bicycle riders! After some time of road works at the crossing they paved and painted and surprised everyone living nearby: there may be one person biking there every second minute or so at rush hour! They have managed fine for years with no road markings at all. Now they got the coolest bike intersection in the neighbourhood.

MikeFewster,
Ah, Palau Güel... I never visited that building. I did admire La Pedrera though which is a later work of Gaudi and where he shows a more developed own style. The building looks like an organic creation rising up from the ground. Fantastic and of course the camera comes to use when visiting such remarkable places or creations. Park Güel and of course La Sagrada Familia are also masterpieces. I like you didn't miss the crazy tile work. I didn't know he did that already with Palau Güel.

Streamdream,
Yes, i hear you. I have now looked up the viewing tower and understand how you run into problems. Obviously the construction demands some work by a photographer. And "a perfectly artifract free foto" is seldom seen and in no way required. Content is king as it sometimes is said and then we do something out of it.
I think that anyone having been at the place and anyone (me for the moment) new to the place have different needs. I didn't know of the tower and as I'm un-healthy interested in odd contraptions I "needed" to see and understand as much as I enjoyed the photo per se.
Now the question is which tower that fits the best in an up-coming trip through Europe. Bad Wildbad in Germany, Gmunden with Salzkammergut you showed us or perhaps someplace else. Inspiring!

There is a diagonal line running through the middle of the frame. It separates the view of the buildings on the left from the tiles on the balcony wall, but actually it doesn't seem to separate anything at all. The random shapes and colours of the tiles create a sort of camouflage, which allows the right hand side of the image to blend seamlessly with the left. It was good that you noticed thiscool effect and were able to capture it convincingly.

That is a very neat meeting point. It is at the point where the land meets the sea, where Belgium meets France, where yellow/orange meets blue and seems to be a meeting point itself for people. It is an interesting structure, which morphs into different shapes. It appears to be a bridge to take you somewhere, but in fact brings you back to where you started, where you meet your own footprints in the sand.

I really like the first one, with its brightness and pattern effect. The spiralling slide isn't part of the main pattern, but complements it beautifully, both in shape and contrasting its smooth shiny surface with the complicated slatted structure.
The second would be really good if it was a similar composition, whilst showing the view into darkness from above, but, as others have mentioned, the cropped version spoils the two of a kind theme somewhat. Just taking the second photo on its own, then it lacks the flow of the first as the slide has been chopped. I think if at least the loop of the slide had not been chopped at the bottom, then it would improve the image greatly.

Today was a lovely Spring day here and reached almost +20°C, so it seems strange to look at ice once more, even though we had plenty 2 or 3 weeks ago, when it was well below 0°C, although nowhere near -20°C!
The delicate, sharply focused crystals are nicely highlighted by the soft focus of the trees. The vertical ice patterns on the right have a bright and uncluttered background, then a few lines lead to the left, where the more dominant trees balance the visual weight of the crystal patterns. This mixture of light and dark background adds interest to the image, not least because if highlights the crystals in different ways.

The shiny tag, with its simple but clear and appropriate message, stands out from the other shiny objects, which may look the same, but are reduced to a clutter of blur in the background. It seems the little bell, with its clear voice, may peep in to help draw attention to its words of wisdom.
I share your hopes.

I like the photos of the bridge(s) very much, but agree with Mike that they really belong in a series of their own.
I don't want to comment on all the photos but just on two of them to illustrate a point.
Photo 2 has a nice composition, with strong leading lines and so does photo 6, however no.2 doesn't really work for me. Its leading lines don't really lead to anything interesting. There is a person, but they are too small and dark to really be a point of interest. The lines in no.6 don't lead to anything in particular either, even if there are also a couple of people, who are also too small to be a focal point, even if they are more prominent than in no.2. The big difference is the bridge itself. It provides the leading lines to itself, and is a very good and attractive subject.