* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #896 / Revived #116 on 2025 06 18*

Both are fine but it is the combination that does the trick.
It invites further exploration and artistic experimentation.
You could (just as an example) consider turning each of these into their negative and then flip those over the vertical or horizontal axis, and then display them in a 2x2 pattern/grid, inviting the viewer to ponder what is reality and what is negative/flipped.
The whole quartet could look like a rorschach test or like the product of a kaleidoscope.

I agree with all of that (I just woke up from the KO).

I don’t know much about bird identification. The guide told us they were magpies. Could be he knew as much as I do. There are a lot of them in Denver and the park.
I was struggling with making the bird brighter, it caused the background to blow out. I will have to try playing with masking again.
Thank you!

Dreamy Beach Delight

Female Painter on the Beach (with permission)

This is a nice illustration of the old times in Australia and where to find that rock art
(This text belongs to the rock art at the first page,{something went wrong!)

Thanks everyone for the responses to these images.
No one has mentioned the two people in the panorama. It is difficult to see them because of their small size within the shot and they don't stand out against the background. One is only a head at the bottom of the frame. I considered removing the head but decided I liked it.
The amount of rock art in Australia and the age of some of the art is extraordinary. Issues of preservation and ownership are legal minefields. Check the following for example.
www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/art-activists-in-legal-bid-to-kill-massive-woodside-gas-project-20250617-p5m80q.html
Some of the art is 40,000 or more years old. Some of the art is in galleries that have been in continual use and are still in use by traditional owners, over those kinds of time spans. As some surfaces have been used, then used again over and over, you can imagine the issues that start to arise when scientists try to study them.

I really like this one. Wonderful dreamy look indeed. I suppose most of that was done in post though?

I can't make my mind up about 2. The issue is the thin black outlining. I can't decide whether I might have preferred the image without the lines and so let her merge into the sandscape she is drawing. Does anyone else have thoughts on this?
The first is another where I'd be interested in more opinions. I like the sky/sand/figures abstraction and the positioning of these three elements. It's the closest group that feels not quite right. I feel they retain too much detail. But this is putting my preferences over simply responding to the image as it is.

Sprague Lake

There is no detail left to the blown out area. I tried to minimize it's dominance, or at least make it look more natural to the eye, but ultimately it is over exposed in the 5 or 6 images that make up that part.

First, let me address the point that Mike has raised.
I am with him in the camp that is not a fan of the strong black outline around the figure.
It almost feels like the second image tries to overcompensate in contrast and sharpness for the (pleasant) softness of the first image.

But apart from that, I like this combo of two images.
The first, very soft and fuzzy, feels like an impression of the beach (as in "impressionism").
And the second, showing a person drawing or painting, almost feels like she is creating the impressionist image that we have seen first.
You could sequence them in any of the two possibilities (as here or the other way around) and the narrative would always work.