As the grandmother of a kid with a serious Lego hobby, I will say that's an impressive build. To capture it beneath those soaring arches makes it even more impressive and ties the model to the structure that houses it.
As the grandmother of a kid with a serious Lego hobby, I will say that's an impressive build. To capture it beneath those soaring arches makes it even more impressive and ties the model to the structure that houses it.
Congratulations on the gallery arrangement. It sounds like it will be beneficial in multiple ways. Do show us your winners! These make quite a nice triptych, all sharing similar components of glass vase, single flower in a primary color, white table settings; the angles and arrangements are enough different and alike to work as a group. Clear pure colors and pleasing lighting. Nice set.
I always love fog, and you've got enough there to create its mystery. I like that you've crowded all 3 of your subjects into one corner, and allowed the rest of the frame to express the solitude and peacefulness of the morning. Nicely done.
I would hardly call this a wilderness. It seems to me to be a garden designed with such meticulous care that it is almost surreal. It's a beautiful place and a beautiful composition. You've got a little bit of haloing going on in the sky that might disappear if you relaxed the high dynamic range effect just a bit. Of course your colors would be less vivid but it would be just a lovely a scene, maybe more so.
Thank you Chris.
Thank you minniev. BTW I do not see halos in the sky.
Chris, Mike, Alan, Minniev,
Everyone who has offered encouragement, thank you!
One more week to wait for news! Driving me crazy.
If any of the three submissions get accepted (or not) , I'll share them down the road.
But it's a little complicated. The intent of the gallery (any gallery) is to make sales. My initial submission was by sending jpeg files to them by email. The physical, framed prints come after acceptance of any of the email submissions. They don't want any of that to appear anywhere on the Internet (for now). While the copyright always stays with the artist, the gallery asks that the artists protect the gallery's interest in the potential monetary value of works that hang there. That means not "showing" them "elsewhere" for a while.
Rich
@PeteS has written:Model in a Monastery
Kloster Eberbach (Eberbach Abbey) is a very well preserved Cistercian monastery near Eltville on the Rhine and is listed in UNESCO's List of Cultural Heritage. It was a very rich monastery, thanks to its huge vineyards of 350 hectares, which were the largest in medieval Europe, however, it was dissolved after the French Revolution and is now owned by the German State of Hesse and the vineyard is run by the State Winery.
Even if you have never heard of it, you may have seen it, as most of the interior scenes in the film Name of the Rose, starring Sean Connery, were shot there.
If you have seen the film, you may also find it appropriate that its Abbott was murdered by a monk in 1261!There are often exhibitions there, and for the whole of 2025 there is a Lego exhibition, featuring models and huge Star Wars and Harry Potter scenes built by a family with a serious Lego hobby. The photo shows a Lego model of the abbey as it was when first completed in 1260 and it stands in the magnificent Dormitorium, which is huge and the photo probably shows less than half of the room!
As the grandmother of a kid with a serious Lego hobby, I will say that's an impressive build. To capture it beneath those soaring arches makes it even more impressive and ties the model to the structure that houses it.
As an adult with a serious Lego hobby himself (oops), I can concur that it is an impressive build, enhanced of course by being in that wonderful location.
On a technical (lego) level, the build is actually pretty basic: stacking of bricks, plates and slopes on a fairly regular blueprint without crazy angles.
It is well done, but not on a level with (for instance) the lego sets of the Notre Dame, Neuschwanstein (brand new) or the NYC Guggenheim museum (older).
Without bragging too much, I feel like I could almost come up with the techniques required for this build, if I had access to the enormous quantity of bricks needed.
What does elevate the build, is the fact that the buildings are surrounded by such lovely landscaping.
Photographically there is also one aspect really worth mentioning: the way in which you married the lego diorama to the exhibition space.
The arches of the ceiling can be seen in two directions: as leading lines down towards the lego diorama, or as fireworks bursting up from the buildings.
@Rich42 has written:This week, I'll take a break from images of opulent SoCal beachfront homes and their beach access issues.
I have a little news to share with everyone. I've been invited to "apply" for membership at an art gallery here and display my work.
It's a several step process. The gallery has a yearly exhibition open to all to submit work for a juried selection process. The jury is a committee of current gallery members. One can submit three pieces in the usual categories of paintings, drawings, photography, small sculptures, jewelry.
If any or all of one's submission(s) are accepted, the work hangs in the gallery for a month, is eligible for sale during that time and at the end participates in a judging by a guest luminary in the arts community. There are (very) small monetary prizes for various categories of "winners."
I wasn't aware of the exhibition/contest at all, but was encouraged to enter by the gallery owner and several members who had seen some of my images. (That was an ego boost!). That happened a few days ago, four days prior to the deadline for submissions. I've been a bit busy getting frames made (rush), making prints and getting them to the gallery.
Irrespective of the outcome of the "contest" aspect of the exhibition, getting one's work "juried in" to the show for display qualifies to apply for full membership status after the exhibition is done. Members can display new work once a month. Membership requires working as a docent for two four-hour periods a month. Two docents man the gallery at a time, greeting the public, explaining artwork, collecting payment for sales, etc. Of course, I'm excited about the possibility of becoming a member and displaying my images, but the docent responsibilities are the most attractive to me.
My wife and I went over to the gallery this past Sunday afternoon to deliver my three pieces. (I'll show them here some time down the road). It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful, soft summer day. An Italian bistro was setting up tables outdoors in anticipation of the dinner crowd. We passed it on our way to the gallery, around the corner. I put the frames down and said to my wife, "Wait a sec." I had the images done by later in the evening.
Rich
Congatulations. An honour, indeed. I hope you win.
Alan
Fingers crossed on your gallery adventure.
I like what you did here with this restaurant table top triptych.
Simple, elegant and eloquent.
@AlanSh has written: @Rich42 has written:This week, I'll take a break from images of opulent SoCal beachfront homes and their beach access issues.
I have a little news to share with everyone. I've been invited to "apply" for membership at an art gallery here and display my work.
It's a several step process. The gallery has a yearly exhibition open to all to submit work for a juried selection process. The jury is a committee of current gallery members. One can submit three pieces in the usual categories of paintings, drawings, photography, small sculptures, jewelry.
If any or all of one's submission(s) are accepted, the work hangs in the gallery for a month, is eligible for sale during that time and at the end participates in a judging by a guest luminary in the arts community. There are (very) small monetary prizes for various categories of "winners."
I wasn't aware of the exhibition/contest at all, but was encouraged to enter by the gallery owner and several members who had seen some of my images. (That was an ego boost!). That happened a few days ago, four days prior to the deadline for submissions. I've been a bit busy getting frames made (rush), making prints and getting them to the gallery.
Irrespective of the outcome of the "contest" aspect of the exhibition, getting one's work "juried in" to the show for display qualifies to apply for full membership status after the exhibition is done. Members can display new work once a month. Membership requires working as a docent for two four-hour periods a month. Two docents man the gallery at a time, greeting the public, explaining artwork, collecting payment for sales, etc. Of course, I'm excited about the possibility of becoming a member and displaying my images, but the docent responsibilities are the most attractive to me.
My wife and I went over to the gallery this past Sunday afternoon to deliver my three pieces. (I'll show them here some time down the road). It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful, soft summer day. An Italian bistro was setting up tables outdoors in anticipation of the dinner crowd. We passed it on our way to the gallery, around the corner. I put the frames down and said to my wife, "Wait a sec." I had the images done by later in the evening.
Rich
Congatulations. An honour, indeed. I hope you win.
Alan
Fingers crossed on your gallery adventure.
I like what you did here with this restaurant table top triptych.
Simple, elegant and eloquent.
Thanks, Roel!
Rich
DUNNOTTAR CASTLE
Here is another outtake from the images proposed for the new edition of "Hidden Scotland".
Dunnottar Castle is one of the more impressively situated castle ruins in the country, on the east coast (Aberdeenshire).
It is an image made on the second of our five bi-annual hiking trips to Scotland, in spring 2017.
Your angle of view captures the spirit of the place. It is not a romantic fairy castle, but a craggy ruin on a rocky outcrop. I think the clouds help too, as a sunny blue sky would be a bit out of character.
String-ception?
This works really well, as the bokeh renders the strings with a small sharp point and then increasingly blurred, so that they seem to be vibrating! Excellent.
1-2-3
Anyone for early morning training...!?
The composition is cool, with the three subjects far on the left hand side, balancing against a broad expanse of sand, sea and sky, which emphasises the emptiness. It looks as though the horizon is sloping, so it would be worth checking.
This week, I'll take a break from images of opulent SoCal beachfront homes and their beach access issues.
I have a little news to share with everyone. I've been invited to "apply" for membership at an art gallery here and display my work.
It's a several step process. The gallery has a yearly exhibition open to all to submit work for a juried selection process. The jury is a committee of current gallery members. One can submit three pieces in the usual categories of paintings, drawings, photography, small sculptures, jewelry.
If any or all of one's submission(s) are accepted, the work hangs in the gallery for a month, is eligible for sale during that time and at the end participates in a judging by a guest luminary in the arts community. There are (very) small monetary prizes for various categories of "winners."
I wasn't aware of the exhibition/contest at all, but was encouraged to enter by the gallery owner and several members who had seen some of my images. (That was an ego boost!). That happened a few days ago, four days prior to the deadline for submissions. I've been a bit busy getting frames made (rush), making prints and getting them to the gallery.
Irrespective of the outcome of the "contest" aspect of the exhibition, getting one's work "juried in" to the show for display qualifies to apply for full membership status after the exhibition is done. Members can display new work once a month. Membership requires working as a docent for two four-hour periods a month. Two docents man the gallery at a time, greeting the public, explaining artwork, collecting payment for sales, etc. Of course, I'm excited about the possibility of becoming a member and displaying my images, but the docent responsibilities are the most attractive to me.
My wife and I went over to the gallery this past Sunday afternoon to deliver my three pieces. (I'll show them here some time down the road). It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful, soft summer day. An Italian bistro was setting up tables outdoors in anticipation of the dinner crowd. We passed it on our way to the gallery, around the corner. I put the frames down and said to my wife, "Wait a sec." I had the images done by later in the evening.
Rich
I’m not surprised you are excited, it is exciting to have your work honoured, but when it comes out of the blue like that without you even entering it in a competition, then it must be a glowing feeling. I wish you luck and the jury good judgement.
And those three photos from the restaurant are delightful and form a great triptych.
Since my husband and I have spent the week in dr's offices and hospitals, and are only just now let loose from the grip of the medical-industrial complex, I have no pictures and no time to dig in the archives so I did what I often do: I played Lightroom Roulette, where I spin the catalog wheel and vow to post whatever it lands on. This time it landed on a rather bad photo taken with an old camera in Yellowstone years ago, in Lamar Valley. It is also heavily cropped. I did see what I might could do with newer LR tools to help it but not sure it worked. And getting closer to a wolf pack with babies is definitely not a good idea.
The trees are not the subject. The subjects are so tiny you can barely see them: a litter of wolf cubs. Their mother, an Alpha from the Druid Pack, had mated with a lone wolf, taken some other Druids with her and formed a new pack. These were the firstborn of that new pack. Sometimes bad photos can still be interesting?
Admittedly, I may not have noticed the wolves, if you hadn’t mentioned them, but the photo is actually like real life. If you don’t observe, you will only notice the obvious(the trees, which are nice enough), but a bit of effort rewards with finding something rare, which is the family of wolves in this case.
@Fireplace33 has written:Some weekend hikes with a new nifty fifty
This weekend, I took the newly released Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air for Nikon Z out for a spin. True to its name, the "Air" is compact and lightweight—making it a joy to carry on hiking trips. I used only this lens to get familiar with its character and to see what shooting solely at 50mm can offer. Even wide open, it delivers decent sharpness and focuses quickly enough for my usual landscape shots. At around €180, it’s a very budget-friendly option.
The family portraits came out very nice at F2 with a nice separation of the person and the background.
Here's a few of the landscape shots.These images are the best possible illustration for the wisdom that you can achieve a lot with just a single (prime) lens.
I like all of them, with a slight (subjectively biased) preference for the portrait orientations, because IMHO portrait orientation is the killer option to show depth in landscapes.
I agree. There is a lot to be said with making a decision on a lens and staying with it. Fretting about which lens to use leads to missed shots and a stressful time with photography,whereas trying to make shots work with the lens you have and choosing subjects suitable for the lens is a boost for creativity and very satisfying if you get a good photo with the “wrong” lens.
@Sagittarius has written:Carefully arranged wilderness.
I would hardly call this a wilderness. It seems to me to be a garden designed with such meticulous care that it is almost surreal. It's a beautiful place and a beautiful composition. You've got a little bit of haloing going on in the sky that might disappear if you relaxed the high dynamic range effect just a bit. Of course your colors would be less vivid but it would be just a lovely a scene, maybe more so.
I agree with Minnie. Just a bit less saturation in the sky would help a lot. Otherwise an attractive shot.
@Rich42 has written:This week, I'll take a break from images of opulent SoCal beachfront homes and their beach access issues.
I have a little news to share with everyone. I've been invited to "apply" for membership at an art gallery here and display my work.
It's a several step process. The gallery has a yearly exhibition open to all to submit work for a juried selection process. The jury is a committee of current gallery members. One can submit three pieces in the usual categories of paintings, drawings, photography, small sculptures, jewelry.
If any or all of one's submission(s) are accepted, the work hangs in the gallery for a month, is eligible for sale during that time and at the end participates in a judging by a guest luminary in the arts community. There are (very) small monetary prizes for various categories of "winners."
I wasn't aware of the exhibition/contest at all, but was encouraged to enter by the gallery owner and several members who had seen some of my images. (That was an ego boost!). That happened a few days ago, four days prior to the deadline for submissions. I've been a bit busy getting frames made (rush), making prints and getting them to the gallery.
Irrespective of the outcome of the "contest" aspect of the exhibition, getting one's work "juried in" to the show for display qualifies to apply for full membership status after the exhibition is done. Members can display new work once a month. Membership requires working as a docent for two four-hour periods a month. Two docents man the gallery at a time, greeting the public, explaining artwork, collecting payment for sales, etc. Of course, I'm excited about the possibility of becoming a member and displaying my images, but the docent responsibilities are the most attractive to me.
My wife and I went over to the gallery this past Sunday afternoon to deliver my three pieces. (I'll show them here some time down the road). It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful, soft summer day. An Italian bistro was setting up tables outdoors in anticipation of the dinner crowd. We passed it on our way to the gallery, around the corner. I put the frames down and said to my wife, "Wait a sec." I had the images done by later in the evening.
Rich
I’m not surprised you are excited, it is exciting to have your work honoured, but when it comes out of the blue like that without you even entering it in a competition, then it must be a glowing feeling. I wish you luck and the jury good judgement.
And those three photos from the restaurant are delightful and form a great triptych.
Thanks, Pete!
Rich