* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #900 / Revived #120 on 2025 07 16*

Welcome to the Wednesday Comments and Critique (No Theme & No Brand) thread!

We are dedicated to continuing the great tradition of this C&C thread because we are convinced that looking at, and talking about images is vital for better photography.

Our tried and tested concept (almost 17 years and running!) is a weekly "peer-to-peer" photo comments & critique encounter, in which you GIVE and RECEIVE.

The idea is simple: you post a photo or photo-based image that you have made and get critique on it. And in return you give other people your honest but constructive opinion of their images.

Any Theme, Any Camera, Any Style, Any Subject.

We are still figuring out how to create the convenience of threaded view on this new forum.
For now, let us agree that you post an image or essay with a title and short explanation, and that all comments include the image as a quote.
Replies to comments may or may not include quotes.

THREAD GUIDELINES – THE SHORT & SWEET VERSION
• This thread does not care about brands. It’s not about the tool, but the image.
• Post one image or essay that you have made and would like to get comments on.
An entry can either be a single image or a short essay. With an essay we mean not a collection of random images without any connection, seeking C&C on more than one of them. We mean instead a limited number (3 to 10) of connected images that together try to tell a story, create a fuller picture of a situation, event or location, etc.
• Add a clear title to your post to distinguish your entry.
• Look at the other images/essays and give your comments on at least one of those.
• For comments, try to go beyond a simple pat on the back or a short dismissal.
• Do you like an image (or essay) ? Try to explain WHY it appeals to you.
• Negative feedback is OK (we all want to learn), but be polite and constructive. Try to explain why the image (or essay) does not appeal to you and how it might be improved.
• Please stay on topic, i.e. concentrate on the image and the photographic comments, without getting into politics or other distractions. No non-photographic arguments.

The critique you give is vital.
What was your first impression? What catches your eye about an image? Why?
What do you like, and what distracts you? What would you change?

Fiddle with the image in your head - composition, perspective, color balance, exposure.

PLEASE NOTE CLEARLY:
Unless the original poster specifically states (for every individual posting offered for C&C) that they do not want their image(s) to be downloaded, altered or reposted, it is understood that within the context of this thread, other participants are free to download and alter the posted image and repost it in a reply for C&C purposes. That reposted image may remain permanently within the week's thread, or you may remove it after a short period of time if you prefer. The downloaded and altered images are not to be used for any other purposes nor uploaded anywhere else than within the context of the C&C in this thread. No copyright disputes here!*

Encourage - it is a scary business putting your work up for other people to judge!

More general feedback is also welcome.
Do you know something about taking the same sort of image that would make matters easier - share your own as an example in your reply.

Have fun, be respectful and let’s stick together!

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.

It‘s a great looking shot and very well done! Impressive looking castle as well. If possible (I think your options were likely limited) I would have tried to take that from a slightly lower POV.

String-ception?

That looks like an impressive castle, or at least the remains of one. A good position to see anything coming in from the sea. And defend against attacks from the land too, but a long siege could be a problem, unless they could re-supply from the sea. I wonder what caused its demise?
The photo is good, pity it didn't make it into the book.

1-2-3

Anyone for early morning training...!?

Intriguing image. Maybe achieved with some sort of mirror and one of your "special bokeh" lenses?
With that out-of-focus blur on the strings, it sort of looks like they have been plucked and are vibrating.

Impressive structure and surrounding buildings. Looks formidable.

Definitely mechanical?!

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.

Thanks Arvo,
Yes, the vignetting is quite a lot at f2 and disappears as you close it down, but anyway very easily correctable to taste in post.
And since I always use RAW, and always process every image, it's an easy thing to correct.
However, if you were shooting with JPG and using the images SOOC it would be a problem.

Fab shot. You have captured all important ingredients for excellent image. Wonderful.
The lens certainly serves you well.

All great shots, but these two stand out in terms of composition/color. Excellent landscape work.

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!

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.

Bistro, Dinner Tables

Rich

Congrats, seems like quite an honour to be chosen and a good opportunity to do something interesting.
Well done !

Fun, great and I understand the boost mentioned. Congratulations from me!

Fireplace33 and Jonas,

Thanks for the encouragement.

I find out on Friday, 7/25 if any of my pieces have been "juried in."

Rich

That's a castle straight out of legend and fantasy and epic romance. It should only exist in imagination.
There's an implied convergence of lines in the image that ensures that the relatively small buildings dominate. The foreground path and waterlines create one. So does the darker area of the clouds and the horizon. The eye is zeroed in. From there we move out to appreciate the impossibility of the setting. The large dark cliff face confronting us (nicely outlined on the top edge) is a visual block that's suggestive of its purpose as well.
I can't imagine why the publisher didn't use this shot. What was chosen instead?

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?

Carefully arranged wilderness.