* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #904 / Revived #124 on 2025 08 13*

Great shot and classic optical distortion with water and glass as a background.

Timeless and priceless capture of the boys and for the boys and family a precious document. Maybe in 10 years another shot can be generated?!

Love the colours and movement in the #2 shot. Water is magical.

That's an excellent recreation of the original and both are hilarious. Great (re-)capture of a memory. I hope that I'll be a fun grandfather some time in future as well...

Hand made Cricket Bats.
A tiny factory in Melbourne that has now closed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit while they were being made.
Edit. For reasons I don't understand and because I'm too lazy to do this post again, the first photo is out of sequence. It should be the second last.

Even just half of this image would already be a treat.

Take the left half: we look at a tunnel to which a flight of stairs leads down, and from that tunnel, starkly backlit, a lone figure walks in our direction, his dark silhouette with nicely separated arms and legs, and carrying a shoulder bag, and the whole figure perfectly isolated against the harsh white, shining light of the tunnel entrance. That light is so overpowering that it shines towards us, throwing light upon the tunnel floor and ceiling, and although it is so bright, we can also still see the stairs.

Or take the right half: a figure, strangely distorted with undersized head and oversized body, walks along the undulations of a wall that may or may not be a mirror. The figure itself is not a reflection in that mirror, because it does throw a shadow on the floor. But what exactly IS mirrored here? An aquarium on the opposite wall?

So: cutting this image right through down the middle would still result in two good images.
But the combination is more than the sum of the parts.
Combined, we see reality and reflection. We see direct light and indirect light. We see coming and going but not on the same plane. We see characters that are bound to pass eachother but never meet.

I truly love it.

Wonderful essay on craftmanship and tradition.
I agree that from one perspective, it would be better to have that first image later in the sequence.
Seeing the cricket bat (in a window or mirror) kind of works as a spoiler for the essay.

On the other hand, I don't mind that we are being made aware first of what is being produced in this workshop.
It gives us a glimpse of the end product, coupled with the shavings and curls, like the David and the pieces of marble from which he was made to escape.
It serves like on of those pre-credits scenes in movies, showing us the highlight of the story and then yanking us in an elaborate and long flashback to the beginning of the "how we got there" story.

Priceless

Thanks , it was interesting to see how cricket bats were made here at the Fisher factory.
I remember the great smell of the raw linseed oil on our cricket bats years ago when we were all younger :-)

That's funny. Having the intrepid prof standing out against the sky multiplies the precariousness.
I wouldn't want my ambitious young second in command down below.

Remarkable. I used that word deliberately. Google for photos of the Remarkable Rocks on Kangaroo island, South Australia.
These Korean rocks are certainly reptilean and the light angle gives the surface a skin texture. The small patch of ocean helps set the scene.

It surely could.
Shots 1 and 3 are somewhat similar in showing the entirety of the patient. I prefer 3 for two reasons.
The trees behind the boat in 1 somewhat spoil the lines or the vessel without adding to the image.
In 1, we are looking at the vessel through some kind of gap as indicated by the top left and the bar down the side of the right. The idea of a frame has lots of potential but in this case I think we ned to see more of the frame. There isn't enough here for ot to work as a frame or to give some story as to what we are looking through.
In 2 there's lots of confusion with ramshackle shapes and bits of colour piled on top of each other. It tells a story of neglect and previous days.

Neokino? I needed Google.
1. There's just enough person to suggest short sleeves,light clothing and summer. The fountain therefore suggests "cool" as it projects towards us and the subject.
2 puzzles me. There are some drops of water so it might connect to the first image and the hand also ight belong to the person from 1. The orange might be reflections in a disturbed pool of water - or it might not. A hand disturbs a surface. 2 is more open to flights of fancy.

Amazing essay on woodworking: from raw wood to the finished product. Excellent.

Great. The stars have developed from subjects to knowing collaboration. As befits their advancing years. Your 16 year old is a natural scene stealer. A perfect example of why W.C. Fields advised against sharing any any scene with a child.
The combo is full of personality, life and location. The text adds even more. You have even got the Rockwell/Saturday Evening Post colours.

I feel the same and have given up trying to work out what #2 really is. But the thing is, it doesn‘t matter. I enjoy it as a mysterious abstract.

Very cool. It was interesting to consider how the colour shaped my response. Two figures approach each other from opposite sides of the frame. The lines in the photo join them. This might have suggested unease or threat. The blue removes the tension. Any relationship between the two feels positive/neutral. It isn't a hue with has the sadness of "the blues." The brightness of the distorted wall lifts the mood with the hope and life of a blue sky.

Very cool. It was interesting to consider how the colour shaped my response. Two figures approach each other from opposite sides of the frame. The lines in the photo join them. This might have suggested unease or threat. The blue removes the tension. Any relationship between the two feels positive/neutral. It isn't a hue with has the sadness of "the blues." The brightness of the distorted wall lifts the mood with the hope and life of a blue sky.