* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #930 / Revived #150 on 2026 02 11 *

Interesting take on Lady Liberty, who's showing up in a lot of political cartoons and artwork lately. This is an unusual angle, showing her nested in those buildings and topped with lovely cotton ball cloud formations. The black and white version turns the scene fiercely ominous which is suitable for her predicament nowadays. Nice image.

The rail lines hold the set together but also form a visual path within each image. The rail lines give a common theme and a place to focus amid the cacophony of colors, shapes, and action that commands our attention to all corners of the images. Nice series.

The sky really adds to these images. They are crystal clear, with great contrast and detail, but without the well captured and utterly gorgeous sky, might be far less interesting. Good job in making a secondary feature support the overall interest of the scenes.

Perfect capture. The timing is excellent, sharply capturing (most of) the woman aligned in precise 45 degree angles, matching up to the vertical and horizontal lines in the architecture and paving. A slight crop from bottom and top and even left could bring the acrobats and their observers closer, but without cropping any of them off.

The smile factor is from the observer on the right, the pup. He is key to the success of the image.

Lovely scene with the dense fog captured in the bowl of that valley held up by the majestic mountains. I am again reminded of Friedrich's painting, as I have been by some of your earlier such images. I'm always jealous of the beauty you have access to! Well done.

This is such a zany and creative scene. I absolutely love it and would be proud to display a print of it. It's unclassifiable as to genre, since it is equal part nature image and graphic abstract image. The triangle and circle motif are too strong to call it nature and the pigeon too dominant to call it abstract. The water adds a surreal touch.

Great capture.

Yours and Chris's offerings have much in common, though yours features less abstraction than his, and more nature. The big attraction of your set lies in the glorious lighting you captured so well. The mix of warm and cool tones adds another element of beauty and mystery. Very nice.

These three images are a good illustration of how a geographical peculiarity (in this case: a railroad through a narrow "canyon" between stores and houses) can become a tourist attraction and an instagram hotspot.
Mike's three images capture the scene well.
The first does not yet really show the location, but focuses on the inevitable merchandising.
The second is the most classic view in that it could almost have been shot before this became the object of touristic feeding frenzy: it shows the location.
The third is the Instagram-shot (at least: the "other people's instagram" shot).
Good sequence.
(Reminded me a lot of how an historic train puffs into Kanchanaburi each evening, passing over A bridge (not THE bridge, but A bridge) on the River Kwai.
Same carnival atmosphere.

I know this place quite well.
It is one of our favourite "get out of the city quickly" places when visiting London.
Greenwich does feel more like a village instead of part of the megalopolis.
We go by Tube. We walk through the streets and the market (ever more touristy, that's true).
We pass by the Cutty Sark and the Maritime Museum. We walk through the grounds of the Naval College (down below in these shots).
We trek up the hill to the Observatory and the Meridian line.
And we enjoy the view. This view.
Always a treat.
Going back into London center, we take a boat-bus, rounding Canary Wharf and under the Tower Bridge.

You can tell : these image are instant memory-machines for me.
i like them. (And what a great sky you had!)

If there is just one thing I would suggest, it would be to crop off a generous centimeter of the bottom of the first image, removing some of that grass to end up with a more panoramic (almost 16:9) ratio and with the skyline a bit lower in the frame, emphasizing even more the width and that abundance of sky.

Two couples in one frame.
One athletic.
One hands in pockets and clearly less athletic.
I like the juxtaposition.

Were you not tempted to get really close and really low to the acrobat? Get a shot of her against sky?

Please take me there.
It's been too long (MUCH too long) since I have been on a decent mountain hike.
And this one looks beyond decent: in fact that view is glorious!!

Thank you for the comments.
I needed to be quick about posting an image, so I embedded a zenfolio shot, hence the size limitations.

I want to disagree here.
Well, partly so.
I DO agree on getting rid of some of the grass.
But I prefer the panoramic feel of the first image over the boxed-in and incomplete view of the second.
On its own, that second image is fine (with telephoto compression nicely linking persons with trees and layers of background).
But I still prefer the classic, wide, unending panoramic widescreen technicolour quality of the first (and with so much more of that gorgeous sky).

Apparently it is not only humans who are living in The Matrix, unaware of how they are boxed in by virtual lines.
Great catch.

Steam drifting up from a roof.
Birds.
Successful elements for a number of images.
But if I have to pick one, the winner is clear by a mile:that third image, with the diagonal roof and the bird in flight not only takes the cake but eats it, with no leftovers.
That image goes beyond documenting the scene and event. It is a graphical joy to behold (almost abstract in its basic structure) and yet a good wildlife action shot.

Thanks.
Obviously, I made a few more image while we were there on Liberty Island for a short span (we visited Ellis Island too on the same half day - we did not go inside the monument).
But this was very soon after getting off the boat (and i was glad to have an extreme wide angle with me).
I did know Lady Liberty of course, before going there. But I had mostly seen her on shots from a distance. So I knew about the top part of the pedestal, but not about the starlike structure (like a Vauban fortfication) under the actual pedestal. Seeing that, was a surprise, and then there were the clouds, of course. So I knew instantly that this view and nothing else would become my take on the icon. Shooting a landmark that has one million photos online already is always a challenge if you want to get an angle that is at least somewhat original.

This might have got you burnt at a stake in medieval times. Something like the symbols and references to life that were used by seekers of forbidden knowledge. The photo has mystic potency. Circles, connecting lines, water, life, shadow...Add your title to the mix.
An outstanding catch.
The closest water spout might have its brightness backed off a touch but not so much to stop it being the brightest point of the image.

Minniev's response got me rethinking mine. I always liked the pup but I wanted a stronger line to the sunburst iron work.
The pup's small ordinariness is a nice foil to the gymnastics. But I'd keep my suggested crop along the bottom and the left.

For me this one is all about the two couples and all the rest is distraction.
The dog is cute but non-essential.
The sunburst ironwork might have been nice in an "aim for the sky" kind of sense (with the leg pointing there), but it is incomplete and skewed.
The shopping bag: well, it is there but I would have liked the image just as well (or even better) without it.
I feel like sometimes we are rationalizing a bit too far, in order to justify why certain elements that are just there, would contribute to an image's impact while to be honest they don't.

I like the composition. Colours of that era. Speaking of which, I prefer the colour version. The black-and-white conversion looks a little overcooked.

Roel covers it and especially I agree about shot 3.
I'm curious. Are the birds seeking warmth and finding it in steam from the house or is the steam behind the birds?

As far as we could see, the birds were definitely taking a steam bath. They congregated on this roof for a spa day :D.