* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #957 / Revived #177 on 2026 08 19 *

What's appealing here are the colours.

Very unusual sight indeed.

Marvel of photography.

My fave, dream scene.

Amusing scene nevertheless

Art of seeing.

It's like a painting, layers and layers of tones and colours. Excellent.

I like the free flow and air of freedom.

The photo itself is very interesting and very good.
However, despite the size, the resolution is poor.
ChrisOly, it’s time for you to get a new smartphone that allows for technically better photos.
I’m sorry to be so blunt about it.

Well, location is Southampton, Ontario, Canada- lake Huron, mid August, sooc, no pp, just slight crop. I quess the moment you crop one reduces resolution. Next time I will bring real cam...

Those are just WOW for me.

I particularly like that you do not call yourself an expert at astrophotography, because that gives me a small glimmer of hope that one day (in the right circumstances and with probably a good tutorial on how to do this...) I would be able to achieve results that are 50% as good as these (and I would be happy with that).

While we were in Brazil, there was very little light pollution on some of our evenings, and on a few of those also a really clear sky with almost no moon, but I still did not consider doing astrophotography because (a) I had no tripod with me and (b) I was convinced that I would suck at the endeavour.

(Fun fact (related to astrophotography) : on one of those nights, in the Amazon rainforest, when we were going off on a small boat to spot some small cayman (yacaré), our guide pointed to distant light on the horizon and asked us to guess what that could be. It turned out to be the lights of Manaus, about 100 kilometers north of our position.
Another fun fact (unrelated) : Manaus is a city of several million inhabitants, with the peculiarity that there are no decent roads leading there. If you want to get to the city, you travel by plane or (mostly) by boat on the Amazon. The city is at the Encontro das Aguas, where the waters coming down from Peru (slow river, filled with orange sediment) and from Colombia (Rio Negro, faster moving and more clear) mix (at least: they flow alongside eachother for several kilometers before really mixing.)

Impressive how you captured detail in what could have been a mass of all-black plumage.

I am a sucker for photos that show reflections (maybe even the photographer) in unusual mirrors and reflective surfaces.
This is an impressive example: we see a landscape with a car or jeep-like vehicle close to the animal's eye (we have to take your word for it that it is a bull : the closeup is so close that I would also have believed you if you told me it was a horse or a camel).
And if we zoom in close enough, we see Mr Photographer pointing his camera.
Great stuff.

Lots of variety on your walk.
That variety is cool, but it makes it hard to provide you with meaningful C&C.

Because your collection of images is not really an essay (there is no real common theme, other than being shots from one evening).

And there are too many images for me to start commenting on each of them.

I don't mind the enthusiasm of showing multiple images (quite the contrary).
But (for future reference) maybe indicate which of those images you would like or other contributors to focus their attention on.
Which one is your favourite?
Which one is the one you are struggling with most and want input on?
That kind of thing.

Your title nudges us to look close at this seemingly innocent (christmas?) decoration.
And then, of course, we cannot unsee that very clear expression on the tiny face.
It's a good catch noticing that kind of thing.
And it is fortunate that you gave us too a hint to look closer than we otherwise might have.

Contrary to what most people would probably prefer for landscape photography, I very often use vertical (portrait) orientation for landscape shots.
It is a great way to create or suggest depth and to show layers in the landscape in a much more poignant fashion than with horizontal orientation.
And this is a prime example.

Say hi to Suzette for me and pay her my compliments on this really good image.
It won't be long before you will have to start designing and creating jewelry to keep up with her creativity.

That is wonderful art.
It feels like a cloud or starlings moving through the sky, caught with a slow shutter speed and in two colours.
I bet it looks great too when illuminated.

Of your two images, the second is the "objective" best one to use in a catalog of the artist's work.
But I like the first more, because of the fact that it shows us how the art relates to the environment and elevates it.

Thanks a lot for sharing some of those components.
Their variety in shapes, colours, tones and structures is almost overwhelming.
And they illustrate what I was hoping they would illustrate, i.e. that it was not "obvious" to combine them (like it would have been "obvious" to combine a photo of Monument Valley with a photo of a stage coach).
This illustrates the power of your creativity: you create something new that feels consistent and "logical" (though also whimsical) from sources that no other person would probably even consider to combine. There is a certain genius in that. And one, I think, that no amount of AI can substitute.