* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #961 / Revived #181 on 2026 09 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 (15 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!

ELS IN FORT KOCHI (KERALA, INDIA)

Last week's image in London came back onto my radar because I had restored a number of my Zenfolio galleries that had been archived by the website administrators. Some of those older galleries with images, may remain shrouded in the mists of time, but I really wanted to restore the images of my own personal family shots etc.

So another such gallery is the one with our personal images from the India trip in December 2016-January 2017.

(Three weeks in Tamil Nadu and Kerala; the whole country is like a continent: you cannot visit everything so we concentrated on two regions, where we could have a car drive us around from city to city. From that trip I have compiled four galleries with "public images" showing the sights, people, customs, etc.
And the additional gallery is the one with images of ourselves in those environments.)

On the last leg of our trip we were in Fort Kochi, Kerala, where we explored the city on foot and had the good fortune that our stay coincided with the Fort Kochi Art Biennale exhibition. From one day in Fort Kochi, here are a selection of images/casual portraits I made of Els :

As a bonus: two images of Els together with a "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man":

These Boots are Made for Walkin...

Tamworth is the epicentre of Country and Western music in Australia.
Tamworth has The Big Golden Guitar

Ants around the fountain.

Only if you enlarge this photo you can see people below. Picture taken through the window of an adjoining building from a great height. Downtown Toronto.

This kind of image is effective in showing how humble we humans should be about our place in the universe.

Photographing people on streets or in the lobbies or atriums of large buildings can often be really rewarding.
There are great examples of that kind of art in photographic history.
Sometimes the people seem almost arranged geometrically.
Sometimes they are reduced to silhouettes.
Sometimes they have elongated shadows even longer then they seem high (because of the top-down perspective).
Great stuff, all of that, and your image fits in that tradition.

The title is fun, only I would not say "ants around the fountain", because the word "fountain" makes us realize the scale and the "ants" are too big then.
Maybe "ants around the bird bath"?

A Committee of Buzzards

“If I were reincarnated, I'd want to come back a buzzard. Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything.” William Faulkner

A Little Church in Normandy

On our way to England a week ago, we wanted to spend the night as close to the ferry port as possible, since we had an early morning ferry to Portsmouth. We chose a small and charming hotel/restaurant in Bénouville, just a few miles away. It is a very small town, with a couple of shops and houses and a quaint old church opposite the hotel. We could hardly have chosen a town further from the centre of the universe.

However, we went for a walk and quickly discovered that wasn’t always the case! Long before dawn on 6th June 1944, soldiers were dropped by parachute and glider to capture a vital bridge and the village itself. The first fighting of D-Day took place in this sleepy little place and since the little church was on high ground at a cross-roads, it was at the centre of the action. German snipers were in the church tower and in the houses opposite, firing at British soldiers hiding behind gravestones in the churchyard, and it stayed that way for most of the day. Meanwhile the British soldiers had to (successfully) stop German tanks passing through the village on their way to the landing beaches. Eventually the church tower was shelled and badly damaged to get rid of the snipers.

Of course there was blood shed on both sides, and white gravestones, in a row of military precision, mark the graves of many young British soldiers, who lost their lives that day.
The little church is repaired and quiet again now, and the Germans and British in the house opposite were not shooting, but enjoying delicious food together in the restaurant.

If you are interested, I found a short film by a military historian about this battle around the church.
youtu.be/lkbMIqbnWS0?is=3nj5hmOnxnTMIBqj

The Church of Our Lady, Bénouville

Graveyard with some of the white gravestones

In a corner of the graveyard were old gravestones, which had been removed, and amongst them some shells, which had obviously been used as fenceposts to mark a grave boundary. A macabre reminder. The killer amongst the slaughtered.

Wonderful perspective, which enabled you to create a more abstract kind of shot. I really like the combination of symmetric and asymmetric elements - makes it very interesting. Also: The light on the ripples is wonderful from that angle.

Excellent shot. Beautiful and effective composition, which reminds me a lot of the wonderful shots @LindaS used to share here in the early days of the forum...

Light path by simple.joy, on Flickr

Sub culture by simple.joy, on Flickr