Wednesday C&C * Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #908 / Revived #128 on 2025 09 10*

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 or critical 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!

TUAREG SKETCHES

Another three images from our trip in the Libyan Sahara in 2009

We had slept under the stars in the desert, surrounded by ghost-like rock formations.
The two families travelling together on this adventure had mostly made comfortable, cozy nests with our sleeping bags and thin mattresses, with the girls close to the parents or together at a short distance, if they still wanted to talk into the night. (The sleeping bags were a luxury added to our camp only after a couple of days, because half of our luggage had been lost at the Tripoli airport and was brought to us only days later. In the first days, we had given the children the few sleeping bags that we had immediately available, while the parents used woollen blankets provided by our crew.)
Our two boys had embraced the sleeping tactics employed by our Tuareg crew of drivers, guide and cook.
They had taken up position off-wind, huddled against the large wheels of our Toyota Land Cruisers.
(No tents. Tents are only useful in bad weather or to protect against the worst of dust storms. When the air is clear, the minuscule tents we had, only created a claustrophobic atmosphere in which swirling dust enters through the tiniest of openings. Just getting off-wind was better.)

Blissful sleeping in the cool of the night, knowing that all around us at dawn, we would find the traces of all the little critters that come out at night.
And then you wake up to be greeted by a wonderful sunrise that has also already stirred life into our friendly guide Risa:

Later the same day, after a bit of driving and desert exploration, we had taken shelter from the afternoon sun in the shade of a few giant rocks.
As per usual, our cook was preparing an early dinner (goat's meat, hung to dry against the sunbeaten side of one of those giant rocks before being lightly grilled and seasoned; cucumber and tomato salad, sour milk, rice), while the rest of us slept or made small talk.

Risa would shuttle between his crew of Tuareg and ourselves.
He was always ready for a conversation about his people and how they had been reduced from the lords of the sahara, to minorities in all the different countries that had been created by random lines on the map.

And this one is probably one of my favourite images of three of our crew, amidst the rocks that they call home.

The Golden Hour.

Glory days

Former location for radio chum am studios c 1959 till 2009. Now boutique condo. Metal vinyl ornament is the only reminder. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

How primitive, how practical...
Fabulous light, I must say.

Fantastic shot. The surroundings and the contrasty attire make this very memorable capture.

Technicolor Garden Leftovers

Vienna

We are nearing the end of a three week holiday with grandchildren, which is wonderful, exhausting, rewarding and takes up all our time. I am managing to take photos, but nothing else.
We are currently in Vienna and sitting in a traditional Viennese Café.
The photo was taken outside a chocolate shop, avoiding the negotiations between children, adults and amounts of chocolate, and discovered it was a great location for street photography.
Do you find the person on the right a cool addition or a distraction?

The other version

Little begger

Both work well, but the first one is more interesting to me because it adds another layer, revealing what happens "behind the scenes" in a way. I like that a lot. It might be more complicated in a way but the balance still works. It's a great symbolic depiction of life with people walking on different planes, in different directions and speeds, with everyone framing their own existence as the central and most important one in their mind, loosing sight of almost anything else in the process.

EDIT: One important detail regarding Vienna. The people of Vienna are known (around the world but particularly in the German-speaking countries around it) as somewhat rude. They're said to complain a lot and many call those who do "Grantler" (curmudgeons). I've always wondered why... More recently I've heard an explanation which I found interesting: Someone mentioned that for a city of its size (Vienna has almost 2 million inhabitants, which is a very big city for European and particularly Austrian standards) people care a lot about societal rules being upheld, which a lot of the complainings is about. While certainly not everyone agrees about the specifics of these rules, it can be interpreted as still caring about what is going on, unlike many big cities, where that has been completely lost and everyone is fully anonymous.

I wonder if there's something to that theory or if there is some more sinister reason behind the angry and complaining nature of people in Vienna? Or perhaps (as your image would suggest) that view is somewhat outdated by now and people there are anonymous big city types like everywhere else.

Apple-ying color by simple.joy, on Flickr

This gives us so much opportunity for puns or clever remarks (but most of them would be scatological, so I will refrain).
Let me just say that "The Golden Hour" in itself can already be a nice little double entendre.

It certainly looks like a room with a view in the best E.M Forster sense, if the user sits down on that throne and leaves the door open: a moment to bask in the late sun and enjoy some privacy and relief.

Obviously, I am wondering what the actual view FROM the outdoor toilet looks like.

Eggplant, garlic and large variety of peppers - ideal ingredients for healthy recipe. Your bowl mimics the tablecloth and taken altogether makes for extremely eye catching assembly of colours.
Now, where is the knife?!

There is an apple and banana and possibly lemon and orange. Fruity galore with very bright main subject in focus and the rest, not so much ( on purpose, I reckon? ).

Humorous garden ornament with a hat added on later, to make a point?!

One could argue, which one is better. To me #2 wins, it's more focused on 2 individuals at the entrance. As usual, it's a personal preference.

Been a while since we were in Vienna. Nice city but we did not like very much that there are still so many smokers there (at least a few years ago). On every terrace there were still people blowing cigarette smoke in our direction. That was our main impression of the legendary "rudeness" of the viennese (and austrians more in general).
About your photo.
There is something to be said for both version.

The cropped version is of course graphically strong, with the off-centered layers of gold, creating a gateway in which you have perfectly framed the woman.
The man walking in the opposite direction creates extra tension and it helps that he is clad in black and white with a white stripe almost "camouflaging" him against the verticals of the elaborate door frame. Gives to me a kind of impression like he is stealthily swimming upstream to meet with the woman. The woman has the momentum (her pose with legs spread wider than the man, and the doorframe creates a sense of movement more from right to left than left to right, because the frame layers are spread wider there (at least visually from your vantage point: in reality that frame might be more symmetrical, but the position masks that, and that is good because like I already said : it creates a dynamic sense of movement and direction (for the woman).
So yes, the crop is nice and tight and retains the main attractions of the image.

But the wider version also has all of that (albeit less concentrated) and adds a layer: the third person, out of the golden frame but "caught" in the photo frame, makes this image feel almost like we are looking "behind the scenes" of a carefully staged theatre decor. And that has certainly merits too.