Wednesday C&C * Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #909 / Revived #129 on 2025 09 17*

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!

ARENA

This week: one from a visit to Madrid in February 2020:

Sunrise

Could be anywhere, but location is Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada. I was on the way to attend Cobble Beach Concours D'Elegance - premier automobile show when I saw this unusual site...

Is this famous Las Ventas, Plaza de Toros?

Great shot. Did you manage to watch the bullfight or?

I like the composition and shadows. It works well. However unless it's your main point (in that case it's slightly too small in the image) I would remove the concrete mixer at the bottom. I would also try to go for a B&W or slighly sepia look.

Thank you for doing that conversion. It looks good.
However, I did indeed specifically wanted to include the concrete mixer.
(If I had not wanted that, it would have been fairly easy to walk over to another segment of the bull ring and shoot that segment).
I had two intentions with including the mixer:
- to bring a contrasting and vivid colour into the frame, against the muted and classic tones of the building itself (which your version highlights)
- to bring an element of everyday banality into the grand mythology of a place like this.

Thanks for the explanation. That’s a valid idea. In this case my version does not work at all of course. I think the mixer needs to be slightly bigger in the frame, at least for my perception.

Zadie’s spider lilies
Along the same lines as last week’s submission, a simple offering from the old farm. This is the old farm managers house, which like several of the very old buildings here. were too far gone to rescue so are slowly returning to the forest.

Also valid.
But: the mixer of that size was what was there.
And I actually don't mind that these small quirks that distinguish this kind of image from the standard glossy architectural photograph, are fairly modest and somewhere in a corner of the frame.
A discerning viewer (as we all are here) will notice it. And if somebody else does NOT notice it, that is fine too.

(Sometimes I am baffled by the blatant and very unpleasant distractions that casual (phone) photographers keep in their images while they could be so easily avoided by a slightly different vantage point or doing something basic like crossing a busy street in order to get that street in your back for the view of the faraway landmark, instead of having to search for the landmark between cars and other traffic, garbage cans, lamp posts etc.)

Vivid natural colour in contrast with faded paint (that also used to be, and partly still is, very vivid).
The japanese call the beauty of decay and imperfection, presented with a certain nonchalance "wabi sabi".

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

This is a good example.
The image as a whole is pleasant, but I see opportunity for even more "less is more) with a crop that would remove some distractions, like all of the space below the dayglo yellow plank (we don't see where the flowers are rooted anyway, so no information lost there), but also that loose cable left and the vertical plank edges right.

Like so:

(Cropping also reveals that there is slight perspective distortion in the horizontal plane, making the bottom edge not 100% horizontal. I don't have the means to correct that here quickly with my crude cropping tool.)

Wonderful shot! I really enjoy the combination of colors. Very well spotted and captured.

I love your plant matter shot, so delicate and detailed. I see some background movement which certainly adds more interest to the image. Excellent.

Just lovely shot with multi colour background. I really like those strong and proud flowers against such an interesting cottage or shed wall. It's a very happy picture, if one can describe it.

I don't think that this is plant matter although I can understand why you see it that way.
I think we are looking at a close up of a brush's tips being brushed through venetian blonde hairs.
Wonderful ambiguity.
Wonderful dynamics.
A ready-made abstract that can be viewed in so many ways.

My initial thought was also BW but I agree the concrete mixer hits you in the face like...well a block of concrete

Iron Awe
One from the archives. I'm traveling and don't have much time for online communication.

The size and sweep of the stands gives its own explanation of the pomp and significance of the events on this stage. The curve takes our eye down to a small corner of the stage. I saw two figures, as I might have expected on this stage. One is much bigger and overshadows the other. I had to look closer to decipher them. I laughed.