Wednesday C&C * Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #913 / Revived #133 on 2025 10 15*

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!

LAGO TRASIMENO

An image from a few days ago, when we spent a day at Lago Trasimeno in Umbria, just a bit west of Perugia.

After a relaxed car ride through the Umbrian hills, we took a stroll through San Feliciano, then headed to (very touristy) Castiglione del Lago for aperitivo, then had a nice pranzo in the shade of old vines in an alley in Passignano sul Lago, where we also climbed the hill and tower for magnificent views.
We oncluded our day back in San Feliciano.
At least: Els concluded her day there, reading and relaxing on a park bench by the lake.
But I found a bike rental shop that had not yet closed for the season.
So I went on two-hour ride along the lake again up to Passignano and back, just in time to catch sunset between Torricella and Monte del Lago.

This is in Torricella, a view from the pier:

Looks great - I like the composition, the reflections of the sky and overall tones. Color contrast is also wonderful. If you want a documentary version I'll leave everything as it is, if you don't mind altering it slighly I would only keep the three wooden poles next to the boat in and stamp out the other three.

Fortress fire by simple.joy, on Flickr

Curve

A protective wall at a small marina in Jackson's Point, Ontario, Canada. The shape was perfect for WA lens.

The sharp edge and what an edge against very imaginative background.

Wonderful atmosphere and very peaceful capture. The stillness of water and the boat against sky and horizon makes us all slow down.

Love this, reminds me of a fire in a fireplace. The colors and the shapes.

Pictured Rocks National Park - Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Yesterday near sunset as cloud cover broke.

Sailing between ports in Norway last year, we were in and out of these snow storms, just enough to get a dusting on the deck. We saw a lot of small rainbows along the edges of the storms. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Norway at Sea, now in Pano

Appears compressing the image in export did some weird stuff to it. Fullsize export at the link.
500px.com/photo/1117653516/2025-norway-snow-at-sea-pano-large-1-of-1-by-j-s

Really love the creativity on display here (and your title is excellent).
The ragged breaklines of the wood do indeed resemble the randomness of flames, and the bokeh (and specifically the colours in the background) enhance that sensation.
Great idea. Even better execution.

A statement about olive trees. Hint. You need to look closely at the trunk in enlargement.

Reflections

We seen to have something of a marine theme going on, subconsciously.

This image is all about its leading line, formed by the curve of the breaker.
We can follow that line in either direction: * it can be seen as an avenue that leads us from the bottom of the frame to the small lighthouse, * or it can act the other way around: as a signal projected from that same lighthouse in our direction.
I like that ambiguity.

The only thing I would consider here, is to check the horizontality of the horizon. I may be wrong and this may be an effect caused by a curve in the far shore, for to my eye and instinct it seems like the image has a slight lean from left to right.
(But take this with a pinch of salt: I am not the best judge of straight horizontals and verticals by a long stretch: I have some kind of difficulty keeping my own camera straight and have to correct 80% of my images with the other 20% being those in which I consciously want a skewed angle.)

Apollo and Daphne come to mind.

I like how the dotty structure of the branches and leaves is continued in the sky.

The only thing I would change is to make a crop from the bottom to exclude that railing in the background.
It would be different if you had a view of the WHOLE statue (bottom of the circular base included).
As is, that base is incomplete anyway (and by a small margin, which seems like an omission).
The railing interferes with the view behind the statue and introduces an unnecessary man-made element.
You have enough landscape left above the railing to justify a crop, and simultaneously, that same crop would also make your crop of the actual statue seem more deliberate and less a shame.

Incidentally:
If this is in Spello, that same artist must have been pretty busy all over Umbria.
We have seen a VERY similar image at the top of the fortifications in Passignano Sul Lago.
Only it did not have the great round base, but the rest of the motif might as well be copy-pasted, with the intertwining trunks and the arms spreading into branches etc.

You may say that the photo doesn't do it justice (does it ever, in such impressive landscapes and phenomena?) but we still get a pretty good idea and I am glad to have seen it.
Both photos have their merit:

• the first one because of the clearer view of the actual rainbow in proximity to the mountains in the far background (clearer view on those too)

• the wide panorama mostly for the extra part on the right, where we see a nice blue sky above the heavy cloud cover, which gives this image a kind of dynamism and optimism. "Reading" the image from left to right is a pathway from depression (with only the rainbow as a hint of beauty) towards a clearing of the airs.

We are arriving in that time of year when autumn colours make everything extra spectacular.
It's a treat to see an impressive cliffside on a bay combined with not beach or just rocks, but with Indian summer autumn colours.

The image, colours etc are all perfectly fine.
If I would consider changing anything (and that is a big "IF"), it would be to crop off just a bit from the top. Maybe to just above the highest patch of blue sky.
The effect would be:

• to bring the horizon slightly higher proportionally in the frame (more towards 2/3)

• to get rid of unnecessary extra grey cloud cover

• to slightly lower the vertical impact of the tallest, right-most trees that are a bit "flimsy" and "see-through", thus concentrating the attention on the more densely forested area below.

Love the capture, the colours, the curve and water, but...(and I hate to mention it) the movement of trees on lhs. Is it due to operator or camera or environment? It's slightly hard to accept, otherwise excellent shot, particularly in the view of the fact that it is showing us beauty of autumn.