Wednesday C&C * Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #922 / Revived #142 on 2025 12 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!

GALLOWAY

The last two kilometers of Belgian coastline, on the far west in De Panne, are a stretch of nature reserve called the "Westhoekreservaat". It blends seamlessly into the first kilometers of French territory, where the same landscape forms the "Dune du Perroquet".

When we are at the seaside, we like to walk all the way from Koksijde or De Panne, through the wooded dunes of on the beach into France for lunch in one of the cosy restaurants of Bray-Dunes and then back again.

Last weekend we had plenty of time under a nice sky so we opted for the longer walk, not straight over the beach but meandering through and over the dunes, some of which are desert-like and sandy, while others are filled with grasses and shrubs. We combine stretches of a few paths, one of which is called the "Ligusterpath", named for the type of low, dense and prickly vegetation that dominates the landscape.

Some parts of the path require navigating through some gates and turnstiles, because there are free-roaming bovine gardeners at work.

This is one of them. A very close encounter with a friendly and soft creature:

Cuteness applied in heaps.
I guess this is a developed breed but looking at the photo you might think this fella evolved to blend into the landscape.

I'm going to be camping and traveling over the Christmas/New Year period and it's not likely that I'll be posting for close to three weeks.
Have a safe, wonderful Christmas season everyone.
Mike

I like the idea of this beautiful creature blending into the landscape, but for me it would be significantly improved if the tones were more even (which might be a challenge, as there's too much white/bright tones in there, which usually are hard to correct in terms of tones) or you convert it to B&W.

Here's a B&W image from the summer:

Bloom and doom by simple.joy, on Flickr

The Forbidden City

The vast Imperial Palace in the centre of Beijing was the seat of power of the Emperor of China for 500 years and only the Emperor and his household were allowed to enter, so it is also known as the Forbidden City. Today, its official name is the Palace Museum.
Here are a couple of photos

One of the gates taken from Chang'an St.

Outside the Hall of Preserved Harmony at the centre of the Forbidden City

You made a nice, competent B&W.
But you won’t hold it against me if I still prefer my original with its subtle variations in the muted soft colour palette (I did not fiddle too much with was just there…)

I like how your two images both are not just showing the site but also contain subtle (and less subtle) contemporary echoes of the building complex’ complicated history.

The “No Entry” sign is obviously a bit on the nose.

The other one is more subtle with the half hidden security guard, and I like it a lot.

Both provided a nice throwback to our own visit a few years ago.

Lunch anyone

This picture puts a smile on my face. The natural environment for the beast with corresponding vegetation around created ideal capture.

It's almost as though now you see the flower clearly and next moment you don't .
Great visual distortion. Works well.

First pic for context, but second revealed very intricate woodwork. The guard on a side is a bonus and is synonymous with "forbidden ". Excellent capture.

Going to side with Roel on this one -- I, too, prefer the muted colors. The BW conversion is good, though. Just prefer the color version. By a hair. 😁

For me, there's something specific that makes this photo kinda cool:

But I'm not going to say what it is. 😘

Hint: you would have to see at the larger size to have a chance of guessing. In other words, it looks cool (to me) at the larger size, but meh at the embedded size.

There are two little details, which I find rather cool. On the left-hand edge there appears to be an angel with outspread wings standing in the widow. Just above the post to the right of the lamppost, there appears to be shadowy figure with upstretched arms and holding something round, maybe an orb. The figure seems sinister, because it is shadowy, and is a great contrast to the angel!

Good patterns(in the windows) and lines create a strong geometrical image. I like how you photographed from a position where the diagonal reflections end exactly on one of the lines between the windows.
It is a very cold, formal image, until I noticed the people, faintly visible, sitting in the Café or restaurant, and this detail, once discovered, transforms the feeling given by the image. It is more friendly and slightly mysterious. Nice.

I agree. The subtle difference in colour all but camouflages the cow and makes its presence a surprise when scanning the image. The B&W still camouflages, but we can no longer see how subtly the colours differ, which is a shame.

Looking at the image, my subconscious is expecting summer colours and is a bit unsettled to find none, and this, together with the fact that it is relatively dark, suggests the doom to go with the bloom in the title. Having just one bloom in focus increases the tension in a positive way too.

Thank you Pete for noticing the faint figures behind the bottom glass. Yes, they are having lunch. It was very invisible, but certainly drew my attention.
Well spotted Pete, very high marks to you. Thank you. Sometimes, one has to analyze the picture numerous times to notice interesting subjects or objects of interest.

Well, it's all about light, or lights which certainly draw your eyes to them, precisely 3 sources to my view. Hidden, but intriguing.

I had already scanned the image at the biggest size that the website allows, but it probably was not yet big enough, because I had not picked up on that "angel figure". With Pete's guidance I have found it and yes, it does resemble an angel with spread wings. The sinister Bond villain with the orb has still eluded me.

What I thought worked well in this image, is how the central light source works. It is supposed to be illuminating the sidewalk for the pedestrians (and it does), but it also sends a beam of light upwards, travelling along the lamppost towards the quasi-menorah of electricity lines. It is almost like a pedestrian, urban Hannukah celebration. I believe that that light would have been dispersed (and by dispersion invisible) if it had not been for that pole. Although the material of that lamppost is not transparant, it is still light-conductive. That is the fascinating realization. Other than that, the image indeed does not do much for me.

Here is the sinister figure centre stage, an orb in his left hand, his head tilted back slightly with an imaginary evil laugh, his right arm thrust triumphantly in the air, and a wide medieval style sleeve flapping off to its right. Or is that a wing? Is that the king of dark angels himself?!

Ok Doctor, I will come peacefully. I am sorry I forgot my medication. I will come back to the real world immediately.

Wow, I had totally not seen that while he was hiding in plain sight.
I was actually looking for a silhouette in a window, and not for a shadow.
But your explanation makes sense and now I cannot unsee it.

It's not the first time that you have conjured up the most fascinating & fantastical figures and characters from the texture of tree trunks, the random placement of shells on a beach, the patterns that waves have made in the sand etc. I bet that as a child you were forever laying on your back in the grass, looking at clouds and imagining stories with cloud characters.

Having said all that, I would be VERY VERY surprised if your angel and devil-with-orb are the titbits that Joe (Great Bustard) was referring to.

As far as I know him, he has other focus points, like the technical aspect of images (although I have also seen a number very artistic photos of his; only not so much in the whimsical, high-on-wild-imagination category, but rather portraits etc.)

To be honest, I've no idea what that is. In fact, it was a bit more specular in the original photo, but I cloned a few of the "dots" out to diminish its "impact" in the photo, but not remove it. Like cloning out a few freckles that look like specs of dirt or pimples, but not cloning out the freckles entirely, or even mostly.

As would I. 😁 That said, I only have two paintings in my house -- one, which I got rather recently at the beach, is a painting of a fictional mountain that just "spoke" to me, somehow. The other, which I've had for a very, very, long time, and which my wife will not allow me to hang in the house, is of an angel descending into Hell. Someday, I'll take a photo of the paintings and show them.

Ironically, as much as I talk about the technical, the technical typically matters to me only inasmuch as technical flaws/limitations become a distraction. When looking at photos, and, indeed, when taking photos, it's all about the artistic.

OK, for the reveal. When clicking on the link to see the larger size photo I uploaded, note the star field at the top of the photo and how it suddenly vanishes before getting to the buildings. That's because there are mountains behind the buildings, but it's too dark to see them. So there are four horizontal layers to the photo: the star field at the top, the black void (mountains too dark to see), the buildings (and streetlight), and the field at the bottom. It was that star field that abruptly ended in the mountain void that made the photo kinda cool (to me), although I wasn't thinking about that when I took the photo (or not thinking about it at a conscious level).

As for the purpose of the photo -- why I took it at all -- well, as ChrisOly said, "It's all about the light" -- I just liked how the scene was lit and the mood it created.

Thanks all for the comments!