Fortnightly Challenge - Sept 25 thru Oct 8

[JohnMC]

Challenge topic : Eldritch which means "Strange; unearthly; weird; eerie."

The challenge will run from right now until : 11:59PM Oct 8

Rules
1. Photos should be your own work.
2. Produced within the challenge period if possible.
3. All positive feedback and criticism is encouraged and welcome if you posted or not.
4. There is no real limit to the number of photos you may enter.

Challenge topics:
1. Suggestions for the bi-weekly's challenge are made in a single thread which will be set up the week before.
2. The challenge topic will be voted on by all members in a separate thread.

Lets have fun!!!

 

[deep diver]

I do not know exactly what animal this is. This type of animal is a reef dweller. Creatures like this are variously called: Discosoma, Corallimorphs, Mushroom Anemones, Soft Mushroom Corals, or Disc Anemones.

I shot this at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. It was shot through thick glass in one of the larger exhibits. I am sure there is some way to shoot through thick glass more effectively, but I do not know what it is.

The original image was slightly blurry. I don't know if it was distortion from the thick glass or if the glass actually disrupted the lens' ability to focus. I did sharpen the image using Photo Shop Element's auto sharpen. I guess that qualifies as post processing. Chappers - I'm sorry. Maxx - I hope you are proud of me.

 

[CK Williams]

Carlsbad Caverns

Earthy and unearthly at the same time, handheld, high ISO, no PP other than compression, all clickable

 

[Chappers]

I live where the weather certainly can be strange (mountain life I guess)
I haven't done anything with this - just a crop to make it more interesting (I hope)

 

[Designer Dale]

A snowmobile on the roof of a shed near my house. Strange...
I have this in a vertical shot, but the colors are better in this one.

Canon xsi/Tamron 28-300 f3.5 VR. My first serious dslr.

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

Earthy and unearthly at the same time, handheld, high ISO, no PP other than compression, all clickable

I live where the weather certainly can be strange (mountain life I guess)
I haven't done anything with this - just a crop to make it more interesting (I hope)

Very nice colors in both of these shots. I have always been interested in cave photos, but not so in crawling down into them (Batman Syndrome). Wonderful deep greens. Thanks for the contribution, CK.

Chappers, I envy you for strange weather that gives you colors instead of rain in 1001 flavors...

Thanks, again.

Dale

 

[deep diver]

Chappers -- yet another great image. I love the way the sky and ground mirror each other's colors. These colors are indeed unreal. I would love to camp out in you backyard for a week and get to see the same view you have. I live in Cleveland - it's mostly flat , but not so far from central PA (where I plan to get a lot of Fall shots in a couple of weeks).

Dale -- this really is bizarre, and the way you composed this certainly conveys that sense.

Bruce

 

[Designer Dale]

Bruce: Thanks for the comment. It has some Levels in it to bring the color out more and I cropped the sky down some to emphasize the sled.

I live just around the corner from these folks, so I'm not going to make any comments...

Dale

 

[Chappers]

Dale - It confused me - I thought it was a sandal or some other type of shoe. Great shot though. You mention lots of rain - are you a Brit?

Back to my weather it is strange living up here - I'll try and keep the momentum going with this strange one. I lightened it to try and show this. I captured it out of the window. I don't know what it is. It looks like a rainbow but it was almost dark at the time ...... it can be the mystery photo.

 

[Chappers]

I was going to do these one a day but am highly impatient so I'll add another. Slight crop only on this. Very strange how it appears dark outside but the sun just catches a bit of cloud giving this strange pic.

 

[CK Williams]

Thanks for the C&C Dale. Remind me not to catch a ride with the driver of that snowmobile. Nice photo.

Nice shots also Chappers and deep diver.

 

[Designer Dale]

Dale - It confused me - I thought it was a sandal or some other type of shoe. Great shot though. You mention lots of rain - are you a Brit?

Back to my weather it is strange living up here - I'll try and keep the momentum going with this strange one. I lightened it to try and show this. I captured it out of the window. I don't know what it is. It looks like a rainbow but it was almost dark at the time ...... it can be the mystery photo.

Chappers: Very interesting photo. Looks like a rainbow near sunset. Everything in the spectrum is masked out by the dark sky except for the reds.

As for me, I'm not a Brit, I live in Washington State where the fall and winter weather is quite a lot like England. Dull skies and day after day of rain. Rain with possible thundershowers for today followed by mostly cloudy with showers and rain for the rest of the week.

A shoe? Do they have snowmobiles in England? According to Doylum, it's all rolling green hills. America, especially the West, is home to many strange breeds of vehicles. Snowmobiles and ridiculous jacked up trucks seem to go together here.

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

Backlit moss in Mt. Rainier National Park. Unearthly.

Post: Levels/Cropping

Dale

 

[deep diver]

I live just around the corner from these folks, so I'm not going to make any comments...
Dale

You can choose your friends but not your family. You can't choose your neighbors either but you can at least move away from the family.

I captured it out of the window. I don't know what it is. It looks like a rainbow but it was almost dark at the time ...... it can be the mystery photo.

It almost looks like a funnel cloud but they aren't supposed to occur in the mountains. It is weird.

Bruce

 

[deep diver]

Backlit moss in Mt. Rainier National Park. Unearthly.

Dale

My initial response was that there is far too much contrast in this image. But then no matter how much I tried to look elsewhere my eye kept getting pulled back to the moss in foreground. The area just to the right of the tree trunk looks like a big gaping mouth which adds another eerie element. (I might be having a Wizard of Oz moment right now).

Very well done.

Bruce

 

[deep diver]

While we are looking at forest scenes.... The first picture is a modified version of one I submitted to the weekly contest in April. The theme was "shadows." Edge100 was the judge and offered the following C&C:

"Sometimes, I see photos where I love the post-processing, but the composition does nothing for me. This shot is the exact opposite. I really like what you've tried to capture; it's a spooky forest, and you don't know what's about to come after you from out of the shadows. But the PP just isn't doing it for me. It's not contrasty enough, and I don't like the straight-on illumination. You need to try to draw the viewers eye into the shadows a bit more with some vignetting or contrast adjustments or something. But again, nice idea and composition."

I raised the contrast level a lot for this version. I was going for a 1950's cheesy B-movie kind of feel. The second image is the same general area of the woods but shot with very different lighting.

 

[Designer Dale]

My initial response was that there is far too much contrast in this image. But then no matter how much I tried to look elsewhere my eye kept getting pulled back to the moss in foreground. The area just to the right of the tree trunk looks like a big gaping mouth which adds another eerie element. (I might be having a Wizard of Oz moment right now).

Very well done.

Bruce

Thanks for the input. It is contrasty and was hard to meter with the strong swings from light to dark. I thought about cropping it down to just the moss, but I liked the alignment of elements on the left. The single light element on the right (branch) was a decision on my part. It had to be either all in or all out. Cropping it out would have put the moss too far to the right of the frame. Stuff like this is hard to shoot.

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

While we are looking at forest scenes.... The first picture is a modified version of one I submitted to the weekly contest in April. The theme was "shadows." Edge100 was the judge and offered the following C&C:

"Sometimes, I see photos where I love the post-processing, but the composition does nothing for me. This shot is the exact opposite. I really like what you've tried to capture; it's a spooky forest, and you don't know what's about to come after you from out of the shadows. But the PP just isn't doing it for me. It's not contrasty enough, and I don't like the straight-on illumination. You need to try to draw the viewers eye into the shadows a bit more with some vignetting or contrast adjustments or something. But again, nice idea and composition."

I raised the contrast level a lot for this version. I was going for a 1950's cheesy B-movie kind of feel. The second image is the same general area of the woods but shot with very different lighting.

They would never let me judge a contest. Never.

I reall like the second shot for a lot of reasons. The subject matter has a lot of texture and emotional feel to it. It is eerie and emotional. The flow of light tones to darks moves my eye smoothly across the frame in a nice way. Human nature is to notice the highlights first and move to the shadows and this hits that on the spot. It is strong. It goes from the known into the unknown. Very good piece of photography.

Dale

 

[Chappers]

OK -time for something different - Bruce may recognise this (or a version of it)

 

[deep diver]

OK -time for something different - Bruce may recognise this (or a version of it)

Yuk. I don't like Cheetos to begin with. Science experiment Cheetos are especially gross. Actually, this is an outstanding shot (I liked it enough to save a copy). The entire image is clean and simple, and it lets the subject speak for itself. This cropping highlights the transition between the mold and good (????????) food. Excellent shot.

 

[pyth]

This was shot mid-morning on a tree root. Kit lens, low ISO, f/stop 5.6, shutter speed 1/1250. If you'll notice, there's actually a red ant in the picture too, pretty much in the upper left hot spot.

 

[Chappers]

Yuk. I don't like Cheetos to begin with. Science experiment Cheetos are especially gross. Actually, this is an outstanding shot (I liked it enough to save a copy). The entire image is clean and simple, and it lets the subject speak for itself. This cropping highlights the transition between the mold and good (????????) food. Excellent shot.

Its a satsuma (tangerine) and the microbiologist in me couldn't resist this shot. There actually probably isn't any good fruit left in this shot as the fungus has infected most of it. I did a soft focus shot of it for the weekly contest once in the past.

This was very strange until I looked at my photo on screen and realised what was going on.

 

[Designer Dale]

Alpine Bonzi

Taken near the treeline at Mt. Rainier. Any suggestions on how to meter something like this to keep the detail is the highlights? I used Partial Metering on my Canon xsi. I'm still getting used to this.

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

<snip>This was very strange until I looked at my photo on screen and realised what was going on.

Wolf spiders are amazing creatures. They hunt on the move and don't build webs as a rule. They carry their egg sack until it hatches and then carry the young piggy-back like this until they are old enough to hunt on their own. When the parent stops for water, all the little ones jump off for the stop and then climb back on. Almost as strange as alligators carrying their young in their mouth. I'd like to see a shot of that. Any swamp dwellers here?

Dale

 

[pigbat]

I always think these feel very alien when you come across them....