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Ish

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 30, 2004
2,241
795
UK
Okay, so here we go!

sun rise Isle de Medes l,estartit spain
the blotch to the right is a reflection from a beach bar
Nice sunset, Obibob. If I could make a suggestion, I’d swing the camera up and left a bit so the reflection on the right doesn’t distract from the main theme. You’d also get more of the sunlight fading into blue and less of the dark grass that isn’t really adding much. Just leave some to anchor the picture. It’s a beautiful scene though.

The close up texture of a lily petal is easy to overlook. With such a three dimensional flower as this it might be better to close the lens down a bit to get a bit more depth of field. It’s a difficult flower to focus on close up. What do you think to tilting the flower to the right a bit to emphasise its gracefulness?


Lights in a hotel room that had bulbs of varying temperatures hence the different colours. The shades were all the same colour and I found it quite beautiful.

10731220516_f3b5a3f14d_b.jpg

This is a pretty amazing result just from ordinary lightbulbs and perfectly fits the brief of finding beauty in the mundane. Its the sort of thing very few people would notice. It would be unusual to find that much light in an ordinary hotel room and I’m having trouble imagining you flat on your back in the lobby or conference room taking this picture! There’s nothing in here I would have done differently. Great image!



Now, unlike MacRy, truettray admits to lying on the floor! :) A wonderfully imaginative photo, just by moving a door(!!) and a good interpretation of the brief. I don’t think I’d have thought of doing this. Now you’ve done all the hard work, I like the thought of cropping it smaller to take out that bit at the top that’s just nudging in, the window or doorframe on the right and some of the bottom and leaving just pure geometry. You have a good imagination truettray!


This is an old cast iron kettle I have sitting on a shelf.


This is a beautiful picture and the colours, lines and focus are spot on. I bet in 50 years time no one will have our modern kettles on their shelves to look at!



It’s wonderful to visit markets like this with sacks of colourful wares. I wonder if the locals think so or if they take it for granted? Just as an experiment, try keeping the ratio the same, but crop in a bit—leave the top, but take out the part label on the front left and most of the area to the right of the plastic tubs. That will also take out a bit at the bottom. To me it makes a much stronger image with the attention more centred within the picture. Bring me some of those lovely fruits and nuts back when you go again!


I find beauty in old things.
_TP10788.jpg by dspector32, on Flickr

Somewhat reminiscent of Roman architecture but with the pieces of downpipes, probably not! I like the way it tapers up and is at the same angle as the trees just to the left of it. Makes it look as though everything’s reaching for the sky! Nice sharp image, good positioning and good colours.



light by ALXPhotog, on Flickr

My lights.

Lovely picture, not an easy one to take and still get good exposure. The glass is crisp and the highlights on it show the shape well. Nice warmth to the light and the focus is spot on.


Straight from the camera... macro of of a stack of napkins using an extender and the standard 18-55 kit lens.

Napkins_Macro.jpg

Another really imaginative photo, we have a lot of talent on this forum! Not a lot I can say really, except I love what you’ve done in creating this from a stack of paper napkins! Thanks for the explanation, I don’t think I would have guessed!


Posted this a few weeks ago but I think it fits this topic well too. This is a picture of my beautiful guitar. :)
Image

Great angle for a new perspective on a common item. I like your use of focus and colour. Very minor point, but maybe just clone out the white specks at the far end?


I really like this. Beautiful deep, rich colours, enhanced by the paler candles and the flames and their reflections. You could sell this to a Christmas card company!


butterflies in the Amazon
Most of us would think that butterflies in the Amazon were anything but mundane but it depends were you live. One person’s exotic is another person’s everyday humdrum life. I think just a little more depth of field on the butterflies would be nice. The foliage is nicely out of focus but the reflections on it are a bit distracting. Do you have a polarising filter you could try?


Very nice VR! There’s just the right amount of depth of field on these stones to make them look crisp and give detail, and just the right amount of falling off of focus at the far side of them to give them depth. Great background too, beautiful and smooth with just enough detail to give context.


I’m glad you labelled this! Who would believe that this dull grey stuff could produce an effect like this? What sets this photo off, I think, are the areas of different density—quite crowded at the bottom, less dense in the upper half with the almost empty black area top centre. They give it a good feeling of depth.



Is this wheatgrass? It doesn’t look like your everyday lawn grass. The different views show us different textures all from the same item. You've really brought out the freshness in the grass. Good shooting and well seen!



These hostas look nice and fresh. The freshness is enhanced by the water droplets, whether by rain or a quick spray by you doesn’t matter. The slight twist to the leaves gives great texture. How did you keep the slugs off? There are no holes anywhere!

Keeping it green.

p537401496-6.jpg

Nice contrast of colours and textures at a cheerful time of the year. I’d be tempted to take out the seed head from among the bulb foliage. It tends to draw the eye a bit rather than being free to focus on the scene.



Ferns have some of the most intricate of foliage to be found. I like the way you’ve shown this by isolating it against the dark background and really shown us the beauty underneath their leaves. I’d like to see the right hand leaf on its own, with the rest of the space left plain to enhance it rather than having the other one interfering with the pattern. Lovely shot though!




BirdCage
by Hugh Russell, on Flickr

Cheers :)

Hugh

I like the way you’ve isolated the cupboard door handle against the wood. It’s still a little soft, how about trying it stopped down a bit more? The centre of the handle is in focus, but I think it would give a better feel to have the front of the handle in focus as well. Well seen!



Very nice photo. Pencil crayons are attractive but you’ve made them look a hundred times better by laying them out the way you have and using selective focus. From being used to create art, they’ve become an art form in themselves.



There’s something quite soothing and meditative about this photo. We’d hardly look twice at one of these stones, yet when grouped together in a seemingly random but purposeful way it makes us look again and see their smoothness and shape and wonder why they were placed like that. Nicely set off by the different textures of the ground and pine cone.




This has been a very difficult contest to judge. There are so many good photos, each worthy of being placed. I've had to narrow it down by looking at the original brief of looking for beauty in the mundane. Some of the photos are more looking at nice things from different angles and I love them all, but have given precedence to those who have made a picture from something very ordinary.

Having said that, these are the results I've come up with. I couldn't restrict it to just three this week but have narrowed it down a bit from my eight winners! Once again, just my amateur opinion.

Honourable mention (in no particular order) goes to
VirtualRain
Apple fanboy
The Bad Guy
jkramerbob

Joint 3rd place
taptic
Chappers

Joint 2nd place
stillcrazyman
truetray

1st place, for creating a great photo out of nothing
MacRy

Well done MacRy and very well seen! Over to you :)
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
57,006
56,027
Behind the Lens, UK
Well done Ish on a tough choice and thanks for the honourable mention!
One of the things I like about this forum is the way we all come at the same brief a different way. There were lots of great shots this week, and well done to the winners.
Looking forward to the next.
 

someoldguy

macrumors 68030
Aug 2, 2009
2,808
13,993
usa
I'm pretty sure you agonized over judging this thing , so thanks for doing so , and taking time for the individual critiques . Congrats to the winners .... let's see what new torment MacRy has up his sleeve !
 

Chappers

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2003
2,247
1
At home
There’s something quite soothing and meditative about this photo. We’d hardly look twice at one of these stones, yet when grouped together in a seemingly random but purposeful way it makes us look again and see their smoothness and shape and wonder why they were placed like that. Nicely set off by the different textures of the ground and pine cone.


1st place, for creating a great photo out of nothing
MacRy

1. Ish - Amazing as ever.
2. MacRy - Well noticed - truly a great shot from nothing.
3. taptic - This would make a great desktop - lovely shot.

My shot: the stones were random. My son threw them there after we had carried them 500 miles across country from the sea side. He is a collector of stones. I took the shot a week later as it looked relaxed and reminded me of our holiday.
 

Ish

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 30, 2004
2,241
795
UK
Many thanks for the kind words everyone! :) And thank you for sharing so many wonderful photos.


1. Ish - Amazing as ever.
2. MacRy - Well noticed - truly a great shot from nothing.
3. taptic - This would make a great desktop - lovely shot.

My shot: the stones were random. My son threw them there after we had carried them 500 miles across country from the sea side. He is a collector of stones. I took the shot a week later as it looked relaxed and reminded me of our holiday.

You, feeling the weight of his suitcase:

"What've you got in here, Rocks!?"
"Er …"

My son used to collect sand from different places and display them in those little glass jars left over after breakfast at hotels. It's amazing how different they were.
 

MacRy

macrumors 601
Apr 2, 2004
4,351
6,278
England
Thanks for the win Ish. Another round of great photos from everyone.

In my shot my laziness proved to be fortuitous in this case as those lights were hanging above my bed (it was a boutique B&B rather than a hotel) and I spotted the different colours and investigated further.

let's see what new torment MacRy has up his sleeve !


Lol. I do like to test you all with my challenges ;) I'll get a new contest up this evening when I get back home.
 

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,199
47,583
In a coffee shop.
Some terrific photographs, beautifully imagined, composed and shot. Really lovely pictures - this is a week where I have to say that I really liked every single shot.

I didn't envy Ish - this was a genuinely testing choice to make (and great commentary, Ish, on the various entries).

However, I must say that I really liked stillcrazyman's shot, though.
 

MacRy

macrumors 601
Apr 2, 2004
4,351
6,278
England
Funny that we had a few grass and fern photos as I considered one of each before settling on the chandelier.

9536852381_b76839e696_b.jpg


15525670849_32ee14404c_b.jpg
 

stillcrazyman

macrumors 603
Oct 10, 2014
5,652
65,085
Exile
Some terrific photographs, beautifully imagined, composed and shot. Really lovely pictures - this is a week where I have to say that I really liked every single shot.

I didn't envy Ish - this was a genuinely testing choice to make (and great commentary, Ish, on the various entries).

However, I must say that I really liked stillcrazyman's shot, though.

Thank you kindly :D
 
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