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Weekly Photo Contest: Jan 13 - Jan 20 - MACHINES

J

jkramerbob

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2013
135
104
Indiana
Welcome to this week's photo contest thread. Last week's photos were really enjoyable (even though I'm not a big fan of winter weather).

This week's theme is MACHINES. As usual, I am looking forward to everyone's creative approach to the theme.

Rules:
You may only submit one photo per contest.

Please do not comment or use voting button on photos until after the judging has taken place.

The contest runs for exactly one week, starting NOW! (see time/date stamp at the start of this thread)

At the end of the week, The Judge (last week's Winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible. (Judge has 24 hours to make decision).

The 1st place Winner will start a new thread with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the Judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme).

To see all of our past contests please see the sticky thread.
 
Power

bgef.jpg
 
Weekly Photo Contest - DEADLINE APPROACHING

This contest will close in 2-hours. Please submit your entries before that time! There are many nice photos this week and I can't wait to start the review process! Thank-you for your submissions, jkramerbob.
 
Contest Closed

Whoops! I'm a bit late but the contest is now closed. I will attempt to review all of the wonderful photos as quickly as possible and post the results. I appreciate your patience as this falls in the middle of a busy work day.
 
Contest Remarks & Results

A vast array of excellent and entertaining photos this week. Here we go!
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Melizard – Nefarious-looking mining machine. This looks like it was taken on a sci-fi movie set. It appears a bit underexposed, which I like because it adds to the mood. The deep shadows make you strain to see the details of what appears to be an alien craft. The halos around the lights even add to the “creepy” factor. This is one of those photos that I like but cannot explain why. If I were to change anything, I might crop a bit from the top of the photo. Again, I don’t have a reason for cropping. It’s just what I would do. Nice job Melizard.

iancheyne – Power! I had expected multiple locomotive photos this week and I’m glad to see one that is a modern diesel. It appears you have intentionally positioned yourself with a low camera angle to emphasize the size of the subject. On shots like this I will often hold my camera against the ground to further accentuate the size of subjects (and reduce the large amount of sky in the photo). This is a well exposed photo which appears to have been taken on a beautiful day. Optimally, if you have the opportunity, you might consider this same photo in the early morning or evening hours when the light is warmer and maybe even a strong backlight from the sunset. Nice photo iancheyene!

Fireman32 – Old boiler plant. I really like photos of closed factories. I think it’s because they often have beautiful light and they tell a story. I can tell you put some effort into this image and it shows. I would guess you used a reasonably small aperture/slow shutter with a tripod. The foreground (on the right) looks slightly out of focus compared to the rest of the photo. You might have considered an even smaller aperture to sharpen up the foreground. I really like the lighting on what appears to be a control panel on the left. Did you take any other photos you can post? I might like this even more in black & white, only because the color distortion of the light coming through the door. An excellent photograph as usual Fireman32!

Trewyn15 – Ship & drawbridge. You probably win the award for the largest machine(s) represented in the smallest photo! One of the problems with photos of things this large is the lack of scale. The ship looks big because the window or doors on the superstructure look small. The bridge looks big because there is a ship going through it. Unfortunately there isn’t a small boat or human or car to provide scale to the massive machines. Also, probably because it was what I was taught, you might leave a bit more room in the front of the ship. Things that are in motion (cars, boats, planes, etc.) need a bit of room in front of them or they can appear trapped in the frame. Nice job braving what appears to be a very cold day to take this photo and thank-you for sharing Trewyn15.

charpi – Olympus Pen. Yes! Without this machine we couldn’t have this contest! This blog! This expensive and time consuming hobby! As I said when reviewing Melizard’s photo above, I sometimes like dark photos that make you work to see the details. Your image feels like the cover of an Olympus product brochure that is only missing a catch phrase. I respect your work here because it’s not easy to shoot against a black background and get the lighting and exposure just right. Nice job charpi. You may have a future in product photography!

cambookpro – Purple Helicopter. I like the blur of the rotors. Oftentimes our shutter speeds are so fast we freeze fast moving subjects in our photographs and as a result they feel static. I enjoy the drama of the clouds even though the image seems a bit over processed. You might consider how this photo would in black & white. The color in your photo does not particularly add to the composition and might even be a distraction. Just something you could consider. Nice machine photo cambookpro.

JDDavis – Foundry Machine? I think this is a simply beautiful however I’m at a complete loss to know what I’m looking at. My guess was some sort of foundry equipment. Regardless I really like the warm colors. In fact you can almost feel the heat from the image! Nice job JDDavis. I don’t think I would change a thing.

themumu – Ski Lift. I like the mood of this photo. Well composed with diagonal lines that draw your eye towards the horizon. What would I consider changing? I have said this more than once in these many reviews and I will reiterate. You might consider how this photo would in black & white. The color in your photo does not particularly add to the composition and the green grass might even be a distraction. Again, this is just my personal opinion. In addition, I might have cropped a bit off the right side of the photo (and a small amount off the bottom) so that the chairs would disappear into the right side of the frame. Cool photo mumu.

nsebez – Dewater Machine. Wonderful light accentuates the great colors and rust. Your image pops with the dark background. If I were to change anything, and I always change something because that’s my nature, I would crop a sliver from the left side of the photo. There is a small portion of another machine or an extension of this one the interrupts the otherwise flawless black background. Really nice photo nsebez!

Apple fanboy – A Really Small Machine. Indeed, this is a really small machine and really small things are particularly difficult to photograph. I have only recently started shooting macro and found it very challenging. I often find it difficult to decide what is most important (that I wish to be in focus). Oftentimes I cannot get the depth of field deep enough to get what I want. You have carefully chosen portions of the two gears to be your focal point and they are tack sharp. The lighting is excellent and the background nicely out of focus. I find what I believe to be that watch case in the foreground, to be a bit distracting. However I still really like your photo and would be proud to call it my own. Nicely done fanboy.

Parkin Pig - Atacama Desert, Chile. Periodically someone will post a photo on this blog that will make me insanely jealous of their travel experiences and this photo is just that. So Pig, there is probably a great story behind how you found yourself in the Atacama Desert of Chile and that story may as interesting as the photo! The colors in this photo are just wonderful. The sky, mountains, the textures are amazing. Even the ground has character. I really love this photo because it takes me not only to a different place but to a different time. I find the vertical post which divides the image in two pieces distracting. Nice photo Pig but you must take me next time!

jodelli – 1903 Packard. Nice photo of a beautiful motor car. Your image really shows-off the uniqueness of this vehicle. White solid rubber tires, brass lamps, and extensive use of wood. You might consider a slightly different viewing angle. If you creep a bit more towards the front of the vehicle you could still see the side but could also capture a bit more of the grill. If you crouch or kneel closer to the ground you might be able to eliminate some of the background distraction. You also might consider a wider lens opening to throw the background a bit out of focus. Nice photo jodelli.

oblomow – High-speed Train – It’s never dull to stand on the platform as a train flies past. Your photo almost has the viewer feel they might be a bit in harm’s way. You could have frozen the train with an ultra-fast shutter however instead you chose (I assume intentionally) to blur the fast moving train with a slower shutter. I really like this because I can feel the speed in your image. You might consider cropping the right and a bit of the lower portion of the image to reduce the vast expanse of gray concrete platform. Good photo oblomow.
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This was a week of wonderful photos. Please remember that any suggestions or comments are what I would do and might not make your image any “better.” As I do not have the credentials to accurately “judge” the quality of each and every photo I will use the purely subjective method of picking this week’s winner based solely on what I like.

My third favorite photo(s): Apple fanboy
My second favorite photo: fireman32
My favorite photo of the week: JDDavis

OK JDDavis. Congratulations and it’s your turn to get the next contest started!
 
Well done JDD! I thought your photo was a winner as soon as I saw it, though the photos are excellent this week. Well done everyone else too :)
 
Thanks for the 3rd place jkramerbob! So many different ways to go this week. I hadn't really got anything for this one when I thought about the inner workings of an old watch. I played around with different focal points using my tubes, Because that DOF is very narrow. Out of the 20 shots I took I liked this one the best, so a little tweaking in LR and that was it.

Great feedback for everybody, and congrats to the winners. Looking forward to the next one.
 
Good result

An excellent contest - great entries - well-considered adjudication and a beautifully colourful winner.

My personal favourite is Melizard's, an incredibly sinister picture.

Just to shed some light on why I was in the Atacama Desert: I like trekking holidays, and went trekking round Chile on an astronomy-themed tour, culminating with a flight out to Easter Island to see the solar eclipse in 2010.
We were lucky enough to be granted access to the VLT (Very Large Telescope - must have taken a committee weeks to come up with that name!) at the Paranal Observatory. The clarity of the atmosphere and lack of light pollution in the desert make it an ideal location for an observatory.

The train graveyard is near an old station called 'Baquedano', and is one of the locations used in the final sequence of 'A Quantum of Solace'. My photos are on the left, and the pics on the right are from the film.

From the top:
Baquedano Station, where Bond drops his girl off.

A big fibreglass rock. There are no large rocks anywhere in this part of the desert and so the film company had to provide a couple for Bond to use as cover. The film company left them behind after filming, along with the fake trees.

The sleeping quarters of the Observatory staff, also used as the villain's lair, which is blown up with CGI explosions in the film. As it is impractical for the staff to commute on a daily basis, quarters are provided. Both the outside and the inside look like they could indeed be a super-villain's lair.




Quantum of Chile by Parkin Pig, on Flickr
 
Parkin Pig said:
An excellent contest - great entries - well-considered adjudication and a beautifully colourful winner.

My personal favourite is Melizard's, an incredibly sinister picture.

Just to shed some light on why I was in the Atacama Desert: I like trekking holidays, and went trekking round Chile on an astronomy-themed tour, culminating with a flight out to Easter Island to see the solar eclipse in 2010.
We were lucky enough to be granted access to the VLT (Very Large Telescope - must have taken a committee weeks to come up with that name!) at the Paranal Observatory. The clarity of the atmosphere and lack of light pollution in the desert make it an ideal location for an observatory.

The train graveyard is near an old station called 'Baquedano', and is one of the locations used in the final sequence of 'A Quantum of Solace'. My photos are on the left, and the pics on the right are from the film.

From the top:
Baquedano Station, where Bond drops his girl off.

A big fibreglass rock. There are no large rocks anywhere in this part of the desert and so the film company had to provide a couple for Bond to use as cover. The film company left them behind after filming, along with the fake trees.

The sleeping quarters of the Observatory staff, also used as the villain's lair, which is blown up with CGI explosions in the film. As it is impractical for the staff to commute on a daily basis, quarters are provided. Both the outside and the inside look like they could indeed be a super-villain's lair.



[url=http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2887/12057517164_339a9dd63a_b.jpg]Image[/url]
Quantum of Chile by Parkin Pig, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Cool stuff. I wonder why the movie crew just abandoned the rocks? Also how did you realise they were fake? Do you often try to lift rocks?
 
Thank you for taking the time to leave such great feedback! And also thank you Parkin Pig for your comment. Congrats to the winners, those are some incredible shots!
 
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