Weekly Photo Contest (March 1st-8th)

[shady825]

shady825[/B]: Wow, what a sky!!! Amazing. The car looks great too, but I think you could put anything in front of that sky and I'd stare at it for a few minutes. Even though it's not the focus in this image, I like that the Focus is in focus. Makes me want to go for a drive wherever you are.

Thank you for the kind words! This picture was taken in Arizona. The sunsets out here look like that almost daily!
Thanks again!

 

[Chappers]

Chappers: Fantastic moment, and this may capture the week's theme better than any other entry. I love the fingers wide open and the concentration in this kid's eyes. I wish, though, that there was better light on him. Probably the bright background fooled your camera's meter into underexposing your subject, which is unfortunate and happens to me all the time. A fill flash would have been perfect, or perhaps try recovering the shadows in software. Of course, the best solution is to make sure the bubbles are blown into better light.

Firstly well done to AlaskaMoose great shot.
As for mine - well my son doesn't stand still for long - and well I was a long way off and didn't expect him to even stop for the photo. As for recovering the shadows - I tried but a rather serious eye injury I received very recently means any of that work is just a pipe dream. Believe me folks - a tree branch removing a large chunk of your cornea is not to be advised.

 

[shady825]

Firstly well done to AlaskaMoose great shot.
As for mine - well my son doesn't stand still for long - and well I was a long way off and didn't expect him to even stop for the photo. As for recovering the shadows - I tried but a rather serious eye injury I received very recently means any of that work is just a pipe dream. Believe me folks - a tree branch removing a large chunk of your cornea is not to be advised.

I had the hardest time finding something that really said "optimism".
Your photo honestly portrayed optimism to me the best!
I woulda picked you as the winner

Nice job everyone!

 

[Chappers]

I had the hardest time finding something that really said "optimism".
Your photo honestly portrayed optimism to me the best!
I woulda picked you as the winner

Nice job everyone!

Thank you.

My eye can be seen here - be warned I added a doctors photo of the damage.
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7238928#post7238928

 

[mattyb240]

Well done everyone and good judging! I appreciate the critique as I am very new at all of this, and as for the water mark I wasn't at my laptop when I posted the image unfortunately! But thanks again and well done everyone!

 

[shady825]

Thank you.

My eye can be seen here - be warned I added a doctors photo of the damage.
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7238928#post7238928

Wow! Glad your ok and didn't loose your eye/vision!
I'm always so worried about doing something like that to my eyes.

 

[pdxflint]

Thanks apearlman for doing a great job critiquing everyone's submissions, and offering constructive suggestions. What's a "negative..?" I know exactly what you mean. I still have about 30 rolls of exposed, but undeveloped film (b/w and a few color rolls) that I'm going to take a look at soon. Some goes back almost 12 years...

Congratulations alaskamoose, you consistently produce gorgeous images, and I'm a fan of your work. Your shot is a very worthy choice for winner this week. Looking forward to the next topic, and hopefully I can participate again.

Chappers... yikes! on the eye injury. BTW, I really got a smile out of the shot of your son. When I viewed it larger, it was much more effective. Sure, there are technical issues, but I love the moment.

Abraxis, I like this more as time goes by. Nice b/w.

Everyone else... it was good seeing your stellar work - it definitely made me feel optimistic

 

[localghost]

congrats AlaskaMoose!

realy appreciate your honest comments apearlman, doing so exposes yourself a lot more than just being nice. amateur or not, to many pros out there producing garbage anyways. doesn't mean i mostly agree with you (partly i do, partly i strongly disagree; concerning my own as well as the other images), but i don't have to. two photogs, three opinions ... ;-)

i'd even like to see a thread, where even more bald comments are allowed/asked for. not sure if many others would like that too though (and we already have to big photo-threads).

 

[Abraxsis]

Abraxsis[/B]: I like what you're doing in this image, and has a very reverential feel. The dark vignetting toward the bottom border is nice, and it works with this B&W treatment. With the composition, I'm feeling a bit claustrophobic at the top of the frame, looking for just a bit more space above the crest of that hill. I'd like to see some room between those distant stones and the top edge. I also wonder whether you could have knelt down (and perhaps to the right) a bit to make the closer stones loom larger in the frame, to add to the sense of depth that you're creating with the line of stones going from foreground to background.

Totally agree with what you said. I was actually going to lay down to get the shot, but my father the Marine was with me and I was beginning to kneel he caught my shoulder and said "One never kneels in a military cemetery, even in reverence. [pointing in a long arc for effect] These men died so that you would never have to do that to anyone." I'm a pretty stoic man, learned it from my father, but him saying that almost brought me to tears. So I took the shot standing up.

 

[bootedbear]

bootedbear: this shot fits the theme nicely, though I think the composition is a bit static. It's hard to describe, but the flower is just sitting there. I'd like to see it bigger or perhaps with more of its surroundings, but just leaving it in the middle of the frame is uninteresting. I also think the subject is a bit blurred, perhaps from missed focus or camera shake (slow shutter?). Very nice concept, though.

Thanks for the feedback. I enter these contests knowing I don't have a snowball's chance given all the great talent that also posts, but I do it for the feedback.

Reading the feedback for everyone else's photos is also always a great learning experience. So thanks.

This photo was me trying to get a handle on a new macro lens (which I'm probably not technically ready for in any case) so it'll be a while before I can realize its full potential (or mine).

 

[deep diver]

Congrats to all

apearlman, great job judging. A few weeks ago, I learned how difficult this is. Your comments were balanced and well delivered. You wrote "it does make me look deeply at it to figure out what I'm seeing." Thank you. That is exactly why I shoot what I do and in the way that I do it.

Congrats to all for a great job. It is an excellent collection of images.

IT IS GREAT TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS AGAIN.

Can't wait for the next theme.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

AlaskaMoose: this is just gorgeous, and obviously a lot of care went into the choice of subject, lighting, and editing. The reflection is superb. If it looks like that in real life, then what a beautiful spot. If you enhanced it with software, great job.

If ALASKAMOOSE is unable to fulfill his duties as beauty queen, the runners-up are JEFFMODE and PDXFLINT, in that order.

Kudos and thanks to everyone for sharing their photos this week!

Thank you for the kind words, Apearlman. I appreciate it.

It seems that I am a tad late to start the Weekly Photo Contest for this week, so I will do a little thinking for a few minutes and return shortly to begin this week's contest.

If you don't mind, I will copy the rules from your original post this week. This will save a lot of time.

Thanks again.

 

[AlexH]

Congrats!

Everyone had good shots this week. I had a tough time coming up with something optimistic this week!