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Weekly Photo Contest: May 3rd to May 10th - Industry & Art

A

anotherscotsman

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Aug 2, 2014
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This week's theme is Industry & Art. Not everything on an industrial scale is ugly - engineering can result in great art work that is also functional. Similarly not all art work is small with larger pieces involving significant engineering design and construction. Show us the big stuff that combines art and industry.

The photographs must be your own work.
  • Be creative and have fun.
  • You may only submit one photo per contest.
  • Please do not comment on photos until after the judging has taken place.
  • The contest runs for one week, starting NOW!
  • 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.
  • 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, after that it defers to 2nd place).

Here's something to get you going:


The Wheel by another scotsman, on Flickr
 
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A

Alexander.Of.Oz

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Oct 29, 2013
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This may be a placeholder if I can get back there for something even better during this week.

The bicentennial tropical conservatory in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia.

_MG_8607-X3.jpg
 
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A

anotherscotsman

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kenoh said:
Well, I was reading the brief and thought "nice! I can use one of my Falkirk wheel pictures". Then boom! the example picture in the brief is indeed the Falkirk Wheel... doh!

So here is one from Whitelees Wind Farm in Scotland.

Untitled by Ken OHagan, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Sorry Ken but please don't feel inhibited - post the Wheel if you think it best fits the competition - my example was just to give the theme something concrete t work on. The Wheel gave me the idea for the competition!
 
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kenoh

kenoh

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anotherscotsman said:
Sorry Ken but please don't feel inhibited - post the Wheel if you think it best fits the competition - my example was just to give the theme something concrete t work on. The Wheel gave me the idea for the competition!
Click to expand...

Lol nah mate, my picture is almost a carbon copy of yours... This tries something different.
 
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Apple fanboy

Apple fanboy

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Feb 21, 2012
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OK so an old one (and not very good!). Taken on an awful wet day with an iPhone 5.
What I like about this one is the iconic Selfridges building which is a popular land mark in Birmingham.
When I used to work in Engineering the firm I was at spun all of these domes by hand. Two guys did them all.

They liked doing it as it was a piece work job!

IMG_1407 by apple fanboy1, on Flickr
 
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anotherscotsman

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Thanks for the great variety of entries folks, competition is now closed.

I'll get back with comments tomorrow.
 
A

anotherscotsman

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Now for the hard part...remember these are only my thoughts so please take with a significant pinch of salt.

AlexanderofOz : I always think that this sort of long exposure, mono treatment gives a very techno- or even in some cases post-apocalyptic feel. I like the contrast between the hard, geometric structure and the trees (and I suppose the plants within) and the soft clouds. More than a placeholder I'd say.

Kenoh : sorry about the Wheel...I know it is a matter of personal opinion but I personally find that wind turbines often don't detract from the landscape they are in (sometimes they do obviously). They can be quite soothing to watch and like aircraft (see below) their design has an element of grace. You've captured the bleakness of many of the onshore wind farms nicely and I think the presence of the turbines can actually accentuate that bleakness. The low cloud is great and I like the composition with the curve of the hilltop. Only improvement would be a slow exposure to get a bit of movement in the blades (but they were probably static given the cloud cover).

Mark0 : a change from your usual landscape postings! Nice composition for a pretty futuristic building. I like the contrast between the fine details of the structure of the building and the plain blue sky. Personally I think it begs for a high-contrast B&W conversion.

Deep Diver : great capture of some industrial detail - lovely textures and colours of the blades. I really like the strong geometric composition. You have found the art in the details rather than the macro-scale.

CmdrLaForge : as someone who sits on a plane a lot, this view is certainly familiar. Aircraft can certainly combine form, function and grace - the Spitfire being a classic example of this. Nice, strong composition.

Malofx : a design classic nicely captured. Same architect (Frank Gehry) as the Brain Institute in Las Vegas I posted a while back. Great example of the architect imposing art on function. I like the foreground puddles but perhaps the multiple coloured light sources are a bit distracting - not much you can do about that but perhaps look at a B&W version?

Apple Fanboy : another architectural design classic. Interesting background on how the exo-structure was made. This certainly suits the B&W treatment, particularly given the weather. I like how despite the flat lighting, the curves of the building are still clearly visible. I might have been tempted to crop to remove some of the buildings on the right but that might have lost some of the scale.

I've changed my mind a couple of times but;

3rd place : Kenoh - very atmospheric
2nd place : Deep Diver - not what I was expecting
1st place : AlexanderofOz - not bad for a placeholder!

Thanks again to everyone who submitted and congratulations to you all.
 
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Alexander.Of.Oz

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Thanks for the great feedback and placement! It's one of my favourite buildings around town. Unfortunately the weather didn't play friendly for me to get back and reshoot this image, it was either overcast or sunny with no clouds.

I'll get a new contest up shortly.
 
kenoh

kenoh

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anotherscotsman said:
Now for the hard part...remember these are only my thoughts so please take with a significant pinch of salt.

AlexanderofOz : I always think that this sort of long exposure, mono treatment gives a very techno- or even in some cases post-apocalyptic feel. I like the contrast between the hard, geometric structure and the trees (and I suppose the plants within) and the soft clouds. More than a placeholder I'd say.

Kenoh : sorry about the Wheel...I know it is a matter of personal opinion but I personally find that wind turbines often don't detract from the landscape they are in (sometimes they do obviously). They can be quite soothing to watch and like aircraft (see below) their design has an element of grace. You've captured the bleakness of many of the onshore wind farms nicely and I think the presence of the turbines can actually accentuate that bleakness. The low cloud is great and I like the composition with the curve of the hilltop. Only improvement would be a slow exposure to get a bit of movement in the blades (but they were probably static given the cloud cover).

Mark0 : a change from your usual landscape postings! Nice composition for a pretty futuristic building. I like the contrast between the fine details of the structure of the building and the plain blue sky. Personally I think it begs for a high-contrast B&W conversion.

Deep Diver : great capture of some industrial detail - lovely textures and colours of the blades. I really like the strong geometric composition. You have found the art in the details rather than the macro-scale.

CmdrLaForge : as someone who sits on a plane a lot, this view is certainly familiar. Aircraft can certainly combine form, function and grace - the Spitfire being a classic example of this. Nice, strong composition.

Malofx : a design classic nicely captured. Same architect (Frank Gehry) as the Brain Institute in Las Vegas I posted a while back. Great example of the architect imposing art on function. I like the foreground puddles but perhaps the multiple coloured light sources are a bit distracting - not much you can do about that but perhaps look at a B&W version?

Apple Fanboy : another architectural design classic. Interesting background on how the exo-structure was made. This certainly suits the B&W treatment, particularly given the weather. I like how despite the flat lighting, the curves of the building are still clearly visible. I might have been tempted to crop to remove some of the buildings on the right but that might have lost some of the scale.

I've changed my mind a couple of times but;

3rd place : Kenoh - very atmospheric
2nd place : Deep Diver - not what I was expecting
1st place : AlexanderofOz - not bad for a placeholder!

Thanks again to everyone who submitted and congratulations to you all.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the comments. I like the wind turbines too. I think from the right angle, they can be quite majestic. I agree a bit of blur would have been good but as predicted they weren't moving. I am struggling with capturing the turbines with some movement in them. I either get invisible blades or a radiation sign... can't seem to get the full circle on them. Is that exposure too short?

On the wheel, just joking. I do have a picture that I could have used and I suspect it was taken from almost the same spot - next to the colourful huts right? did you put your bag down on the picnic bench there while you took it the same as I did? lol...

I too liked the entry from @deep diver it was very intriguing.

Great contest. Next one is looking interesting too!
 
A

anotherscotsman

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kenoh said:
Thanks for the comments. I like the wind turbines too. I think from the right angle, they can be quite majestic. I agree a bit of blur would have been good but as predicted they weren't moving. I am struggling with capturing the turbines with some movement in them. I either get invisible blades or a radiation sign... can't seem to get the full circle on them. Is that exposure too short?

On the wheel, just joking. I do have a picture that I could have used and I suspect it was taken from almost the same spot - next to the colourful huts right? did you put your bag down on the picnic bench there while you took it the same as I did? lol...

I too liked the entry from @deep diver it was very intriguing.

Great contest. Next one is looking interesting too!
Click to expand...

Cheers Ken - I actually stood ON the seat of the picnic bench to get a bit of height - stood on a carrier bag to avoid muddy footprints for the next user :) Why don't you post the Wheel shot anyway - always good to see another take on something?

To get the full circle needs a 3-bears sort of shutter time- invisible blades = too long exposure time, radiation sign = slightly too short exposure time...
 
kenoh

kenoh

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Jul 18, 2008
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anotherscotsman said:
Cheers Ken - I actually stood ON the seat of the picnic bench to get a bit of height - stood on a carrier bag to avoid muddy footprints for the next user :) Why don't you post the Wheel shot anyway - always good to see another take on something?

To get the full circle needs a 3-bears sort of shutter time- invisible blades = too long exposure time, radiation sign = slightly too short exposure time...
Click to expand...


Here you go. It was beginning to snow so I wasnt hanging round. I tried for the reflecting pool effect but it didn't quite work.

_DSC4233.jpg by Ken OHagan, on Flickr

I think the angle you captured it front is a lot more pleasing.
 
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