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Weekly Photo Contest: Nov. 15 - Nov. 22 | Calm Before The Storm

Jumpthesnark

Jumpthesnark

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 24, 2022
1,261
5,196
California
It's the last week before what we call "the holidays" here in the U.S., before people travel for family get-togethers at Thanksgiving, then there are Black Friday sales, crowded shopping malls, homes that are decorated for get-togethers, office parties, lights are strung, menorahs are lit, Christmas trees are set up and attacked by cats, kids shred wrapping paper and then there's a raucous celebration for the new year.

So let's take some time to share photos of quiet moments before things get busy.

2015-0806-Mehndix002.jpg


For this week, the theme is "calm before the storm." The example I've attached shows a bride-to-be having henna applied to her hand as she prepares for her wedding, which is a less literal "calm before the storm" than photos of cloudy skies. The example is meant to really make you think about the topic in an outside-the-box way. The process is slow, deliberate and personal. The wedding, which comes later, is full of loud joy and music and food and family and dancing.

So instead of cloudy skies with a storm coming, what I'd like to see are photos that show the intentionally quiet moments before something big happens. Our lives are filled with weddings and bar mitzvahs, new babies, first days of school, unboxing brand new Macs (;)), graduations, school plays and musical performances, family dinners, first bicycles, car shows, new jobs, road trips, moving into new homes, repainting rooms, holiday get-togethers, cross country travel, etc. All of these regular landmarks in our lives have moments of preparation. Let's see what that looks like.

And please add a few words about what is happening in the picture.

The usual rules apply (new participants, please read):

  • The photographs must be your own work.
  • You may only submit one photo per contest.
  • No commenting or liking photos until after the judging has taken place (a.k.a. "Mollying," which is a term of love and respect).
  • This 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).
  • And most importantly, have fun!
 
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
Calm before the storm… Awakening the Las Vegas strip... All eyes on the Veyron!

Bugatti Veyron heading towards the speedway race track to unleash its 1200+ Horsepower. LAWSUIT, per se 🏎️

View attachment 2113567
Click to expand...
$21,000 for an oil change! "The Veyron uses a dry-sump oiling system with 16 different drain plugs, accessible after removing parts of the underbody. Refilling, along with checking air filters and all that good stuff, requires removing the car's rear fender liners and rear deck." Ridiculous
 
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I pretty much only do nature photography, so here is my non-landscape take on calm before the storm.

Rattlesnake calmly coiled, waiting in squirrel traffic area for the opportunity to strike.

coiled rattlesnake 1772 10.02.22 x.jpg


I originally posted this in potd as a sleeping rattlesnake, but found out that this is one of their main hunting techniques.
 
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Let's get those entries in! You've got just under two days to add your photos. I'm going to close the contest at midnight PST on Tuesday the 22nd, so that means roughly 39 hours from this posting.

That gives you all kinds of time to add your photo if you haven't.
 
Last day! Get those contest entries in! I know the MR crowd is great with last-minute photos, and we're all counting on you!
 
I wish there were more entries this week. Perhaps people are busy as the holidays approach (no calm, just storm) and perhaps it was a contest people didn't like. Both, neither or something else? Anyway, on we go!

@imac wannabe - Warren Johnson, an absolute legend in the NHRA circuit. You can see he's getting in the zone. All top athletes go through some version of this, and it's definitely his quiet time before things get loud (and fast). I think a tighter crop would have helped this photo, though. That sky and the top parts of the white tent and the trucks are not helping.

@TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 - Speaking of loud and fast, that Bugatti! I think the looser crop doesn't hurt as much here, since you're not asking the viewer to see the story told by someone's expression. Unfortunately, that's what's missing for me. I don't see calm, I just see car and Las Vegas context.

@cthompson94 - We are three for three when it comes to four wheels. With a photo of go-kart drivers getting ready, this has unintentionally become the motorsports contest! I like the photo and I like that you lined up the competitors in a strong diagonal. I think if you had taken a step or two closer, and waited for that one person to stop mugging for your camera, that would have helped. Also, the Red Bull branding is pulling my eye away from the subjects, while the unnecessary foreground is adding weight to part of the photo that doesn't need it. Like the first photo, a bit of a crop would have helped.

@Snowlover - It looks like you were within striking distance of this buzzworm. At the very least, you get the award for bravery in this round. In addition, I love the tight composition, the S-curve within the circle, the quality & direction of light that shows off the pattern and detail and texture of the snake's scales. Beautiful animal, great eye-catching photo.

@Strider64 - I love that you saw this as being "the calm before the storm," but that red vehicle on the left ruins this for me. Walking closer and/or changing your position to eliminate the red vehicle and emphasize the bucket load of fallen leaves would have helped this photo so much. That would have made this a much more storytelling photo with a cleaner composition.

@lkalliance - Can a two-year-old be "long-suffering?" I love that this moment is not only before her second birthday party, but it's MORNING. How long did she have to wait for her party to begin? I laughed when I saw this. The resigned patience on her face, the wrinkles in the tablecloth going diagonally across the photo and leading us directly to her, the negative space and framing that really tell us the reason why she is making that expression while also showing us the plates and party hats. This is 100% the calm before the storm and it's adorable.

@oblomow - Those three bagpipers getting ready are definitely the calm before their noisy storm! But they're all equally distant from us and that gives us a flat composition. Three of anything can make for some great photographic compositions, because as you close in on one, the other two become further away and relatively smaller. Or you get close to two of them, so the third is framed between them, smaller in the background. It really helps us to navigate an image when the photographer uses framing and composition to tell us what they think is important. But when all the subjects are the same size, our eyes just bounce from one to the next with no guidance from the photographer.

@OldMacs4Me - I like the technique, using a diptych to create a panorama of sorts, but it strikes me as more of an informational interior than the calm before the storm (which I assume is the people who would later be splashing around in the pool).

@mtbdudex - I really like the description with this one. That paused rear leg, along with the (apologies) deer-in-the-headlights expression, are both very storytelling. I like the clean background that really makes the subject pop. I see some motion blur, though. Very understandable considering you were hand-holding long glass at 1/50 sec., but still, that distracted me a bit.

@skidu - Brilliant. I love the foreground framing and the strong leading lines. The warm low light from candles. The jacket that is light colored enough to gather that rich candlelight and transition to a dark shadow side, which adds dimensionality. There's not a bit of waste in this image. I kept going back and forth on whether I wanted to see the subject's eyes, though. We don't need to see his eyes, but being cropped right at them makes me notice their absence

All that being said, here's the winners' podium:

Third place: @Snowlover
Second place: @skidu
First place: @lkalliance

Congratulations to the winners! And a big thank you to all who participated. I really appreciate the time and work that you put into your entries.

For those who celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a warm and happy holiday.
 
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Jumpthesnark said:
I wish there were more entries this week. Perhaps people are busy as the holidays approach (no calm, just storm) and perhaps it was a contest people didn't like. Both, neither or something else? Anyway, on we go!

@imac wannabe - Warren Johnson, an absolute legend in the NHRA circuit. You can see he's getting in the zone. All top athletes go through some version of this, and it's definitely his quiet time before things get loud (and fast). I think a tighter crop would have helped this photo, though. That sky and the top parts of the white tent and the trucks are not helping.

@TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 - Speaking of loud and fast, that Bugatti! I think the looser crop doesn't hurt as much here, since you're not asking the viewer to see the story told by someone's expression. Unfortunately, that's what's missing for me. I don't see calm, I just see car and Las Vegas context.

@cthompson94 - We are three for three when it comes to four wheels. With a photo of go-kart drivers getting ready, this has unintentionally become the motorsports contest! I like the photo and I like that you lined up the competitors in a strong diagonal. I think if you had taken a step or two closer, and waited for that one person to stop mugging for your camera, that would have helped. Also, the Red Bull branding is pulling my eye away from the subjects, while the unnecessary foreground is adding weight to part of the photo that doesn't need it. Like the first photo, a bit of a crop would have helped.

@Snowlover - It looks like you were within striking distance of this buzzworm. At the very least, you get the award for bravery in this round. In addition, I love the tight composition, the S-curve within the circle, the quality & direction of light that shows off the pattern and detail and texture of the snake's scales. Beautiful animal, great eye-catching photo.

@Strider64 - I love that you saw this as being "the calm before the storm," but that red vehicle on the left ruins this for me. Walking closer and/or changing your position to eliminate the red vehicle and emphasize the bucket load of fallen leaves would have helped this photo so much. That would have made this a much more storytelling photo with a cleaner composition.

@lkalliance - Can a two-year-old be "long-suffering?" I love that this moment is not only before her second birthday party, but it's MORNING. How long did she have to wait for her party to begin? I laughed when I saw this. The resigned patience on her face, the wrinkles in the tablecloth going diagonally across the photo and leading us directly to her, the negative space and framing that really tell us the reason why she is making that expression while also showing us the plates and party hats. This is 100% the calm before the storm and it's adorable.

@oblomow - Those three bagpipers getting ready are definitely the calm before their noisy storm! But they're all equally distant from us and that gives us a flat composition. Three of anything can make for some great photographic compositions, because as you close in on one, the other two become further away and relatively smaller. Or you get close to two of them, so the third is framed between them, smaller in the background. It really helps us to navigate an image when the photographer uses framing and composition to tell us what they think is important. But when all the subjects are the same size, our eyes just bounce from one to the next with no guidance from the photographer.

@OldMacs4Me - I like the technique, using a diptych to create a panorama of sorts, but it strikes me as more of an informational interior than the calm before the storm (which I assume is the people who would later be splashing around in the pool).

@mtbdudex - I really like the description with this one. That paused rear leg, along with the (apologies) deer-in-the-headlights expression, are both very storytelling. I like the clean background that really makes the subject pop. I see some motion blur, though. Very understandable considering you were hand-holding long glass at 1/50 sec., but still, that distracted me a bit.

@skidu - Brilliant. I love the foreground framing and the strong leading lines. The warm low light from candles. The jacket that is light colored enough to gather that rich candlelight and transition to a dark shadow side, which adds dimensionality. There's not a bit of waste in this image. I kept going back and forth on whether I wanted to see the subject's eyes, though. We don't need to see his eyes, but being cropped right at them makes me notice their absence

All that being said, here's the winners' podium:

Third place: @Snowlover
Second place: @skidu
First place: @lkalliance

Congratulations to the winners! And a big thank you to all who participated. I really appreciate the time and work that you put into your entries.

For those who celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a warm and happy holiday.
Click to expand...
Wow, thank you @Jumpthesnark! It’s really something that in a short couple of decades since Seymour Minolta discovered the first wild camera nesting in his backyard, such a skilled set of photographic craftsmen such as this contest’s entrants would evolve!

Great entries, everyone! I’m concocting the next theme, and will post it some time tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

(Where is my sportsmanship? Congrats to @skidu and @Snowlover!)
 
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Jumpthesnark said:
I wish there were more entries this week. Perhaps people are busy as the holidays approach (no calm, just storm) and perhaps it was a contest people didn't like. Both, neither or something else? Anyway, on we go!

@imac wannabe - Warren Johnson, an absolute legend in the NHRA circuit. You can see he's getting in the zone. All top athletes go through some version of this, and it's definitely his quiet time before things get loud (and fast). I think a tighter crop would have helped this photo, though. That sky and the top parts of the white tent and the trucks are not helping.

@TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 - Speaking of loud and fast, that Bugatti! I think the looser crop doesn't hurt as much here, since you're not asking the viewer to see the story told by someone's expression. Unfortunately, that's what's missing for me. I don't see calm, I just see car and Las Vegas context.

@cthompson94 - We are three for three when it comes to four wheels. With a photo of go-kart drivers getting ready, this has unintentionally become the motorsports contest! I like the photo and I like that you lined up the competitors in a strong diagonal. I think if you had taken a step or two closer, and waited for that one person to stop mugging for your camera, that would have helped. Also, the Red Bull branding is pulling my eye away from the subjects, while the unnecessary foreground is adding weight to part of the photo that doesn't need it. Like the first photo, a bit of a crop would have helped.

@Snowlover - It looks like you were within striking distance of this buzzworm. At the very least, you get the award for bravery in this round. In addition, I love the tight composition, the S-curve within the circle, the quality & direction of light that shows off the pattern and detail and texture of the snake's scales. Beautiful animal, great eye-catching photo.

@Strider64 - I love that you saw this as being "the calm before the storm," but that red vehicle on the left ruins this for me. Walking closer and/or changing your position to eliminate the red vehicle and emphasize the bucket load of fallen leaves would have helped this photo so much. That would have made this a much more storytelling photo with a cleaner composition.

@lkalliance - Can a two-year-old be "long-suffering?" I love that this moment is not only before her second birthday party, but it's MORNING. How long did she have to wait for her party to begin? I laughed when I saw this. The resigned patience on her face, the wrinkles in the tablecloth going diagonally across the photo and leading us directly to her, the negative space and framing that really tell us the reason why she is making that expression while also showing us the plates and party hats. This is 100% the calm before the storm and it's adorable.

@oblomow - Those three bagpipers getting ready are definitely the calm before their noisy storm! But they're all equally distant from us and that gives us a flat composition. Three of anything can make for some great photographic compositions, because as you close in on one, the other two become further away and relatively smaller. Or you get close to two of them, so the third is framed between them, smaller in the background. It really helps us to navigate an image when the photographer uses framing and composition to tell us what they think is important. But when all the subjects are the same size, our eyes just bounce from one to the next with no guidance from the photographer.

@OldMacs4Me - I like the technique, using a diptych to create a panorama of sorts, but it strikes me as more of an informational interior than the calm before the storm (which I assume is the people who would later be splashing around in the pool).

@mtbdudex - I really like the description with this one. That paused rear leg, along with the (apologies) deer-in-the-headlights expression, are both very storytelling. I like the clean background that really makes the subject pop. I see some motion blur, though. Very understandable considering you were hand-holding long glass at 1/50 sec., but still, that distracted me a bit.

@skidu - Brilliant. I love the foreground framing and the strong leading lines. The warm low light from candles. The jacket that is light colored enough to gather that rich candlelight and transition to a dark shadow side, which adds dimensionality. There's not a bit of waste in this image. I kept going back and forth on whether I wanted to see the subject's eyes, though. We don't need to see his eyes, but being cropped right at them makes me notice their absence

All that being said, here's the winners' podium:

Third place: @Snowlover
Second place: @skidu
First place: @lkalliance

Congratulations to the winners! And a big thank you to all who participated. I really appreciate the time and work that you put into your entries.

For those who celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a warm and happy holiday.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the comments and third place finish. :)
Congrats to Skidu and Ikalliance. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
 
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