Weekly Photo Contest (Oct 14-21): US History

[themumu]

Weekly Photo Contest (Oct 14-21): US History

Thanks very much jkramerbob for the outstanding job you’ve done with judging…much appreciated!

Well done to all for the great shots and congrats to MacRy for the beautiful shot and the win.

My shot of the Cabot Tower - St. John’s Newfoundland, is an attempt at a historical recreation of a view of an important part of Canada’s history.

This is the RAW image out of camera:

Image

And this is the image after 11 adjustments including over 2,100 strokes of cloning-out unwanted objects that appeared around the tower over the last few decades for the tourists.

Image

I don’t recommend this to everyone but it was fun to push my limits of processing.

Wow, that is a some impressive cleanup!

I should try that with my image

 

[jkramerbob]

Thanks very much jkramerbob for the outstanding job you’ve done with judging…much appreciated!

Well done to all for the great shots and congrats to MacRy for the beautiful shot and the win.

My shot of the Cabot Tower - St. John’s Newfoundland, is an attempt at a historical recreation of a view of an important part of Canada’s history.

This is the RAW image out of camera:

Image

And this is the image after 11 adjustments including over 2,100 strokes of cloning-out unwanted objects that appeared around the tower over the last few decades for the tourists.

Image

I don’t recommend this to everyone but it was fun to push my limits of processing.

Thank-you Cheese&Apple for the showing the original image. I would love to learn this process however it is probably beyond my patience. Again, wonderful photo.

 

[filmbufs]

Congrats to MacRy for the excellent photo and his second win! There were so many wonderful images and jkramerbob did an amazing job taking the time to judge so well. He provided some wonderful comments that were often spot-on. Thanks for the kind words and recognition for my photo, jkramerbob.

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My shot of the Cabot Tower - St. John’s Newfoundland, is an attempt at a historical recreation of a view of an important part of Canada’s history.

This is the RAW image out of camera:

And this is the image after 11 adjustments including over 2,100 strokes of cloning-out unwanted objects that appeared around the tower over the last few decades for the tourists.

I don’t recommend this to everyone but it was fun to push my limits of processing.

Thank you, C&A for sharing the before and after image. That is some impressive pp and I always appreciate the efforts in making an image look the best it can be. Well done. Again.

 

[Evil Spoonman]

Evil Spoonman – Yes. It would be hard to argue Yosemite’s place in US history. It’s also easy to see a deep geographic history in the weathered rocks in your photo. Your photo appears to be taken mid-day. The deep textures of natural features including rock faces are greatly accentuated by the warm horizontal light of early morning and late day. Sometimes as we travel we are not afforded the luxury of being at these fantastic locations at the ideal photographic time. Also, when I look at your photo, it is difficult for me to grasp the size of the rocky slope. You might have considered including a climber or hiker to provide a scale of the slope and a bit of drama. I did enjoy your image and am jealous as I have not had the opportunity to visit Yosemite. Also, you get first place for the best MacRumors username.

What a well structured response to everybody! I too was sad that there wasn't a better chance to take better photos. What really prevented me from more deeply considering the subject was the thousands of mosquitos. Stand still for more than three seconds and get bitten to death!

Thank you for the subject matter. Your judgement is, by my reckoning, quite fair. Congrats to MacRy!

 

[fireman32]

fireman32 – This is a nice photo of what appears to be a working grist mill. A quite stream, wonderful textures on the wood mill and rocky outcropping set on a backdrop of beautiful fall colors. It almost feels like that today where I live. There is good detail in the photo and everything appears very natural with the exception of the sky. As in many of my HDR photos, the sky has turned a bit muddy and the outline of the tree tops a bit unnatural (especially the tree directly above the mill). HDR often takes more patience and experience that I have. Regardless of the details, I like your grist mill photo and would love to see a series of images from this angle, each taken at different seasons of the year.

Thanks for the nice comments. It was quite cloudy and I wanted to try to bring out some detail in the sky but it did not turn out the way I wanted. I might play around with it some more. I took quite a few pictures of the mill and will post some more

 

[Astroboy907]

Thanks for the review of my photo. I figured I wouldn't win, but that particular photo was taken a couple years ago, and I hope I have come a long way since, in terms of composition. I am still using a superzoom but hope to buy a nice DSLR in the next couple years so I can tinker with lenses and all that more than I can now. There were things I would definitely change with the composure now but it seemed like a great photo at the time! Looking forward to new competitions.

 

[someoldguy]

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someoldguy – We would miss a key element of US history if we didn’t recognize the rich heritage of our native Americans and the Pueblo people. I’ve seen many photos of Mesa Verde but they are typically in color, showing off the rich yellow sandstone and bright blue Colorado sky. You provide a black & white image which provides an undistracted interpretation of the amazing architectural detail. This was a tricky exposure with many deep shadow areas transitioning to the bright sun-lit space. However you pulled it off quite well as details are not lost in the shadows nor blow-out in the sunny area. The progressive layers of shadows to sunlight provide depth to the photograph. A good photo for someoldguy!

Thanks for taking what had to be a nice chunk of your time to individually critique each of our photos . I had thought about posting the color version of my shot , but I kind of like the B&W more , the fine details in the ruins seem to stand out much more when the colors are subtracted.

 

[Ambulater]

Jkramerbob,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on my photo. It is appreciated as I am very new to photography, have only snapped a few photos, and need tips. Yes, the photo was very blown due to the bright mid day sun. I kind of liked the composition and the fall colors, but it was almost impossible to bring much definition out of the lion because of the heavy shading and blown out background. Live and learn.

I should have said something about the history earlier but wasn't sure if anyone would want that kind of detail. New Ulm, MN is known for a historic battle between the German settlers and the native Americans. There is still a piece of a barricade that was erected out of junk like boxes, wagon wheels, logs, etc. behind which the settlers hid while fending off the attack on the town. They took their inspiration from Herman the German who successfully defended against the Romans in 4 AD. The monument in the photo is a monument to Herman the German that captures the spirit of the town and serves as something of a reminder of the towns's own epic stand.