2021 - Image of the Week #27

Welcome to TDP forum's "Image of the Week" competition. Each week photographers may submit their images for the title of "Image of the Week." Weekly winners will then compete on a monthly, quarterly, and in our annual poll for the title of "TDP Forum Image of the Year."

• Week 27 entry period will be from Monday, June 28th through/including Sunday, July 4th.
• Please provide a title for your image.
• This is an open competition for landscape, portrait, architectural, macro, or any other appropriate photographic style.
• Images should have been either recently taken or processed.
• Enter as many times as you would like.

This week will be judged by PatrickH.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0d8be737_k.jpgFoggy NLC's by Kari, on Flickr

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

https://joeleadephotography.zenfolio...24249741-5.jpg

Curved Billed Thrasher

https://joeleadephotography.zenfolio...25405413-4.jpg

One from my trip to Jasper National Park last week:

A little wary
https://photos.smugmug.com/Nature/Wi...084-Edit-L.jpg

"Shadowland"

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...79bef422_b.jpg537A8766 by kayaker72, on Flickr

Another very strong week!

I am a sucker for a great BW photo, and Shadowland held my interest for the win. Would love to know more about the location and how it came together.

Congrats Brant!

Thanks Patrick!

haha...the "story"...my 3 sisters and I are trying to get our families together ever 2-3 years. Colorado was that trip. I have many more pictures of nephews making funny faces than landscapes. Each of my attempts at getting away early or late failed. Garden of the Gods is a potential epic photography location that I left basically unscathed, just a walk through. On the Thursday, people were breaking apart and three of us decided to head south to Great Sand Dunes NP. Then, at the last minute, one sister wanted to hike Zapata Falls (which seems excellent) and the other was headed to Great Sand Dunes in order to stay on schedule (they were driving back to Idaho). I elected to see each at Great Sand Dunes, first walking the creek with one sister's family and then getting pictures of a nephew surfing down the dunes.

All while walking the creek with the first sister's family, I am watching the clouds move over the dunes and the incredible shadows they were creating. The creek is too low, I didn't like the perspective, knew I wanted to be higher. I had agreed to meet the second sister at the Visitor Center at 5:30 pm. We arrived just after 5 pm (as first sister left). So, how this came together....these were taken in about 15 minutes from behind the visitor center while waiting on my other sister's family to show up. My wife started getting eaten by mosquito's so that was even cut short, I had many 10-15 minutes. In that time, I just watched, I had seen what I wanted from the creek, the interaction of the light and shadows. We've all seen these photos. I ended up with four that I like. Honestly, as the clouds moved past the dunes, they were just there for the taking. I will say there was a bit of luck as the clouds settled in right around 5:30. It was raining by 6:30, but I was having mexican food and a margarita by 7:15, so all was good. After that, the processing was simple, up highlights/whites, drop shadows/blacks, drop color saturation to zero, and a bit of vignetting to focus on the pattern in the center.

As for this type of photo, even though I did not have much time, I got a few I like, so success. But, I would love more time here. Sunrise/sunsets, nightscapes, more time to look for different patterns during the day, isolating some of the vegetation, etc.

Hah, thanks for the share. The park is on my to do list.

Well done sneaking it into your down time. My family has probably heard "just a few more minutes" more often than I care to admit. ;)