2019 - Image of the Week: #49

[Kayaker72]

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

• The Week 49 entry period will be from Monday, December 2nd through/including Sunday, December 8th.
• Please supply a title for your images.
• 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 DavidEccleston.

[Zach]

"Violet"

[Kayaker72]

"Bow River"

6S0A9474 by kayaker72, on Flickr

[DavidEccleston]

As we only have two entries so far, I'm going to give Zach some critique now, in case he wants to post another attempt.

The concept is great, but I personally dislike when not a single flower is fully in focus. The top two have their center bits OOF. The one below is OOF before we get to the ring of petals. I find both distracting. You need a slightly smaller aperture (lower f number) to make this one work.

[Zach]

As we only have two entries so far, I'm going to give Zach some critique now, in case he wants to post another attempt.

The concept is great, but I personally dislike when not a single flower is fully in focus. The top two have their center bits OOF. The one below is OOF before we get to the ring of petals. I find both distracting. You need a slightly smaller aperture (lower f number) to make this one work.

thanks for the critique David, believe me i know the focus stinks on that pic, but for some reason it appealed to me, i've got a thing for imperfect pictures, they feel real to me i guess. but your right the OOF areas are distracting, that's one reason i toned down the color and vibrancy, it helped draw the eyes off of the OOF problems, at least that what i was going for anyway.

here's the same flower but better focus, i'll let this be my second entry.

"Violet 2.0"

[NFLD Stephen]

Startrails:

Startrails by Stephen, on Flickr

Stephen

[Jonathan Huyer]

Frosty Morning

This is a bit unusual, but I'm posting a photo from the same location as Brant's shot above. I've been coming back to this spot regularly since Brant's visit, trying to get a decent sunrise. This is today's effort, probably the best of the bunch that I've generated so far. But I have to say, I do like Brant's shot above with the dramatic clouds! Today was rather cold and it took a while for the mountains to appear through the ice fog. While waiting, I emptied my coffee mug and the batteries on my heated socks ran out... the pitfalls of the trade



Edit: In answer to a question from David, the socks I use are "Lenz 5.0", with rechargeable lithium batteries. They are rather expensive but work brilliantly (assuming you remember to charge them before you go out for a shoot). You can control the temperature with an app on your phone (how cool is that). Those of you in Canada can find them now at MEC.

[DavidEccleston]

Struggling to decide between Brant and Jonathan's shots.

Zach, better focus, and I like the stronger color, but I preferred the original positioning.

Stephen, nice star-trail, but I find everything else too dark. The distance hills are dark. The reflected trails are dark. If you had accumulated more shots to lengthen the trails, it likely would have brightened everything but the reflection too (I'm assuming these are an additive stack of shots). Often star-trail shots include another foreground element to add more interest to the scene. The darkness just leaves this one feeling like it's missing something.

Brant, Jonathan, based on the sky, mountain, and snow cover, you were there on different days. You both selected nearly identical framing, and you both decided to block both the bridge and the flow of the river with the tree branch. As these are both typical focal points of a landscape image, I'm really curious what compelled you both to obscure them.

Brant. I like the clouds, the texture in the water, and the clarity of the mountains.

Jonathan. I like the color, and the marginally better view of the bridge. The clouded mountains give it a bit of a mystical feel.

The color alone is really drawing me to Jonathan's image, but Brant's got the mountains, the sky, the water, and he posted first. I'm wait until I'm home where I can download the pair so I can swap back of forth on a large monitor instead of scrolling around this thread on a smaller screen before I call a winner.

[DavidEccleston]

Once I have them easily switchable, I can see a lot of the benefits in Jonathan image. It has a wider FOV. The color brings a lot of extra separation between the foreground tree, bridge, and water. Better separation between the bridge and the distant trees. The bare trees, which are one of the only things to stand out in Brant's image, dissolve away in Jonathan's.

Jonathan, you win week 49.

[Zach]

congrats Jonathan! Beautiful photo