weekly Arlandria's 52 Thread :: NEW - Up, Duo, Direction

Arlandria

Arlandria

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Vicky
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I've started at week 25, playing catch-up on the first 24!

Week 1 : Direction
Week 2 : Fear
Week 3 : Sigh
Week 4 : Sweet
Week 5 : Secure
Week 6 : Industry
Week 7 : Root
Week 8 : Handmade
Week 9 : Money
Week 10 : Win
Week 11 : Shiny | Reshoot
Week 12 : Magical
Week 13 : Vice
Week 14 : Entrance
Week 15 : Soft
Week 16 : Pride
Week 17 : Short
Week 18 : Flight
Week 19 : Authority
Week 20 : Leave
Week 21 : Random
Week 22 : Temperature
Week 23 : Abstract | Reshoot
Week 24 : Symmetry
Week 25 : Moody
Week 26 : Joy
Week 27 : Small
Week 28 : Straight
Week 29 : Letter
Week 30 : Contrast
Week 31 : Mineral
Week 32 : Dark
Week 33 : Time
Week 34 : Body
Week 35 : Liquid
Week 36 : Up
Week 37 : Duo
 
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look forward to seeing your shots , we're a friendly bunch round these parts (y)
 
Hi Vicky, welcome! Looking forward to seeing your photos, this is a fantastic way to improve I'm finding!
 
Okay, so I couldn't wait for week 26!

Here's a rather lateral warm-up shot for week 25, Moody. After seeing all the moody teenagers I wanted to do something different (plus I don't have a moody teenager to hand!) and, since I work in the banking industry, the first thing that came to mind was Moody's, who are one of the big three bond credit rating organisations. Throw a prime lens and the Oxford Dictionary of Finance and Banking into the mix and what do we get...

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My own criticism would be that it's a pretty boring shot - more of a stock image (I could see something like this illustrating a BBC news article). That said the sharpness is good, the focus is just about right (ideally I'd have nudged it a teensy bit higher) and it required very little tweaking in LR (just minor alterations to WB and tone), which is great considering I only took one shot.
 
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Hi Vicky, welcome to the 52 party..

Moody, I'm afraid it needs the explanation to show why it reflect Moody, but that's ok. I agree with your comments about the sharpness on the writing, and I think possibly slightly higher, I think the top of bond is just outside the plane of focus. I like images like this... having done a few myself ;) The only thing I'd say, it looks like you had some natural light coming in from the side, and the top of the book is lit by a lamp of some sort... the blue is standing out... given the nature of the book, being mono, making this mono may help that.
 
Thanks John. I did try B&W, but it didn't look right to me. I had no control over the light, so had to make do with what was there - the blue is actually ambient light coming through a window (the glass is mirrored on the outside, fancy office building) and the above lighting is from the awful strip-lights.
 
Hi Vicky,

Welcome but where are the other 24 week's worth of photos :LOL:

As said above it doesn't suggest moody at all without the explanation. That said the exposure is good as is the use of DoF although again I'd agree that it just needs to be a tad higher.
 
Hi Vicky, welcome to the 52!!:)

As others have said it def needs an explanation with it but many of ours have also needed explanations as well!:)

You've done well with the natural lighting and I'm also a fan of shallow depth of field!:)
 
Thanks everyone - I think we're all in agreement, which must mean we're all right :)

I'm having a think about the previous 24 themes - I'll have a go at any where I have a good idea. So far I'm not inspired (at least - not inspired with anything I can actually do, unless someone knows how to get Tom Hardy to pop round and model for me).
 
Hi Vicky

Moody - Only a tiny bit off... I'm liking the concept, and the narrow dof is nice - not a bad shot for the first one up with no lead time (y)

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your 52, hoping you find some insperation and also have fun and enjoy giving as well as receiving C+C

P.S - DAMN that image is big... I have my settings to no re-sizing :D

Just so you know - In these threads we tend to put up images with longest edge of 1024 :)
 
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Having seen your post yesterday... I too heard about Moody's on the radio this morning... spooky indeed.
 
superpippo said:
Who's he then? :thinking:
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He's an actor. A very good, particularly handsome actor. The guy playing Bane in the new Dark Knight movie, if you want specifics, but he was also in Inception (Eames) and L4yer Cake (Clarkie).

And I'm going to stop right there because I could literally talk about him all day!

It's totally spooky that Moody's are now all over the news... hmmm, maybe my pictures will tell the future? I shot some coloured pencils this morning, let me know if that comes up anywhere...!
 
While working from home today I've managed to have a couple more ideas:

Handmade

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Abstract

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I'd really like some C&C on this one - I love the idea, but something in the PP just isn't right, and no amount of staring and fiddling has yet allowed the problem to dawn on me. Any ideas?
 
Just one more? Oh go on then...

Soft

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Pretty obvious link to the theme I think, though for me it's not just that she's soft, it's also the song "Soft Kitty" - Big Bang Theory fans will know exactly what I mean :)

Not a new subject for me by any means - checking LR I've taken exactly 1001 photos of her since 27th December last year. Shocking really!
 
Handmade - really good colours and good focus and the angle of the pencils helps a lot

Abstract - clever idea and well executed I think with the glass jumping out of the background. I'm not sure why you are querying it.

Soft - well on theme and lovely colours again. Not sure whether it would be better with the ears not so cropped, but then you might lose some foreground which I think adds to the composition.
 
superpippo said:
Handmade - really good colours and good focus and the angle of the pencils helps a lot

Abstract - clever idea and well executed I think with the glass jumping out of the background. I'm not sure why you are querying it.

Soft - well on theme and lovely colours again. Not sure whether it would be better with the ears not so cropped, but then you might lose some foreground which I think adds to the composition.
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Thanks Alan :) I'm glad you like the angle on the pencils, I spent a while tipping my head from side to side fiddling with that - Marie (the cat) was looking at me like I'd gone barmy...!

With the glass, I guess something just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure why I'm querying it either really, some odd "off" feeling I get from it.

I did try some shots with the ears fully in shot - i.e. the camera pointed more to the right - but then the overall composition looked off, I think her head needs to be off-centre. I was shooting with a prime on the floor with my back up against the desk so couldn't zoom out and further to incorporate both.

I'm pleased you've commented on things I was thinking about - it means whether my decisions were "right" or "wrong", my head's in the right place! Thanks for taking a look :)
 
superpippo said:
Also like your website - some good stuff on there. You do seem to have a way with colour.

Had a quick look at the Bruges shots and they are very good. (y)
Of course you may realise that i was drawn to it by the Brugse Zot :D
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Aw, thank you! The website is very new and I'm not overly pleased with it to be honest... the content is OK but I think it needs a more "punchy" style.

Bruges is my absolute favourite place in the whole world. The Zot is excellent (the only beer still brewed in Bruges) but there's so very many to choose from. Judging from your liking of beer, you'd probably love Cambrinus - their beer menu is literally a couple of hundred pages long. And colour coded. Oh how I wish I were in Bruges...! TP trip to Bruges, anyone?? :D

I think I worked out what was missing from Abstract, too - sunshine... might have a re-do on that one already, perhaps I should hold fire on posting so fast? (This is what a day at home and a new project does to me!)
 
superpippo said:
Nice lighting, nice detail of the drips at the top of the glass and a small starburst. Still like the way that it jumps out at the viewer.

But is that you in the top right hand corner?
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The brown thing in the top right of the glass? Nope, that's the shed... there's a vague reflection of me top-centre of the water (the slight dark part is my black clothes, the lighter bits either side are my heavily distorted arms) and possibly in the stem, but nothing clear enough to stop me posting it :)
 
Hi Vicky

Handmade - Great colours there, like the diagonal angle, white background and the dof looks good for the shot

Abstract - I'm liking that too, it stands out really well, and I like how the sky is shown in the reflection but not in the main shot

Soft - Awwweee bless.. she has some lovely markings :)

Good to see you getting some back shots in already !!!!
 
Re-shoot - Very nice indeed... minor points but the base is not square on in this one, and I preferred not seeing as much sky other than the reflection in the original shot

But loving the brightness of this one, the starburst is a good touch and a cracking sky in the glass - Much nicer shot I think (y)
 
hi Vicky sorry but seem to have missed you love the cat photo bit less carpet maybe :shrug: and the reshoot of the glass is so much better than the first excellent work :clap:
 
Thanks everyone! I'm off to Wales this weekend so will see what I can do there... excited for this week's theme!

DK, I might have a go at squaring off that base, if I get a chance before we head off.
 
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