weekly SSU's TP52 for 2015

I did try but there is a folded-up push-chair there with a plastic cover and a very naff one at that so I had to crop it out along with that bit of shelf but I know what you mean.
 
I initially thought that you had missed focus but when I looked at the image full screen, it was fine. . I keep getting drawn to the left hand side where the door is. Might be better to lose that part if the image. Good start to the challenge.
 
Yes, Plumtree, it does seem a little soft. It was a quick snap on the move so that might have something to do with it.
 
I think symmetry works better with a picture like that and then it doesn't matter if you crop both corners of the shelf. It looks a little soft on my screen but that could just be my screen o_O Good start to the 52 and certainly Bliss for me is wandering around a second hand bookshop, especially if there is a cafe in there too (y)
 
Nice idea maybe a touch too busy
 
Hi Martin... plenty going on in that shot ;)

WB and exposure are both a bit off for me (I'd like it brighter and lighter) but it's well captured. Unsure about the wide angle distortion... part of me wants it corrected, part thinks it adds to the shot. Overall it's good but I'd really like one book to jump out at me as a principal subject?
 
I like this one. Maybe a shuffle to the left to cut out the door and centralise that table with all the books on it. Might be a disappearing breed what with all these e-readers about these days!
 
A bit naff this one but everyone has already produced at least one version of the other ideas I had and I like to keep things original. This is a heavily messed-about-with picture of a real parcel that belongs to someone, I hope the contents weren't damaged. No, I didn't damage it just to get a photograph, it arrived in the depot like that. :eek:

Fragile%20(2%20of%203).jpg
 
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I quite like that. Not much to it, but I like minimal. Nice creases and B&W works well. I might like to see a 90 degrees CW rotation.

Cheers.
 
I like it, it looks like most of the parcels I receive :D
 
Hahahahaha, looks like a lot of the stuff that manages to make its way to Spain, heaven knows what they do to them. lovely simple shot that works really well (y) Keep 'em coming....
 
posiview said:
I quite like that. Not much to it, but I like minimal. Nice creases and B&W works well. I might like to see a 90 degrees CW rotation.

Cheers.
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Unedited it is even more minimal, I honestly didn't think I would be able to make it remotely interesting (and I haven't :) ).

Pinkbikerbabe said:
:agree: With the above works for the theme.
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Thanks PBB

RaglanSurf said:
I like it, it looks like most of the parcels I receive :D
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I work in the parcels industry and I'm pleased to say that most don't look like this; some look a lot worse!

Bruja said:
Hahahahaha, looks like a lot of the stuff that manages to make its way to Spain, heaven knows what they do to them. lovely simple shot that works really well (y) Keep 'em coming....
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We have a special group that mangles parcels to Spain :) (Not really)
 
Hi
Bliss
Like your idea, different. would like to lose door to the left. Could spend all day browsing in there :) not easy to get pic in public space...someone/something usually gets in way!
 
Hi Martin
Fascinating places aren't they old book shops... I remember going to..... Errr where was it Hay on Wye? is that the old bookshop capital of the UK? Anyhow couldnt get away from the place.
Bliss... Love the myriad of colour, always difficult to know what to crop and if you should leave the door in or not, In the case if you had you would have also lost the LH corner of the table, so with that in mind would have probably tried to widen the shot to pick up the RH corner to (if it were possible, as i know how tucked away these places can be) . Maybe a tad under, especially on the RH side, but no big deal.... I think actually a bit under gives that feel of.... excuse the expression "a pokey little bookshop" i can imagine it being down the end of one of those poorly lit dingy arcades. Quite a nice one for the theme i think!

Fragile.... Great minds think alike, gazumped on this idea but like you i like to have an original idea:( so went ot plan B then C then......
This came to mind after receiving something fragile that pretty much look a hundred times worse than this! :rolleyes:
Anyhow, like the image.... nicely crumpled box! suitably "Courier-ised" i like the B&W conversion and the vignetting gives the impression of still in the back of the van ready to be turfed out!

Well done nice images....

BTW Martin, I see you have bought a D810... How are you getting on with it, I'm currently saving up for one at the moment so just wondering how it handles...

Cheers

Steve
 
Fragile... works well for me, Martin. I really like your processing, which has an almost "night vision" look about it - I think the strong vignette works really well here even though I'm not usually a massive fan.

Great job!
 
As an image it is relevant to me because I was there this morning in the cold and with my dog up on the misty moors. However, I don't think it makes a particularly interesting picture to the casual observer. Click on image for full size.



Scenic%20(1%20of%201).jpg

 
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Nice shot Martin - there is a lot of details when you view the full size image. I like the texture of the road. Looks like it would have been a nippy walk!
 
Hi Martin, nice shot. I like the way the path leads you into the scene, I'm finding myself wondering what's around the corner
 
Hi, sorry for not getting here sooner, that looks quite a bleak place I am intrigued as to what it is, looks like some kind of industrial dumping ground.
I would like to have seen a wider view though
 
Hi, scenic. I wasn't sure I'd like it when first viewed. It has a cold, industrial, battle field feeling to it. Pity a bout the con tails.

I like the narrative and quite like the photograph.

Cheers.
 
Mich56 said:
Nice shot Martin - there is a lot of details when you view the full size image. I like the texture of the road. Looks like it would have been a nippy walk!
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Not too bad if one kept moving, plus the sun was out and I was quite warm.

Dem55 said:
Hi Martin, nice shot. I like the way the path leads you into the scene, I'm finding myself wondering what's around the corner
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A moor covered with end-of-season, dead bracken and a view across the valleys to Dartmoor.

alsjazzera said:
Hi, sorry for not getting here sooner, that looks quite a bleak place I am intrigued as to what it is, looks like some kind of industrial dumping ground.
I would like to have seen a wider view though
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It was taken with my little Fuji X20 and that was as wide as it would go I'm afraid. Where I am is at some old mineworkings on Caradon Hill in Cornwall. The whole hill is riddled with holes and shafts and rubble mounds are quite common. There are many old engine and pump houses scattered around and in it's heyday the hill employed over 3000 mineworkers; I actually live in one of the miners cottages. They mined tin, copper, arsenic (a by product of one of the processes) and I believe a certain amount of zinc. After the bottom fell out of the ore market in the late 1890's many of the miners went abroad, especially America.

posiview said:
Hi, scenic. I wasn't sure I'd like it when first viewed. It has a cold, industrial, battle field feeling to it. Pity a bout the con tails.

I like the narrative and quite like the photograph.

Cheers.
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I'm afraid I took the photograph initially to deliberately include the contrails but I can see it might be improved without them.
 
Brrr, looks very chilly..... I don't mind the contrails but I think there is a bit too much sky for my taste. It's probably just me though as I find a lot of landscapes look better with a more letter box style crop, so just ignore me :coat: :exit::p
 
Quite an interesting shot really compares to this week's norms. I find the whole image contrasting in that I mean there's the coldness (snow covered) path and the distant hill to the brown (warm) colour of the soil mount on the left. The (ex)industrial waste, where the shot was taken to the natural scenic view of Dartmoor just beyond the end of the path.
 
Hi Martin... I like that and don't mind the contrails or lack of obvious "foreground" at all. The only thing I'd do is crop some of the sky out... so that the contrails reach the top (or nearly) of the frame and are a natural mirror of the path below. Positionally, you've got them perfectly aligned so make more of them!

The scene does make it look like the horizon is sloping a bit, but I'm sure it's not. I think this image really benefits from high contrast and saturation too, although I might knock down the sky a touch to bring out the colours in the waste ground a bit more.
 
pjm1 said:
Hi Martin... I like that and don't mind the contrails or lack of obvious "foreground" at all. The only thing I'd do is crop some of the sky out... so that the contrails reach the top (or nearly) of the frame and are a natural mirror of the path below. Positionally, you've got them perfectly aligned so make more of them!

The scene does make it look like the horizon is sloping a bit, but I'm sure it's not. I think this image really benefits from high contrast and saturation too, although I might knock down the sky a touch to bring out the colours in the waste ground a bit more.
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I've just had a quick look with some of the sky cropped out and I see what you mean, by coincidence the contrails are a very close approximation of the angles on the path; I'll look for things like this next time.

The actual horizon can be seen on the right about 2/5 of the way up the picture and is Dartmoor in the distance, the reason for the general slope on the scene is well, it actually slopes. The path is part of an old mine railway track and site on the side of a hill. Behind me, some 300 yds away, is the engine house to where the track leads.

Caradon Hill is a fascinating place and is full of potential for all sorts of photographs, I expect I shall make more use of it as the challenge goes on.

Thanks all for your comments, people, most encouraging.
 
Companions

This is an archive image which was taken in 1988, one year after my now wife and I met. We lived in The Netherlands in a converted barn with five bedrooms, a huge living room and a bar; this was taken in the bar after we decided to get dressed in a sleazy, jazz-basement way and take some pictures. Most of the images did not turn out very well and this was the best of them. A B&W negative, it has been scanned in quickly (some years ago) and I have just tidied it up a bit to get rid of the dust spots. It's a shame that my wifes hand appears to be missing but it is unrecoverable from the negative.

We have been companions since 1987 and are currently in our 28th year together.

KarenMartinHolland%20%281%20of%201%29.jpg


Edited to stop the hand looking less like an amputation.
+
 
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I suppose if I hadn't mentioned it :(....ah well. I can't do anything I'm afraid apart from drawing a hand (yeah, right!) and putting it in, the information just isn't in the original picture. I didn't adhere to the maxim 'expose for the shadows'. I have tried cropping it oput but then I have to remove the bottom of the arm which looks even worse.
 
I love the old feel to this, rather like something from Casablanca etc. :)
As an after thought, maybe "burn" the rest of the hand in P/s in degree's so it fades into the blackness,
rather than just ends?
 
Cobra said:
I love the old feel to this, rather like something from Casablanca etc. :)
As an after thought, maybe "burn" the rest of the hand in P/s in degree's so it fades into the blackness,
rather than just ends?
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I'll try that tonight.

Edit: Done that and it now looks a little better in that the hand does not look like an amputation, more a shadow covering...and I think that's as good as it's going to get.
 
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Hi, the hand looks better in the edited submission. Plenty of stories one could attribute to the photograph, which I like. The gritty B&W processing works well, but my eye is drawn to the bright plant in the BG.

I like your eye contact with your wife and the distant look in her eyes.

Cheers.
 
Hi Martin,

really like the concept - I would have liked to have seen a little more light on both of your facial expressions, shadows and darkness all around, but the two faces picked out more. I appreciate another commentator's comment about your wife's hand (my wife's hand would be clutching a dagger, but that's another story..). I have to say though, It's easy for me to give crit, but that is a very well put together piece, I may be able to see - from my point of view and taste - how I'd like to have seen it done 'better', but I doubt that I would have managed to better it myself. Look at my pictures and you'll see what I mean!

Cheers,

Karl
 
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