weekly Elaine's 52 for 2015 - Christmas added - finished!

Oh well, onwards and upwards. Two ideas this week for Inverted.

#1 had me standing by the side of the pond for about half an hour trying to catch one in the perfect position and I'm sure passersby must have thought I had a fetish for duck's bums :p I did learn something though. When I'm taking more "normal" duck shots, It helps to crouch as low as possible, but for this one, a higher viewpoint caught more of the leg action :D

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#2 Noticed this whilst brushing my teeth and thought "now there's an idea" - my reflection in the bathroom mirror reflected and inverted in the tap. I started off with a really tight focus on my face, but the taps just looked a mess, so I ended up going for a much wider dof. What I mostly learned from this one was that the taps hadn't quite been installed parallel to the wall and the washbasin and that leaning over the washbasin whilst standing on a tiny stepstool to get more body length in the reflection is best done when the bathroom floor hasn't got slippery spray residue on it from shining the taps :eek:

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Hi Elaine, sorry it has been so long since I looked in here :(

In no particular order

Inverse - love the duck's bum shot and definitely worth the wait, the orange of the legs really stands out :clap:, the second shot is just a bit ordinary for me (and after you risked life and limb to take it;))

Despair - well captured given the difficult lighting conditions found in most Spanish churches (y) and Di Spare is just a hoot ( and risking life and limb again, well hubby's life and limbs :p)

Envy - the selective colouring works really well here and my only crit (the white of the eye) has already been covered. Fabulous detail in the iris :clap::clap:
 
Hi Elaine, definitely the duck for me well done for getting the shot you wanted they don't play nice those ducks
 
Ha ha - the duck's bottom made me laugh. Bet not many thought of a duck's nether regions when considering this week's theme, so well done you :clap:. The shot is nicely exposed .... from all perspectives :D
 
Like the ducks bum ... what good thinking for the theme. (y)

As for reflections in things like taps, I'm forever fascinated, how sad is that?
 
XenosElaine said:
Thanks for the suggestion Brian, but the problem is that the finished shot is only about 6% of the area of the sooc, so I don't think I'd have any chance of getting the cropping exactly the same the second time around to get them to fit together :(
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layer them first and crop after. :whistle:
 
The Duck (y) - if you squint - looks like Elvis. Don't ask me how I saw that... :wacky:

The Taps, bang on theme and good write up! - Just a thought, I wonder what it would look like if you rotated it 180° so that you were the right way up and the taps were upside down???
 
Despair: 1 is very good, emotion captured on the crucifix, excellent. 2 made me chuckle nice play on words
Noise: great fun, photo
Envy: Echo what others have said about the white, great idea and the eye detail and processing is awesome, very hulk'esque
Inverted: The duck is the image for me, very original idea, very fun and perfectly exposed, nicely done. Again your second image is fantastic and original but not quite got the appeal and humour of the first.
 
Hi Elaine :)

Envy - Nicely done, and selective colour that works for me too, the darkened second shot sure helps the image look less spooky :)

Inverse - Although the taps is a good idea, and does fit the theme, the Arse shot does it for me !! :D

Sounds like you had fun taking the duck images too, sure is good to have time to play about with PoV and settings at times :)
 
Catch up time! Been up against it the last few weeks. First I lost the internet connection to the main pc and before the necessary part arrived Mike had to go into hospital for a hip replacement - the inevitable consequence of playing rugby long after he should have known better and hung up his boots :mad: So I was running back and to the hospital for a few days and then when he came out I was on fulltime carer/nurse/slave duty for the next week. Anyway, he's starting to recover now and has been able to stand up for long enough to fit the internet gizmo, so I'm back online and yesterday I made a break for freedom and left him alone for a couple of hours whilst I went out for a little walk around the park :exit:

Week 42 Shimmer - I wasn't sure whether the brooch was more glittery than shimmery so I used a very shallow dof to get more of a shimmer to the far side. I came across the feather in the back of a cupboard a few weeks ago, it's leftover from the hat I wore to my daughter's wedding and I decided to keep it as a memento. Extra shimmer was added with the help of a bit of hair shine serum!

#1
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#2
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Week 43 Elements - This was done in a bit of a rush between slave duties and I know it's not straight or sharp enough, but it was close enough in the circumstances :rolleyes: Fire and water are self-evident, the flower represents earth and the empty one is full of air :p

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Week 44 Seasonal - I was so excited to be outside that I took loads of seasonal mists and mellow fruitfulness-type shots! Narrowed it down to these four in the end.

#1
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#2
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#3
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#4
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Hi Elaine. Bet being cooped up at home made you feel like you were in a ruck.... I mean rut.

Both Shimmers work but I think #2 works best for me with it's glossy coating of hair serum (very inventive).
Elements: Nicely thought out - like the take on air i.e. nothing ha ha.
Seasonal: #2 & #4 top of my list ... probably #2 edging it for me with the vivid red & green combo (simple is always best to my mind .... wonder why that is? - answers not required or necessary).

Great to see you back. Hope Mike has a speedy recovery.
 
Hi Elaine ..hope hubby continues with a good recovery. when mine had a new knee a friend gave him a bell to summons me :runaway:not a good idea :)

Well done with your catch up, I think the shiny feather wins for Shimmer, great idea with the spray. It's all there in Elements and some smashing shots for Seasonal, number two is the winner for me out of those...a really smashing shot.
 
Nice catch up Elaine (y)
I really like the colours of the berries and fronds in #2. they certainly compliment each other,
The muted Autumn reflections in #4 is my favourite though.
 
Good job on the catch up. :clap: Wishing your hubby a quick recovery.


Shimmer; prefer the feather shot and the composition works well with the spin of the feather running from bottom left corner to you right. I like it.

Element; on theme at least and sometimes you just have to take a shot and move on to the next.

Seasonal; of the four prefer the berries and also #4 without the sky reflection and less of the floating objects.
 
Hi Elaine.
Shimmer - #1 for me (althugh I agree, it's possibly glitter). Nothing wrong with #2, but #1 is more interesting.
Elements - Nice imagery. The halo around the flame make the shot. Nothing wrong with a bit of soft focus in a shot like that.
Seasonal - All good shots there. The berries on the coniferous tree (#2) is my favourite. The Red & Green complimenting each other.
 
Thanks for all the comments and the good wishes for Mike. He's starting to shuffle around a bit more on his crutches now, although all the wet weather and falling leaves we've had this week aren't really conducive to going outdoors so he's a bit like a caged animal at the moment shuffling backwards and forwards across the living room and up and down the stairs! I'm hoping to have a little bit more free time next week as he's starting to do more for himself, so I'll try and get some feedback done on everyone else's photos.

Week 45 Full (House) - managed to squeeze this one in whilst he was having his afternoon nap! It brought back memories of my misspent youth, although the stakes were somewhat lower in those days! Card games nowadays are mostly confined to Pontoon and Whist with the grandson, but at 10 and a half I think it's high time he learned the basic rules of Poker, so I've decided that's going to be my mission next time he comes to stay :naughty:

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Hi Elaine. Excellent response for the theme. I used to dream of getting a card hand like that in the good old bad old days. Kids craved games of Newmarket - such good family fun.
 
Well interpreted Elaine.
Nicely composed and taken as well (y)
 
Hi Elaine

Nice catchup, the berries in the tree #2 is glorious like a breath of fresh air. (y) ... And Full House is clever stuff, you've been doing your nails again. :D
 
Hey Elaine :)

Great catch up !!!!

I like the broach shot, feel it could do with a deeper DoF maybe, but there again you may lose the shimmer :)

The feather - liking the curve and can agree the shimmering highlights of the finest edges :)

Elements - Nice idea, not liking the haphazard crop, but all the elements are there for sure :)

Seasonal - Feel it could do with being sharper and with more detail... but still Nice shallow DoF, and good autumn colour :)

#3 has so,me great colours & #4 some great reflections (and again nice autumnal colours.

Full - Ahhhh good idea, well set-up and good clean colours too, like it (y)
 
Blimey, you poor thing, and the weather isn't helping I bet. Well done on your catch up. Great idea using the brooch but I too prefer the feather, complete with serum :) what a great idea. Seasonal and my fave is #1, the colour of that leaf against the background gives no doubt that it is autumn.

Full, you beat me too it you b#gger :p I'd like to see a greater DoF though as at least one of the cards is slightly oof.
 
Hi Elaine,

Sorry for leaving it so long since last commenting :(
Catching up on the last few...

Inverted: I like the duck shot. Very sharp and colourful and spot on for the theme.
Shimmer: I like both shots but I think I prefer the second because it's a different take on the theme.
Elements: Good idea. Clever thinking behind that one (y)
Seasonal: All good shots but I think No.2 has the edge for me. A nice, crisp and colourful shot.
Full: Cracking photo. Works so, so well :clap:
 
Carl Ayling said:
Hi Elaine. Excellent response for the theme. I used to dream of getting a card hand like that in the good old bad old days. Kids craved games of Newmarket - such good family fun.
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Thanks Carl. Hmmm, Newmarket rings bells from my childhood, I'll have to look that one up!

Cobra said:
Well interpreted Elaine.
Nicely composed and taken as well (y)
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Thanks Cobra :)

d00d said:
Hi Elaine

Nice catchup, the berries in the tree #2 is glorious like a breath of fresh air. (y) ... And Full House is clever stuff, you've been doing your nails again. :D
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Cheers d00d for the comments and for noticing I'd done my nails specially for the shot :D
 
rpn said:
Excellent idea for the theme. Like the matching colour nails and the alternating colours of the cards.
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Thanks Stan, I've got literally dozens of bottles of nail polish, so finding a good match was the easiest part :)

Dark Knight said:
Hey Elaine :)

Great catch up !!!!

I like the broach shot, feel it could do with a deeper DoF maybe, but there again you may lose the shimmer :)

The feather - liking the curve and can agree the shimmering highlights of the finest edges :)

Elements - Nice idea, not liking the haphazard crop, but all the elements are there for sure :)

Seasonal - Feel it could do with being sharper and with more detail... but still Nice shallow DoF, and good autumn colour :)

#3 has so,me great colours & #4 some great reflections (and again nice autumnal colours.

Full - Ahhhh good idea, well set-up and good clean colours too, like it (y)
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Thanks Dean. Totally agree about Elements - it was just one of those done in a hurry ones that I really couldn't be bothered (or had time!) to faff around with :oops: :$

Bruja said:
Blimey, you poor thing, and the weather isn't helping I bet. Well done on your catch up. Great idea using the brooch but I too prefer the feather, complete with serum :) what a great idea. Seasonal and my fave is #1, the colour of that leaf against the background gives no doubt that it is autumn.

Full, you beat me too it you b#gger :p I'd like to see a greater DoF though as at least one of the cards is slightly oof.
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Cheers Jill. Like I said on your thread, the cards were second choice after I'd dismissed beans because I couldn't find anything suitable to put them in :D

posiview said:
I do like a good game of poker :)

Good lighting and composition.

The cards look a little OOF and I'd like your hand to be in focus or more out of focus.

Cheers.
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Cheers Andy :)
 
LC2 said:
Like the full house shot. The use of the OOF hand as a leading line across the cards to the dosh works nicely.
:clap:
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alsjazzera said:
Hi, nice idea and well put together with the cash being a nice touch (y)
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susiejb said:
Hi Elaine ...what a smashing shot for the theme ...very eye catching I really like it , very well done :clap::clap:
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Leebert said:
Hi Elaine,

Sorry for leaving it so long since last commenting :(
Catching up on the last few...

Inverted: I like the duck shot. Very sharp and colourful and spot on for the theme.
Shimmer: I like both shots but I think I prefer the second because it's a different take on the theme.
Elements: Good idea. Clever thinking behind that one (y)
Seasonal: All good shots but I think No.2 has the edge for me. A nice, crisp and colourful shot.
Full: Cracking photo. Works so, so well :clap:
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Thanks everyone. What nobody seems to have noticed about the pile of dosh is that only 3 of the notes are £s, because that's all we had between us :( The ones further down the pile are all Euros leftover from holiday :oops: :$
 
Week 46 - Habit

I'm not really happy with this one, but after spending far too much time on it, it will have to do :( Decided to make use of one of Mike's used syringes from the anticoagulant he's had to inject after his op. Slight problem in that the syringes have an automatic safety mechanism that locks away the needle after use, so I had to position a (slightly too thick) sewing needle in the tube because I didn't want to contaminate an unused one. It's flour in the baggie btw :p Focus is supposed to be on the tip of the needle and I was aiming for a slightly hazy oof feel to everything else to fit the subject. I'm not keen on the shadows, but they were a side effect of where I had to position the light to highlight the needle point.

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XenosElaine said:
It's flour in the baggie btw :p
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We aren't here to judge you Elaine :D

Nice gritty image, as you said, shame about the substitute needle, but none the less........ (y)
 
Hey Elaine :)

Not so sure on the positioning of the 4 elements, looks a bit too organised for a junkie, maybe on a carpet with dirty socks or something :D

The focus/light works well on the needle tip, and a good selection of items, the spoon looks particularly good and worn (y)
 
Hi Elaine. I like the partial take of all four elements and the grainy surface you have placed them on. b&w of course is the only choice for this subject. Like it.
 
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