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

Machine - Love the idea. Cropped a little too much at the bottom but the addition of the glasses is a nice touch.

Alphabet - Another good one. I like the fact that the sauce has covered on whole of the plate.

Sound - Another use of creative thinking to come up with the image. I could work out whether I’d have preferred the hand to be sharper but obviously the blur matches the movement of the clap
 
Machine - Love the idea. Cropped a little too much at the bottom but the addition of the glasses is a nice touch.

Alphabet - Another good one. I like the fact that the sauce has covered on whole of the plate.

Sound - Another use of creative thinking to come up with the image. I could work out whether I’d have preferred the hand to be sharper but obviously the blur matches the movement of the clap
Thanks Peter :)
 
Week 16 - Experiment

When I saw this last night, I immediately set up two different experiments - growing seeds down the side of a glass and putting a white flower in dyed water to change its colour. However, since I haven't done either since I was at primary school, I can't remember how long it takes for them to work - IF they work. So in search of more instant gratification, this morning I've been trawling Scientific Experiments for Kids websites and came up with How to Make Your Own Rainbow. It has just about everything I hate shooting - water, glass, reflections, shadows and the sun directly in front of me - so as well as being an experiment with light, it's also been a kind of experiment to test my patience and pp skills :banghead:

I experimented with different glasses and different water levels before I came up with a combination that looked a bit scientific. Then flipped the image vertically to put the rainbow at the top, fiddled with the colours and contrast and cleaned up the background and this is the result. The rainbow could do with being a bit stronger, but I've done my best without resorting to actually painting it in.

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If the other two experiments work, I'll maybe have more images to post at some indeterminate time in the future :rolleyes:
 
Looks good to me Elaine and it is what we were asked for, an experiment, well done with at one, patience is a virtue at times with this hobby isn't it. We've had such awkward themes lately your other choices will probably fit one soon! I've bought my 'props' today but we have the grandsons for the weekend, so no hope of any peace and quiet :)
 
Nice shot Elaine - and a great idea - as Susie says, the themes have been a bit tough recently, but I suppose it wouldn't be a challenge if they weren't. Hope your other two experiments work out :)
 
What a beautiful abstract Elaine. At first glance it's really not obvious what it is but your explanation adds insight and helps understand what's going on.

I love the choice of composition and the colours and curves in the shot. I also think it's great that you learned how to make a rainbow! I like the way it's slightly faded too. Doesn't need any "more" tweaking.
 
Great work there Elaine
Was really unsure what i was looking at nice explanation as said above its tweaked to perfection for me too.
 
Hi Elaine

Sound......had to read you words before I understood the image....clever interpretation indeed....but not for me I'm afraid.......

Experiment.....now that I like , very cleverly set up & well shot...keep going back to it & have decided it would look good printed on acrylic :clap:
 
.........If the other two experiments work, I'll maybe have more images to post at some indeterminate time in the future :rolleyes:
Glad I didn't hold my breath! The flower is still as white as when it started - although now extremely wilted - and the seeds show absolutely no signs of growing - suppose you could say they were Failed Experiments :(
 
Looks good to me Elaine and it is what we were asked for, an experiment, well done with at one, patience is a virtue at times with this hobby isn't it. We've had such awkward themes lately your other choices will probably fit one soon! I've bought my 'props' today but we have the grandsons for the weekend, so no hope of any peace and quiet :)

Nice shot Elaine - and a great idea - as Susie says, the themes have been a bit tough recently, but I suppose it wouldn't be a challenge if they weren't. Hope your other two experiments work out :)
Thanks Susie and Lorraine. As you both say, recent themes have certainly been quite challenging, but I'm glad I went with my Plan B.
 
What a beautiful abstract Elaine. At first glance it's really not obvious what it is but your explanation adds insight and helps understand what's going on.

I love the choice of composition and the colours and curves in the shot. I also think it's great that you learned how to make a rainbow! I like the way it's slightly faded too. Doesn't need any "more" tweaking.

Great work there Elaine
Was really unsure what i was looking at nice explanation as said above its tweaked to perfection for me too.
Thanks Ian and Simon. I knew as soon as I looked at the finished result that it was pretty obscure, but I'm glad my explanation helped you get the idea.
 
Hmmm interesting. Well done.

Hi Elaine

Sound......had to read you words before I understood the image....clever interpretation indeed....but not for me I'm afraid.......

Experiment.....now that I like , very cleverly set up & well shot...keep going back to it & have decided it would look good printed on acrylic :clap:
Thanks d00d and Lynne, glad you both like it.
 
Wow, that's an interesting image and the explanation shows how much work and experimentation went into it. :clap::clap:

I too Googled kids experiments and nearly went for making a volcano but after knocking over all my water glasses for the carnation rainbow I decided I'd made enough mess for one day :eek:
 
Wow, that's an interesting image and the explanation shows how much work and experimentation went into it. :clap::clap:
Thanks Jill.

I too Googled kids experiments and nearly went for making a volcano but after knocking over all my water glasses for the carnation rainbow I decided I'd made enough mess for one day :eek:
Having made a volcano with my grandson a couple of years ago, I think you made a wise decision :D
 
I like your Experiment shot. It's rather captivating. (But thanks for the explanation!)
 
Week 17 - Heat

I didn't have to think about this for very long! I love hot spicy food so this was a natural choice :)

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Hi, plenty of heat in there, is the BG added afterwards there is a bit of cutting in around the chillis
 
Hi Elaine, love your idea :) the bg is a bit iffy above the ginger pot but the main niggle for me is the reflections dominating the shot. I think you could have done with a bit of black card to the right :)
 
Hi, plenty of heat in there, is the BG added afterwards there is a bit of cutting in around the chillis
Haha, yes the bg is 100% painted in! That's one of the main things I've been trying to practise and improve on since I started doing 52s last year. Before that most of my photographs were outdoorsy ones, so I've been forcing myself towards more studio-type shots that need more precise and complex pp work - but I see I've not quite got it off pat yet :oops: :$
 
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Hi Elaine, love your idea :) the bg is a bit iffy above the ginger pot but the main niggle for me is the reflections dominating the shot. I think you could have done with a bit of black card to the right :)
Oh, that's annoying, I thought I'd got rid of most of the smudges in the bg :rolleyes: To be perfectly honest, the marks you mention are completely invisible to me when looking at the monitor at my usual directly-ahead angle and I had to stand up and look down at an angle of about 45° to be able to see them. That angle also made some of the colours look very pale and over-emphasised the reflections on the glass jars, which I'd actually pumped up slightly in pp because it looked a bit flat to me! Maybe we view our monitors at different angles, or mine has the brightness turned down slightly lower than yours?

Anyway, I think I've now got rid of all the smudges above the ginger jar and also tried to clean up the edges of the peppers that Allan mentioned and this is the result. I've changed the link on the main photo-only thread to this one, but have left the original in post #258 for comparison purposes.

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Hi Elaine.

Heat....I thought chillies too, but by the time I got around to getting anything done there were already a few here, so I had a rethink.
Great choice of colour for your background.
 
Hi Elaine, good idea for the theme, great that you've added th bg in pp - I might try that myself as I do struggle with backgrounds
 
Good idea Elaine.

I saw this a couple of days ago ... tried a couple of completely different ideas for my entry, and have now ended up doing something along the lines of this.

Your FG-fading-BG is a neat idea for the theme.
 
The edit is much better Elaine as it's got rid of the little niggles ;) Spot on for theme but I wonder where you get your props from as spicy stuff is very difficult to get hold of here in Spain :( Great idea (y)
 
Hi Elaine ....I love spicy food too ...delicious :) Great idea and a really neat and tidy composition, background is the perfect choice of colour, it looks really effective for the theme. Well done for painting it in, I think it looks smashing in the edit.

Hi Elaine.

Heat....I thought chillies too, but by the time I got around to getting anything done there were already a few here, so I had a rethink.
Great choice of colour for your background.

Hi Elaine, good idea for the theme, great that you've added th bg in pp - I might try that myself as I do struggle with backgrounds

Good idea Elaine.

I saw this a couple of days ago ... tried a couple of completely different ideas for my entry, and have now ended up doing something along the lines of this.

Your FG-fading-BG is a neat idea for the theme.

Thanks for the comments. To be honest, painting and lighting the BGs in pp seems to be the only way I can make most of them look half decent, so it's something I'm trying hard to practise at the moment.
 
The edit is much better Elaine as it's got rid of the little niggles ;) Spot on for theme but I wonder where you get your props from as spicy stuff is very difficult to get hold of here in Spain :( Great idea (y)
Thanks Jill. I saw the little pack of fresh chillies when I was doing my weekly shop and thought they would fit well with the theme and the jars were just stuff that I've always got in my spice cupboard - spicy food is very popular in the UK and they are available at most supermarkets!
 
Hi Elaine.
Great shot for "Heat". Very nicely executed, great lighting, nicely in focus. :clap:
Thanks for looking and commenting Tim.
 
Week 18 - Figures

I think I must have got Bank Holiday fever this weekend, because I've gone a bit snap happy and seem to have gone for quantity over quality :oops: :$

#1 Stone Figures. It's a statuette that my s-i-l bought when my daughter got pregnant and I've always liked it, so when I went to visit over the weekend I thought that this week's theme was a good excuse for a photo!


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#2 Extremely Precise Figures. We went to a local May Day fair where there was a classic car display and this number plate caught my eye :)

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#3 Low Figures. Took my camera into Asda, but was a bit nervous of being asked to stop taking photos, so this one's a bit rushed, but it's got the kind of figures I was looking for.

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#4 Sporting Figures. A shop front in my local shopping centre.

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All figures but the last one appeals to me the most. I suppose it's a bit plagiarised since someone else has (obviously) already done it but hey ho. Well spotted.
 
Thanks Martin. Not quite sure what you mean by plagiarised - I certainly didn't intend it to look as if I was trying to pass off the graphics as being my own work, or are you suggesting that we should only photograph subjects that we've created ourselves? Confused :confused:
 
Hi Elaine, the number plate made me LOL, well spotted, and I especially like the first picture of the statue with its crisp background. (y)

Did you plagiarise that too ;)
 
Hi Elaine, the number plate made me LOL.......
..... Well spotted with the number plate......
Thanks for the comments. I was originally attracted to the cars by a couple of old RR Silver Shadows, because I thought that the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet statues would fit well with the theme, but the sun and reflections were all wrong to get a decent shot at them, so I was quite chuffed when I spotted the OCD reg as I walked along the line :)
 
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