jeangenie's 52 for 2009 - Part 2, Week 52 Texture - and finally ...

Yet again a really interesting back story, thanks for sharing more of your life with us. I agree that children should cook/bake, it gives them practical skills that they won't forget! I can't quite decide if I'd like a bit more dof or not, I suspect the image is one that will grow on me.
Mark
 
Those cakes look delicious!

I love the idea and the detail on the curve of the cases works really well to draw your eye in. I'm so jealous that I can't get that sort of DoF with my camera :(

I wonder if it might have worked even better with the front cake in focus and the ones behind it fading out . . . I'm not sure though because you may have missed the curve on the cases then. It would be interesting to see it both ways to be able to compare.
 
Daysleeper40 said:
An excellent reason (excuse) to bake again again I'd say ;)
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The trouble is - I think it's essential for the cook to do lots of sampling and my waistline is in enough trouble. :LOL::LOL:

Spartacus said:
Hi Jean sorry for the delay on your Fun shot... I love it...:love: No worries - glad you like it.

simple and straight to the point, brings back the good old days as a kid with not a care in the world...(what ever happened to that feeling:() We grew up - sort of!

Easy works for me every time love your focus and view of the cakes, and like all good shots you keep looking to see more and more...brilliant...:clap::clap::clap:
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Aww, thanks, Marcus, much appreciated.

maddog.mark said:
Yet again a really interesting back story, thanks for sharing more of your life with us. I agree that children should cook/bake, it gives them practical skills that they won't forget! I can't quite decide if I'd like a bit more dof or not, I suspect the image is one that will grow on me.
Mark
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Thanks Mark. :) I was undecided about dof, but ended up going with what I'd got because of time pressures.

SarahLee said:
Those cakes look delicious!

I love the idea and the detail on the curve of the cases works really well to draw your eye in. I'm so jealous that I can't get that sort of DoF with my camera :(

I wonder if it might have worked even better with the front cake in focus and the ones behind it fading out . . . I'm not sure though because you may have missed the curve on the cases then. It would be interesting to see it both ways to be able to compare.
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Thanks, Sarah. I tried focusing on the front cake but ended up with the cooling tray and worksurface in shot. I'll have to have another go at editing one of the other shots.

Jean
 
Aaah what a fab granny you are too!! This is another fab shot, I love the low down angle on this its really effective!

ps I am in desperate medical need of some cakes (honest :naughty:) any chance of you sending over a batch!! :D
 
Thirty weeks in and this is the first time I've got to the point of posting and STILL don't know which one to choose. :thinking:

Last week was the annual 3-day New Forest Agricultural Show and I knew I'd get a Colour shot there - no idea what it would be but it would be fairly easy to find something.... and it was! There were lots of colourful subjects - from the fairground, through stalls selling almost anything you could think of, the flower and vegetable tent, 'colourful' characters, beautiful animals and old farming machinery.

Photographically, not quite so hot, though. I decided to travel light - just the D700, an old lens from my film days (28-105mm), couple of memory cards and a spare battery. So I didn't even try to get any shots of the colourful equestrian events and the hugely spectacular motorbike stunt team.

As I type this, I've narrowed it down to two shots:



1 This colourful display on a stall caught my beady eye :D




2 An amazing, colourful wild flower meadow, growing right in the middle of the show ground :)



This really was growing in the ground - not pots, or 'built' there last week (like Chelsea Flower Show) - the area had been cleared of grass and weeds a few months ago and meadow flower seeds scattered and left to grow.

Lessons learned:

1 It's great when the theme works well with that week's events. :)

2 Don't get greedy and indecisive just because there's plenty of subjects to shoot - for once!

3 Trying to choose just one lens for a day out is sooooo difficult.

4 This Chellenge can 'take over' - I concentrated on visiting areas of the Show (it's huge!) which were likely places for photographs.

5 If you're lucky you will be in a large tent when the heavens open.

6 Mr JG and I got lucky twice on Thursday! :LOL:

7 You have to be patient with the crowds of people who just don't understand obsessive togs!

Thanks for looking - I'd be interested to know which picture you prefer - and why - or neither - and why!! :D

Thanks

Jean
 
For me its the meadow. lovely colours
J
 
Agree with Corky, nothing wrong with the first but I prefer the meadow too.
 
I'm no help at all - I just can't decide either.

My problem is that the two photos are so different and I like them both for utterly different reasons.

The beads shot is really abstract. I love the range of colours and the little highlights in each bead.
There's also a weird optical illusion going on when I scroll up and down the screen. :D I keep going back and doing it again!

The meadow shot is simply beautiful though.
It would have been so easy to get that mix of colours oversaturated and out of balance, but you haven't. It just looks so natural and you've got some lovely DoF there.
 
Wow, a pair of stunners this week Jean. I can't decide. The meadow is lovely, but the beads... I'm with Sarah on the optical illusion... they move... I think... I'm going to vote for the beads...
 
I also love both of them! Both very vibrant. 1st has, as was mentioned, a super optical illusion going on! But the meadow has a great mix of DOF/colour/Bokeh. The only thing I will say about the second shot is the flower that is curved/bent over and out of focus at the front is slightly distracting. I would probably have tried cropping it out, or cropping part of it and maybe a slight clone of the rest out. Just personal opinion though. And even at that I would probably still pick the meadow because the colours are so fantastic! Both super photos (y)
 
Both good shots in their own right, but the flowers have it for me, well done on getting two shots!

Mark
 
Wow - I'm so chuffed you all like my take on Colour. :D Thanks for all the great comments - I'm sitting here with a big grin on my face. :confused:

The meadow was just beautiful - I took quite a few shots and it was very difficult trying to get just the right colour combination and crop. I'll post a few of the others tomorrow. Too tired tonight after a hard day's retail therapy!

Thanks again, everyone - you've made my day (yes - even better than retail therapy!) :)

Jean
 
Wow, Jean, 2 fantastic shots. And I can't choose either :thinking: :clap::clap::clap:

And getting 2 great shots in :clap::clap:

I know what you mean about going somewhere when the only thought on your mind is of getting 'that' picture

And you got lucky with Mr JG twice on Thursday - is that too much information ?:naughty:
 
Bruja said:
Wow,
And you got lucky with Mr JG twice on Thursday - is that too much information ?:naughty:
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He He He just how do you find the time....:LOL:

For me Jean it's the flowers all the way...so natural and great focusing, I like the very oof flower in the front as it adds to the viewing pleasure and the boarder fits perfect.

The beads are ok but may be a macro close up would give it the wow factor it needs for me...:thinking:

Excellent stuff...:clap::clap::clap:
 
Bruja said:
Wow, Jean, 2 fantastic shots. And I can't choose either

And getting 2 great shots in

I know what you mean about going somewhere when the only thought on your mind is of getting 'that' picture

And you got lucky with Mr JG twice on Thursday - is that too much information ?:naughty: and it wasn't even my birthday - or his! :p
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Thanks Jill, glad you like them. :)

Spartacus said:
He He He just how do you find the time.... Well ..... :confused:

For me Jean it's the flowers all the way...so natural and great focusing, I like the very oof flower in the front as it adds to the viewing pleasure and the boarder fits perfect.

The beads are ok but may be a macro close up would give it the wow factor it needs for me...:thinking:

Excellent stuff...
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Marcus - thanks for the lovely comments. :) I know what you mean about the macro shot I didn't get. Ah well - next year, maybe!

Toothie said:
There both lovely and colourful am not sure which i prefer tbh :D
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Thanks Ruth. Just pleased you like 'em. :)

Jean
 
Woefuly behind on yours Jean - sorry!


Easy - its like a Willy Wonka landscape :) Cake mountains! and an extreme dof that works a treat - subtle colours and enough of a hint as to what we're looking at :) I like it

Colour - its the meadow for me - natutal- bright - colourful - wonderful :) The beads (and this may be my eyes or my head) look distorted a little - colours great but theres something about them that looks a little skewed. So 100% for me its the fleurs :) Terrific!
 
Fate is being kind to us - another really good theme for this week. :D

Lots of food to choose from - nice food, posh food, comfort food, home-cooked food, raw food, junk food, convenience food - an endless list of options. So what do I choose ... "Lycopersicon esculentum", better known as Tomatoes.


Why?


I love eating them and enjoy growing them. It's very satisfying to grow a huge plant, dripping with luscious red fruits from the tiniest of seeds in less than 6 months. Home-grown tomatoes taste of, well, tomatoes. Sweet, juicy and totally unlike shop-bought ones. So my food of choice for Week 31 is

A tomato:





This week, I've looked back on several previous efforts, and have realised I have the ability to keep making the same stupid mistakes time after time. So no Lessons Learned this week, but far too many -

Lessons Still Not Learned: :rules:

1 Leaving the shot until Sunday evening just because the theme is 'easy'. :bang:

2 Expecting natural light to do what you want it to.

3 If anything (or lots of things) can go wrong with props - they will, especially on a Sunday evening.

4 Thinking I can compensate for inadequate lighting in Photoshop.

5 Don't try and use Quick Mask in a hurry.

6 Other creatures will make life hard if they can. This week it was small black flies. At lest they're easier to shoo away than the dogs. :LOL:

7 The beautiful image in my mind's eye tends to stay there instead of making it to the finished shot.

8 Not leaving enough time to reshoot when the results are disappointing. The colours in the tomatoes this week aren't what I envisaged and despite using a tripod, the main part of the image isn't as sharp as I would have liked. Worse still, I don't know why. :(

All in all, a disappointing shot for me this week. At least the tomato tasted good. :)

Jean
 
I love the composition and the colour looks fine here but they seem to have lost all the detail which is a shame. Really not sure on what to suggest to improve it as like you im not sure what went wrong.
 
I agree with Ruth, colour are good and strong and the comp is good... but there's something odd going on and I can't work it out either. Has there been a lot of selection and cutting ?
 
The colours and composition are fab. Joocy tomatoe.
My only niggle is I don't like the reflection at all, without it it woulda been a cracking shot. But that's just personal.
 
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jgs001 said:
I agree with Ruth, colour are good and strong and the comp is good... but there's something odd going on and I can't work it out either. Has there been a lot of selection and cutting ?
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Thanks for your thoughts, Ruth, John and Shorty. :)

John - I'm not sure what you mean by 'cutting'. I did Quick Mask to separate the background from the subject. and then did Levels on each. The only other adjustments was a touch to Brightness and Contrast on the tomatoes, USM and sizing.

I think it may have been the D-lighting, set on High that's taken out the detail, although I've never had this happen before. :bang:

It's bugging me - I'll have to try again. Grr....

Jean
 
Ah... gotcha... it almost looks like some of the toms have been superimposed, I think it might be the strength of the white showing through.
 
Hi Jean glad you did a reshoot the first one, if I may be so bold was....:razz:

But that said you did a great recovery shot and works sooooo much better for me. It's a great idea and you got 99% right just tad more of a colour boost and it's a cracking shot....:clap::clap::clap:
 
Spartacus said:
Hi Jean glad you did a reshoot the first one, if I may be so bold was....:razz: So that's at least 2 of us who didn't like it. :D

But that said you did a great recovery shot and works sooooo much better for me. It's a great idea and you got 99% right just tad more of a colour boost and it's a cracking shot....:clap::clap::clap:
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Thanks. I was erring on the side of boredom with the saturation on the second one. I didn't want to be the first person on this challenge to have 3 goes at a basically simple shot. :)

Shorty said:
Yes, 2nd shot is better :clap: well done!
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Thanks Shorty. :)
 
Second one is definitely better for me too.
I love the composition and simplicity of this idea and in the second shot the colour looks so much more natural and it just seems generally sharper.
The reflection is working better too.

However . . .

There's been something bothering me about the first one and it's taken me a while to put my finger on it.
I think it's because the reflection isn't an inverted mirror image as you'd expect - it's just an echo of the real tomatoes.

The only way that I can think that you did this was to raise them up on a piece of glass or perspex with a reflective surface underneath it so that we're actually seeing a reflection of the bottom of the tomato slices.
:thinking: That would account for the dark shadow to the left of the blob of seeds too.

Interesting idea. I reckon with a bit of practice that could really work and if it was done very subtly it could leave you with a reflection shot that's strangely off-kilter and disturbing, but hard to pinpoint why . . . hmmmm something I'd like to have a play with I think!
 
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SarahLee said:
Second one is definitely better for me too.
I love the composition and simplicity of this idea and in the second shot the colour looks so much more natural and it just seems generally sharper.
The reflection is working better too.

However . . .

There's been something bothering me about the first one and it's taken me a while to put my finger on it.
I think it's because the reflection isn't an inverted mirror image as you'd expect - it's just an echo of the real tomatoes.

The only way that I can think that you did this was to raise them up on a piece of glass or perspex with a reflective surface underneath it so that we're actually seeing a reflection of the bottom of the tomato slices.
:thinking: That would account for the dark shadow to the left of the blob of seeds too.

Interesting idea. I reckon with a bit of practice that could really work and if it was done very subtly it could leave you with a reflection shot that's strangely off-kilter and disturbing, but hard to pinpoint why . . . hmmmm something I'd like to have a play with I think!
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Thanks Shorty and Sarah.

The prize for Sleuth of the Week goes to ..... (roll of drums) ... Sarah. :D

That's exactly how I did both of them - a mirror on a table, with a peice of glass supported on 4 tuna tins (I like the high-tech options in life :LOL:) on top of it. The difficult bit was getting sky reflected in the mirror without any trees, me or the camera and tripod intruding. I then did Levels separately on the sky and the tomatoes using Quick Mask. But as you say - it needs refinement, and you've set me thinking, now as well. :D

Jean
 
That second is much better Jean (y) I love the idea you used for capturing that ...
 
Good improvement on the second shot. I really like the idea behind this, it's very inventive.
 
Well Jean that's now 3 of us who thought the first shot was :razz: :LOL:

The second shot is much better though with your Heath Robinson type set up :clap::clap:

As for your Things still not learned points :LOL::LOL::LOL:

It is easy to become complacent when you think it's an easier theme but I've generally found that the easier you think it's going to be the more complicated it becomes trying to put it into practice :shrug:



PS Has MrJG made your framework yet?
 
jgs001 said:
That second is much better Jean I love the idea you used for capturing that ...
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karmagarda said:
Good improvement on the second shot. I really like the idea behind this, it's very inventive.
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Thanks, John and KG. It's easy to think 'if only I had ...' fill the gaps as needed, but part of this challenge for me is using everyday bits and pieces for props, reflectors, lighting, etc, and it's surprising what you find around the house. :)


Bruja said:
Well Jean that's now 3 of us who thought the first shot was :razz: :LOL:

The second shot is much better though with your Heath Robinson type set up

As for your Things still not learned points :LOL::LOL::LOL:

It is easy to become complacent when you think it's an easier theme but I've generally found that the easier you think it's going to be the more complicated it becomes trying to put it into practice :shrug:



PS Has MrJG made your framework yet?
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thanks Jill - glad you like the second shot and the set up! You're right about the complacency over an 'easy' subject. I'll never learn. :bang:

I still haven't got a framework, but MrJG has decorated the hall, stairs and landing which is nearly as useful. :LOL:

Jean
 
Late again :(

The second shot is my preferred version and I think it works when you know what you did with the mirror and thats a clever and inventive idea :) Well done on the set up :)

Colours and crispness are all there too :)

Like Jeff though I wonder what just a plain white background would look like!

Still a great submission though! Very good indeed (y)
 
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