weekly Malkovich's 52 2015 - Wk2 Fragile

A 4am start, drive in torrential rain in the pitch dark, a tank of petrol and probably 4 new tyres later ;) a blissful cup of tea had overlooking Eilean Donan Castle
 
Oooo really liking that James, great composition and PoV, struggling to crit at all... all I can think of is a tiny bit off the top, but that is being very picky, love the PP and the whole concept of the shot, excellent start, look forward to seeing the rest of your 52 :clap:
 
would be better without car. looks more like a car add not the best pic of the castle iv'e seen sorry
 
Hi, Adidas Samba (y)

As I've said elsewhere, this theme lends itself to very personal approaches to interpretation.

Doesn't scream Bliss to me and maybe it shouldn't.

I like B&W conversion, pity about the sky.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys, The bliss is the result of the journey to get there, so hence the car, as she is after all the beast that has thrown me around the 360 mile round trip to take the photo. I thought my trying to also do a tetley Tea advert might have pushed it too far lol. could unfortunately do nothing with the sky, it was belting it down, this was taken in a 2 minute window between storm clouds after waiting an hour
 
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James - I like that a lot. To be honest, EDC is way overshot and whenever I see a "stereotypical" image of it I'm frankly just a bit bored. I like what you've done there - it really works for me.

Conversion works well given the sky and conditions - what a shame you didn't have better weather for that mammoth journey. It's about 4 hours each way from us so I've only been up there a couple of times. We're off to Skye in May for some climbing so might grab a shot on the way past. If the weather's as bad as that we might just turn right around as I don't want to do any ropework in the wind & rain!

No crit on the image at all: it's effective with an interesting background and tells a story. Good job!
 
Like the concept and the fact you faced the wrath when you got home :)
 
Yep really like that up there as one of my favs of this week :clap:
 
I kept "bumping" into this one on the main pic thread and stopping at it to have a think. Did I like it?

I do, hence my comment here. For me, it's not about the castle. That's just a pretty background to the subject of the man and the car. I like the "old castle/new car" framing, and the brew, in (what appears to be) a miserable cold wet location, ticks the "Bliss" box. The conversion to B&W is lovely and the three things I'd change would be...
-The distracting "dot" half way down the right hand edge of the image.
-I'd be tempted to lose a bit of sky off the top of the image.
-The number plate isn't working for me but I guess that was just a bit of fun.

All minor stuff tbh and very much my opinion.
 
Bliss or not ... I like it a lot ... the cold damp isolation, the gothic structure and the flash BMW with lights on, and what a sky! perfect.
 
Hi James & welcome to the 52's madhouse :wave:

On 1st glance the image doesn't say Bliss to me , but ,after reading your words then yes , I agree totally . I'm still torn over the shot though.....I love the position of the car , your casual pose against it looking out at the view & the cuppa in your hand (y) Sky is Sky & you work with what you're given & with such a long journey you could hardly have turned rund & gone hoe without getting a shot !
But for me , the DOF makes it look like a composite...the castle looks really grainy , like a film shot ,almost oof against the sharp car & you ...maybe that's the intention?
 
Great idea and well thought out, I think if anything the image could be a touch lighter. I think bliss is a great image.
 
Hi James,
Here's some crit on both your shots so far, I joined late so playing catch up!

Bliss That was some trip! Regarding the image I guess most has been said already, I always applaud people that take the non cliche shot or look for a different angle so like the different composition. With my landscape head on, the light is pretty flat, but like you said you had bad weather... The castle as mentioned is quite soft but this May well have been your intention. I think I would have gone for a much smaller aperture, and shot focusing a third of the way into the shot, which would give you both car and castle in focus.

Fragile like the idea and the composition, well set up, as John said I'd probably take it up a half a stop or something. But if you kept the exposure down for a moody exposure it works well. I like this, nice shot.
 
Great idea Malky and well shot.

A technical point though, the second ace in the board cards should be pushed up instead of the 7.
 
Nice idea James, I think the B&W conversion and the low light help the shot show the dingyness of a good poker room, liking again the thought put into the setup, loads of props, like the directional lighting and the focus on your well posed face - Nice One (y)
 
Glad the comments are tending to be positive, but all crit is gratefully received. I'm really enjoying my first attempt at a 52. will get to looking at others and popping a few comments. thanks again
 
Hi, that certainly fits the theme nice composition with all the elements in the frame with a nice DoF don't mind the darkness to me it adds to the image

nice work indeed:clap:
 
The effort people put in for the challenge is overwhelming, well done on the shot
 
Fragile .... looks like you're still enjoying yourself! Thanks for coming up with that image James, as said, nice lighting and focus.
 
This caught my eye because of the effort into setting it up. Nice work James.

For me, black & white images need to have contrast and a good range of tones. I like to see tones ranging all the way from utter black, through to pure white. I think this shot would benefit from pushing the contrast a bit more to exaggerate those tones.

This is just my option though!!!
 
Fragile - great image for the theme and well thought out and put together. The image certainly portrays the theme very well, composition is spot on for me, and I like the choice of using b&w for this image.
 
Hi there!
Loving the fragile take, especially the perspective of the shot.
 
Great idea for the theme and well done for putting all of this together. Whilst I understand the B&W approach plus the darkened view I feel it would benefit from a tad more exposure
 
Great fit for the theme and well deserved after the effort you put in getting the composition set up :clap::clap::clap: Just a tad brighter and it would be perfect for me :p
 
Hope the guy is only acting!!! Nice idea, well executed. Not sure I does need to be brighter. The darkness adds to the mood. (Get the guy some paracetamol quick ....!) :)
 
Nothing more to add. Thr whole photo tells a story. Hope he's recovrred enough to cash his chips in;)
 
James, I really like this one. I'm also normally in the "black & white usually works better with high contrast" but, to be honest, the washed-out, fairly low key look works for this story. I do think the image would have more punch with a wider range of tones / pushing the histogram further to the right, but that wouldn't necessarily suit the story.

Like you DOF choice, composition looks very natural and framing all works for me. Lighting maybe a touch harsh on the bottle, but again that might actually suit the story. I'd probably be inclined to use a bigger light source though, because of that bottle.

Great job!
 
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