weekly NickD's Photo52 Challenge - 2015 - Support added

Hi,

Vertical - nice shot - the mono works very well and I don't think you've lost the sense of height at all, very well done

Machine - I agree with David - I have no idea what it does, but it's cracking shot, I love those subdued tones and the focus is spot on
 
Hi Nick

cracking mono conversion on the Vertical reshoot....super shot , nuff said :clap:

Machine.....love this , super detail , lovely lighting....:clap:
 
Machine, lovely detail and lighting (y)
 
Like the Lloyds building photo, nice lighting, could almost be "machine"

Thanks. I was in two minds which theme to submit it for.

Machine, slight lifting of the shadows, maybe :thinking:

Cracking narrative and wonderful machine. I do like the fact that the engraver, which is what it is, is engraved on :)

Cheers.

Cheers. On reflection vertical might be a little dark down at the bottom. I knew I was on to a winner with the machine as soon as my wife suggested it if I could shoot it properly, there's just a look to it. I did mess about with wider views and negative space, but quickly realised that the machine could carry it off without getting arty.

Ah right, Vertical is the Lloyds Building. I did wonder. I don't think you've lost the sense of height, and the mono conversion works really well IMO. I agree with Chris, you could have combined the Reshoot & Machine into one image.

However, I'm glad you didn't, because your Machine shot is also rather good. I like the rich colours and the shallow DoF. That's used for tattooing? Scary.... I thought it was a Heath Robinson invention!

Thanks. It did cross my mind to submit the same image for both, and had I been stuck for ideas I may well have done that. Yup, that's still pretty much the standard machine type, and they don't get much better than Micky Sharpz. A handful of artists have adopted the latest generation of rotary machines, mostly for their lighter weight, and a friend of mine has been at the forefront of developing pneumatic machines, but the old make & break machine is still the standard... bloody primitive to look at isn't it?

Hi Nick ..that's a smashing reshoot for vertical ...focus, composition, B&W ...the sort of shot I love.

Fascinating choice for machine, I had no idea what it was so I'm glad you said, it looks great against the black background, nicely lit and the colour tone looks spot on.

Cheers. I used the velvety cloth that my crystal ball (bought for photographic purposes... no hippy rubbish here:)) came wrapped in as background. When lit properly the tips of the fibres were quite prominent, so I shot it as a long exposure and just passed a light over it a couple of times during the exposure, which minimised the problem.

Vertical ... Loving your Lloyds Building shot, and I too thought of Machine when I saw that. Really nice result and no I don't think it's a cliche.

Machine ... still not sure I know what it is, but ... yellows, browns, silver grey, worn, oily ... perfect.

Thanks. As above, it's a tattoo machine, but without the grip & needle, which is how people are used to seeing them. I did shoot a few with the machine built up, but found the body alone worked best.

Hi,

Vertical - nice shot - the mono works very well and I don't think you've lost the sense of height at all, very well done

Machine - I agree with David - I have no idea what it does, but it's cracking shot, I love those subdued tones and the focus is spot on

Cheers. I think with both of these, if you point the camera at something that looks interesting, you can get away with murder.

Hi Nick

cracking mono conversion on the Vertical reshoot....super shot , nuff said :clap:

Machine.....love this , super detail , lovely lighting....:clap:

Thanks. Totally blagged the lighting for machine as described above. Sometime you just get lucky.

Machine, lovely detail and lighting (y)

Cheers. I'd like to spend more time on product type shots given the opportunity, it's something I try to avoid where I can, but messing with lighting is quite satisfying when it works out.
 
Week 14 - Alphabet.

Okay... hands up... its a slight liberty with the theme again, but by way of justification, both A & E are in the alphabet (yeah I know, you could say that about any shot with letters in:p)

I couldn't get the shot I wanted for this, well I could, but it didn't work. They've recently moved A&E, and have decided that the users of this service must be thick as mince, and as such have decided to put a sign on practically every upright thing around the entire hospital ring road. I did wonder if I could actually get a reasonable image out of it, or if it's just something you have to see, so grabbed half an hour on Sunday morning to find out. There's one point at which you can clearly see 10 identical signs, but upon rocking up there, they'd picked Sunday to have the road up, so my preferred angle was full of workmen, fencing and mess. I also found that being able to take in a scene visually is not necessarily the same as being able to get that scene into a photograph... lesson learned!

As a result I ended up going for a tighter shot, containing a mere 6 signs, but with only 3 prominent. I still think it gets across the information overkill, but not as acutely as I experienced it when I first happened upon the scene.

'Scuse me, do you know where... by NickD71, on Flickr

Thanks for looking. :)
 
Oh My God, Artists and Exhibitors, gee I'm sorry but I was looking for the ER. :withstupid:
 
All angles covered there by the looks of it. OOOHHH except for the helicopter landing.
 
Okay... hands up... its a slight liberty with the theme again,
Who you? surely not Nick :p
It was a toughy this week, But you covered it well (y)
 
Hi Nick,

Machine is a very interesting shot indeed. I love the light and as I have no idea what it is, I've been drawn to all the fine details you have captured to try and fathom out what it actually is. Based on the text I think its something to do with tattooing?

Alphabet - Its an interesting take on a very hard theme. The composition is good and I can see what you mean about overkill with the signs!
 
Oh My God, Artists and Exhibitors, gee I'm sorry but I was looking for the ER. :withstupid:

Honestly, it's unbelievable. I'm seriously tempted to spend an afternoon out there asking people if they could direct me!

I think it's a really hard theme Nick so I'ill no doubt be picking some letters out at some time. I love this one ....maybe they bought a job lot of signs :)

Thanks. They must have blown half of the hospital budget on them, no wonder the NHS is struggling!

All angles covered there by the looks of it. OOOHHH except for the helicopter landing.

Lord knows how many they have on the roof?

Who you? surely not Nick :p
It was a toughy this week, But you covered it well (y)

Moi? :D

With a house full of babies I'm not short of alphabet related things to be fair, but I'm not up for doing set-up shots if I can avoid it... Largely 'cos I'm crap at 'em!

You guys crack me up.

:D

Good spot that. Nice use of lttrs of th lphbt there.

Thanks... I see what you did there!:p

Hi Nick,

Machine is a very interesting shot indeed. I love the light and as I have no idea what it is, I've been drawn to all the fine details you have captured to try and fathom out what it actually is. Based on the text I think its something to do with tattooing?

Alphabet - Its an interesting take on a very hard theme. The composition is good and I can see what you mean about overkill with the signs!

Cheers. There's something about the finish on the tattoo machine that just works well with whatever light you use.

I'd hoped to get a picture of the signs, if only for Facebook, since they went up. It was my first thought when the theme was drawn, and aside from setting up something with the kid's toys it was the only idea I had. It was a tricky one this week... let's see what tomorrow brings.
 
Hi Nick

Crowd - love this and love JudyD too so well spotted, maybe a slight crop so she's not so centred :thinking:

Close up - this works for me and I really like the detail you've got in the lit half of your face and the contrast with the negative space to the right (y)

Vertical - nice conversion there but the perspective (along with the curve at the top) make it seem a little truncated but I know how difficult it can be to show the vertical scale of buildings such as this as I tried it with the Pompidou Centre in Paris, an what looked good in my head didn't translate too well to print. Maybe because when you are there you feel the ovewhelming presence and it gets lost 'in camera'

Machine - cor, that looks like an old piece of kit. Nice sharp focus, good DOF and a crisp black background, that'll do nicely sir (y)

Alphabet - this made me LOL :D well spotted (y)
 
Hi Nick

Crowd - love this and love JudyD too so well spotted, maybe a slight crop so she's not so centred :thinking:

Close up - this works for me and I really like the detail you've got in the lit half of your face and the contrast with the negative space to the right (y)

Vertical - nice conversion there but the perspective (along with the curve at the top) make it seem a little truncated but I know how difficult it can be to show the vertical scale of buildings such as this as I tried it with the Pompidou Centre in Paris, an what looked good in my head didn't translate too well to print. Maybe because when you are there you feel the ovewhelming presence and it gets lost 'in camera'

Machine - cor, that looks like an old piece of kit. Nice sharp focus, good DOF and a crisp black background, that'll do nicely sir (y)

Alphabet - this made me LOL :D well spotted (y)

Thanks. I knew it couldn't be just me with the vertical reshoot. It's on theme but the scale just isn't obvious. I took wider shots, some including other buildings, which gave a point of reference, but they were messier from a composition point of view.

Alphabet, I thought you've Photoshoped it at first but on closer inspection...it looks real :)

Well spotted.

Cheers.

Yes, I agree. I thought the same as posiview. It's kinda surreal - the need for so many signs and nobody in sight!!

Trust me Chaps, if I'd photoshopped it, it would be blindingly obvious to you, and pretty much anyone over the age of 3! :D
 
Alphabet is a great spot & shot. I would have so wanted to ask for directions to A&E if someone had walked by.
 
Absolutely love your vertical reshoot. I've always like that building.
Machine. Very nice...I agree about a slight shadows lift though :)
Alphabet. Very simple, sharp and bright :)
 
Alphabet is a great spot & shot. I would have so wanted to ask for directions to A&E if someone had walked by.

Thanks. I was tempted. When you're actually there it's 10 times more obvious too.

Absolutely love your vertical reshoot. I've always like that building.
Machine. Very nice...I agree about a slight shadows lift though :)
Alphabet. Very simple, sharp and bright :)

Cheers. Lloyds is a cracking building, you could take 50 completely different photos of it, and they'd all have something.
 
Week 15 - Sound.

I had/have a pretty good idea for this but failed to get hold of the required props, and an improvised attempt didn't throw up anything I liked, so that's maybe one for my reshoot file.

There's an element of post and be damned to this one, as the latter half of this week is going to be insanely busy and I don't want to fall behind this early on. I'm guessing it'll be a bit Marmite, as having taken the shot I decided to experiment with processing in order to make it a bit more... well... funky. The jury is still out on that one. :exit:

Tone Shaping by NickD71, on Flickr

Thanks for looking! :)
 
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Have to say that I like the idea of the shot, but the processing isn't doing anything for me...sorry.
 
Hi NIck


I have no idea what the subject is in the Sound shot but that sure is funky pp :)

Alphabet.....sounds like the idiots are in charge of the asylum round those parts....19 signs in total I've counted in such a small area.....overkill or what ! On theme & well spotted....& I agree entirely that sometimes what you see is really difficult to convey in a photo...darned frustrating ain't it !
 
I know what a dB is, and that's sound. Eye-catching image, I like it.
 
Hi Nick,

Alphabet - what a great find - maybe they bought a job lot of signs so had to use them all up?

Sound - it's a good fit for the theme, but I'm not overly keen on the processing - sorry :)
 
Certainly funky. But fits the theme. I'm struggling so well done!

Thanks. I may be a bit over the top but it was a tough theme. I was just glad to get it behind me.

Have to say that I like the idea of the shot, but the processing isn't doing anything for me...sorry.

Cheers. No need to be sorry, I fully expected it not to be everyone's (read - anyone's) cup of tea!

Hi NIck
I have no idea what the subject is in the Sound shot but that sure is funky pp :)

Alphabet.....sounds like the idiots are in charge of the asylum round those parts....19 signs in total I've counted in such a small area.....overkill or what ! On theme & well spotted....& I agree entirely that sometimes what you see is really difficult to convey in a photo...darned frustrating ain't it !

Thanks. Sound is just graphic equaliser, which is why I went to town on it with PP. They say you should never try to make a bad shot better with photoshop... maybe I should have listened.

It is frustrating not being able to represent what you see in a still image, but I still reckon a hint of the ridiculousness comes across.

I know what a dB is, and that's sound. Eye-catching image, I like it.

Cheers. That db scale was the important part of the shot for me, being the one direct tie to the theme.

PABD, never deal but it is quite a funky photograph.

Cheers.

Thanks. sometimes you've got to get a theme behind you... might have do do that again this week too!

Hi Nick,

Alphabet - what a great find - maybe they bought a job lot of signs so had to use them all up?

Sound - it's a good fit for the theme, but I'm not overly keen on the processing - sorry :)

Cheers. I had a feeling they had some budget to use up before year end, so decided to go nuts!
 
Yes I will... No I can't... Yes i will... No I can't... Sod it... here goes!

Week 16 - Experiment

I was convinced straight away. I'd pulled up at Brands Hatch, gone over to the Kentagon to warm up with a coffee and unpacked my camera stuff, then had a walk around the circuit. When my phone chirped with this weeks theme I figured I was ok, after all I'd gone for Free Practice, a pre-race weekend day specifically for experimenting with settings, getting the bike set up for the track. Additionally it was a rare day without the family, having taken a day off work to go and experiment with panning and locations. Finally, I usually crop my bike pics pretty much as is, but I thought I'd experiment (see, I said it again :D) with a magazine type crop.

Convinced?...

... Can't win 'em all!:exit:

Stapleford - Free Practice by NickD71, on Flickr

Thanks for looking! :)
 
Yes, definitely.

Looks like a pro shot, actually better than a pro shot. Great angle, brilliant colours and spot on focus. Very smooth panning and the crop works too.

Totally agree, that's what I call filling the frame :) How did you get the perspective?

@blondie606 will be drooling over this one :)

Cheers.
 
I apologise for the group reply, but I'm on the Isle of Wight this week, with just my phone as a means to access the forum.

Many thanks for the positive comments, I'm very glad you like it. Regarding the perspective Andy, it's a long right hander, almost a semicircle. And I was on a bit of a mound on the inside of that, with the riders at full lean towards me, so it's like shooting from above. Obviously I've rotated it a bit, the bike is about horizontal in the unsullied version.

No special access Lynne (man I hate those guys!), just the mound on the inside of Druids. It's usually pretty busy, but for the first Friday session it was pretty quiet.
 
Not a fan of motorsport but that is such a good shot don't know how you got that angle looking down on the bike, excellent :clap:
 
So that's at Druids then? (Judging by your description).
Very sharp shot and I agree with everyone else, it looks professional. I wonder how much the rider would be willing to pay you for it ;)
I do like the concept of experimenting during free practice, a great take on the subject.
 
Wow Nick that is a superb shot, really eye catching and full of action and colour ...I love it.:clap:

outstanding - :agree: with what everyone else has said :clap:

Not a fan of motorsport but that is such a good shot don't know how you got that angle looking down on the bike, excellent :clap:

So that's at Druids then? (Judging by your description).
Very sharp shot and I agree with everyone else, it looks professional. I wonder how much the rider would be willing to pay you for it ;)
I do like the concept of experimenting during free practice, a great take on the subject.

Many thanks people, I'm glad the shot went down so well. I apologise for taking so long to reply, but I've been sick as a dog since I returned from holiday. I have a lot of catching up to do, both photographs and crit... gonna be a busy couple of evenings! :)
 
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