weekly pjm1's 52 in 2015... 8 (Relax) added

Hi Paul, well done on the wet developing, I'm afraid I'm a digital wimp :p

Apart from the chair on the far left which just acts as a distraction the top half of the submission looks a little skewed to me. Was it shot at a slight angle as it looks to be sliding off to the left? Love the effect you have got with the flowers though.
 
Hi Paul

#1 Nice clean/sharp, love the flowers: good colour. Not sure about the wall, highlights are blown I think ... did you use your vinyl roll for BG?
 
I prefer #2. The curve of the swan's neck is great and the orange in the sky adds to it. I see what you mean about it lacking punch, though.

#1 is a lovely photograph, but it's a little busy.

Cheers.
 
Well, having been the odd one out last week with the "teddy's"
(They were all wrong BTW weren't they Paul ? :D )
I'm going with the consensus this week,
I can see why you are proud of that image,
but I think the Swan is more in-keeping.
 
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought "flowers".
Very pretty shot :)
 
Did your wife like it?

Love the backstory and it took me back to my first decent wet print for my A level. We had to produce 6 enlargements and I used really expensive Ilford paper with a matt sheen. Can't remember it's name, but a print I did of a wooden door suddenly came to life. Totally unlike anything I'd experienced with digital. As for manual dodging and burning I think it's great fun. I have no idea why I get so excited about wet prints compared to digital ones.[/reminisce]

Anyway, as a photo, I like it. I'd lose the chairs completely because they distract me, but others have said they provide nice colour/contrast so that's a horses for courses thing. The curve of the table unobscured might help fit the theme better - especially white on white. The flowers provide enough colour and I really like photos that could be colour pop shots but aren't. Only the creme walls give it away. I also think that going square on to the photo might have worked better. The slight angle distortion on the frame pokes my OCD. Or is it my eyes?

Either way Paul it's a really good theme entry for the week. Hope things lighten up for you soon.

Edit - you're right - the swan is very "meh".
 
HI. great pic. personally I would have removed both chairs from the frame as they are distracting me. Liking the swan photo tooI'm wondering what is going to happen next?
 
really like the first shot Paul - the flowers really make the shot pop for me :)
 
ferg007 said:
Hey Paul.... Beautiful photo of your daughter there - great job! In terms of the theme photo (this is not confusing at all! Haha), I like the simplicity of the scene, vase of flowers add a nice sub-focal point without distracting from the hanging picture. I'm not sure if the chairs are necessary though - for me, I think I'd prefer the clean simplicity to follow through the whole frame?.... Still a beautiful print of you daughter though either way!
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sr1867 said:
2 good photos prefer the first one I think I'm all swanned out this week.
Only crit on shot 1 and its tiny I like the blue chair it adds a nice colour contrast but I would have lost the chair to the left.
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Thanks Ferg and Simon (as always!) - glad you like the chosen shot and agree completely with the chairs... I ummed and ahhed about it and on reflection, should at least have removed the leftmost one. But it's all helpful for my composition skills so cheers :)

(And yes, I am pleased with the print... there's something really magical about "making" a print as its developing in the bath. It takes a bit of getting used to the fact under the redlight your contrast and black sensitivity is a bit screwed, but before too long it seems possible to judge whether you're about to overdevelop the blacks as it's in the solution. Great fun!)
 
Bruja said:
Hi Paul, well done on the wet developing, I'm afraid I'm a digital wimp :p

Apart from the chair on the far left which just acts as a distraction the top half of the submission looks a little skewed to me. Was it shot at a slight angle as it looks to be sliding off to the left? Love the effect you have got with the flowers though.
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Thanks Jill... you're right it was shot at an angle. I made things unnecessarily difficult for myself, but I live and learn! The flowers were a deliberate counterpoint but I didn't want them taking over, so chose a slightly shallower DOF to make them less impactful (but hopefully not obviously out of focus). Thanks for the comments... no need to claim digital wimpiness as I still do both! I'm learning a huge amount about the process of photography though, which is great fun. And I think helps my digital stuff too...

d00d said:
Hi Paul

#1 Nice clean/sharp, love the flowers: good colour. Not sure about the wall, highlights are blown I think ... did you use your vinyl roll for BG?
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Thanks David... didn't realised I'd blown anything, but it's always possible! It's a magnolia wall - didn't really want to stick a picture hook through my backdrop!! :eek: Cheers for comments as always!

posiview said:
I prefer #2. The curve of the swan's neck is great and the orange in the sky adds to it. I see what you mean about it lacking punch, though.

#1 is a lovely photograph, but it's a little busy.

Cheers.
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Thanks Andy. Yes, my shots tend to be stronger when I have less going on... (my next image for this week's theme will be a particularly extreme test of this!)

Cobra said:
Well, having been the odd one out last week with the "teddy's"
(They were all wrong BTW weren't they Paul ? :D )
I'm going with the consensus this week,
I can see why you are proud of that image,
but I think the Swan is more in-keeping.
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Hiya Chris - of course, they're always wrong ;) I agree it's not a screamer of "elegance" but if we're not allowed a shoe-horn in extenuating circumstances, what's it all about, eh?! (I think learning to wet print is suitably extenuating!)

Cheers for the positive comments!
 
viv1969 said:
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought "flowers".
Very pretty shot :)
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Thanks Ruth!

Harlequin565 said:
Did your wife like it?

Love the backstory and it took me back to my first decent wet print for my A level. We had to produce 6 enlargements and I used really expensive Ilford paper with a matt sheen. Can't remember it's name, but a print I did of a wooden door suddenly came to life. Totally unlike anything I'd experienced with digital. As for manual dodging and burning I think it's great fun. I have no idea why I get so excited about wet prints compared to digital ones.[/reminisce]

Anyway, as a photo, I like it. I'd lose the chairs completely because they distract me, but others have said they provide nice colour/contrast so that's a horses for courses thing. The curve of the table unobscured might help fit the theme better - especially white on white. The flowers provide enough colour and I really like photos that could be colour pop shots but aren't. Only the creme walls give it away. I also think that going square on to the photo might have worked better. The slight angle distortion on the frame pokes my OCD. Or is it my eyes?

Either way Paul it's a really good theme entry for the week. Hope things lighten up for you soon.

Edit - you're right - the swan is very "meh".
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Hiya Ian... yes, she loved it and it has pride of place in precisely the position it's in in this image :) I was a very proud dad that morning! As I've said further up, there is something truly magical about developing your own prints... almost like making a closer connection to the end result because it's totally "yours". You're right that the price of paper is now pretty steep (I only bought 10 sheets of 12x16" because otherwise Mrs M would have been asking questions when looking at our bank statement!) - shame.

I like your idea re: a square crop - and apologies for not shooting it all square on... I was worried about getting glare from the flash off the glass of the picture, but if I'd taken more time positioning, I could have avoided that at any angle I chose to shot. Althought it was a bit of a race against time! Cheers for the detailed comments - appreciated :)

Manc Man said:
Hi Paul
Tough one.
I like #1 and the story behind it.
Chair is a little distracting.

#2 it has to be, says elegant to me more than #1
I Like to swans neck and the orange colour within the sky.
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Hiya Darren, thanks for the comments. #2 just felt a bit flat to me, despite the light - although it wasn't quite at golden hour by then. I still prefer #1 for entirely sentimental reasons though :) !!

Cheers!
 
HeartandSoul said:
HI. great pic. personally I would have removed both chairs from the frame as they are distracting me. Liking the swan photo tooI'm wondering what is going to happen next?
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Hiya Mandy - yes, it's been said by others :oops: :$ I need to improve my composition skills which is why this challenge is such good fun... the feedback we get really helps! Thanks as always :)

cargo said:
Liking number one too. Like the edit too.

Gaz
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Cheers Gaz!

Pinkbikerbabe said:
Elegant - two great images, and I love the first one. And well done with your efforts for wet developing, not anything I have ever had a go at doing my self.
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It's a bit of a time and effort investment to be honest, Mandy. I would only recommend it when you can find facilities/people to help as it's quite daunting the first time. Once you've done it, the basics all seem bloomin' obvious and with a printed guide for exposure times etc., it is fairly methodical. Having access to a darkcupboard (for developing film) and a darkroom (for printing) really makes it a whole load easier and, at first, cheaper. I'd hate to think how much the bank of 7 enlargers cost in the place I use, let alone the autowash bath.

Thanks for the comments - glad I'm "back on track" so to speak :)

Mich56 said:
really like the first shot Paul - the flowers really make the shot pop for me :)
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Cheers Mich - thanks!
 
Right, usual apologies about not commenting YET on everyone else's photos, but the good news is I will be doing a HUGE catchup this week... since I took my chosen photo for this week's theme on Friday!

We took the ferry to Arran (an island off the southern part of the west coast of Scotland) and had an extended family break over there at a nice hotel. Kids had a ball and there were some good photo opps. Weather throughout was pretty perfect (photography-wise): very occasional blue skies but mostly enough interesting clouds or occasional haze to liven stuff up.

On the way out, I grabbed this shot. I experimented a while back with "single subject" photography where you limit the scene to just one subject with as little background clutter as possible. Well, in this, I've taken it step further and removed the subject! Ok, not entirely true (the sparkle is the subject) but I think despite breaking a golden rule, it works?

Processing isn't too heavy, really about reversing the compromises I made in shoting: I underexposed by 2 stops (perhaps should have done 3) to try to minimise the amount of sparkle which would be blown. Shooting at 100 ISO meant I didn't lose too much shadow detail (i.e. closer to ISO 400 by the time I lifted the shadows back - probably 800 allowing for poor "bandwidth" in the very dark range?) The lens I used (a WA-50mm zoom) vignettes quite badly wide open in these sorts of scenes so LR autocorrected a lot of that very quickly. Finally, I took the colours back to what they looked like at the time - quite punchy but a lot closer than SOOC!

The only "artistic" adjustments I made was to reduce the clarity in the middle band around the horizon and up it elsewhere, to make it look a touch hazier and give it slightly more "bite" at the top and bottom 1/3rds of the image.

Not sure anyone can complain about my submission this week being a crowbar ;)


06: Watery by pjm1 (Paul), on Flickr

Edited to add: SOOC here - yes, wonky horizons galore!
 
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pjm1 said:
I agree it's not a screamer of "elegance" but if we're not allowed a shoe-horn in extenuating circumstances, what's it all about, eh?!
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I think you are onto something there Paul,
lets all go for a "the most tenuously linked theme, image, one week :D "

pjm1 said:
(I think learning to wet print is suitably extenuating!)
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Absolutely (y)
 
So many things I like about this shot. Foremost it's the colour. What amazing shades of blue you've got going on there. I love how the horizon is really hard to spot unless you notice that tiny ship in the distance. I love how the object causing the sparkles is out of shot.

Superb.
 
Harlequin565 said:
So many things I like about this shot. Foremost it's the colour. What amazing shades of blue you've got going on there. I love how the horizon is really hard to spot unless you notice that tiny ship in the distance. I love how the object causing the sparkles is out of shot.

Superb.
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Thanks Ian... it was a pretty special shot to see when there - beautiful blue sky and there were a couple of people with cameras trying to take pictures of the sun, which was partially behind the winter cloud/haze but still very bright at 1pm... not an ideal subject for a photo IMO! Instead, I dropped the lens down (maybe not enough - there's a bit of the sunburst visible at the very top of frame) and just shot the haze and water. The water was sooo blue close to you and then drifted away into the cloud/mist pretty quickly. It really was a very serene shot and had we been onboard a "proper" boat without a motor, it would have been truly amazing to just sit back and look in complete silence.

To be fair, I've probably left it underexposed by a stop... but for artistic purposes I think that works better and it does accentuate the colours/saturation more. I gave the latter a slight lift, but as I said in my opening gambit, it's not far away from the real view - utterly beautiful as it was at the time!
 
pjm1 said:
Instead, I dropped the lens down (maybe not enough - there's a bit of the sunburst visible at the very top of frame) and just shot the haze and water.
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I saw that and thought it added to the shot. Gave it a sense of realism.
 
I will go with WOW on that!
 
After Simons comment, I can't really think of much to add TBH (y)
 
sr1867 said:
I will go with WOW on that!
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I'll see your WOW and raise you one jaw hitting the ground.
I adore this.
I's give it wall room any day of the week....so simple....Lovely.
 
Can't see the connection :)

Works for me. The subdue colours, the slight rays of light from the top, the wonderful light on the waves. Yup.

Crit, can't decide on the ship on the horizon :thinking:

Cheers.
 
pjm1 said:
Thanks David... didn't realised I'd blown anything, but it's always possible! It's a magnolia wall - didn't really want to stick a picture hook through my backdrop!! :eek: Cheers for comments as always!
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... stick a picture hook ... that was going to be my next question.

On my monitor the wall looks decidedly wonky ..... how wrong you can be.:confused:
 
Watery .... if that's what they call "Scotch Mist" .... I love it.
 
Love the reflections and the colour - the mist towards the horizon blends the sea into the sky nicely and the tanker in the distance adds a tiny little oasis of life (human - life, that is) - I can almost hear a fog-horn!
 
Hi Paul, thats a huge change from the SooC image and what can I say the PP is superb, the blues are stunning it all just blends into one brilliant image, ship on the horizon is a nice touch too :clap:

did I mention how much I liked that :LOL:
 
This is quite an eerie shot or perhaps I have an over-active imagination.

If you go to the flickr image and enlarge it then squint while looking at the picture you will see a head and eyes looking up from underneath the water where thelight spot is in the middle -- creepy. I love the image overall but I can't unsee the face in the middle now.:)
 
Hi Paul,

I think your processing of your elegant shot is very well done. I agree about moving the chair on the RHS.
I like the swan shot, and Loch Lomond is obviously beautiful, but for this a reduced DOF would have made the swan stand out better with the beautiful background blurred behind.

Your watery shot is simply stunning in it's simplicity. It's the kind of shot that would be calming in a hospital waiting room!
 
Elegant - although the swan should be more elegant, I am drawn to your first version. As others have said maybe lose the chairs but your picture of your daughter is lovely, made even more special as you developed and printed it yourself - it is where it belongs.......... up on your wall!

Watery - just love the many tones of blue, so simple but SO effective, brilliant!
 
sr1867 said:
I will go with WOW on that!
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Thanks Simon - very generous!

Cobra said:
After Simons comment, I can't really think of much to add TBH (y)
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And thanks to you too, Chris :)

Phil Bennett said:
Watery

Simply beautiful.

Phil
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Thank you... honestly didn't expect such positive comments!

viv1969 said:
I'll see your WOW and raise you one jaw hitting the ground.
I adore this.
I's give it wall room any day of the week....so simple....Lovely.
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Thanks Ruth... that's very kind. As above, I really didn't expect everyone to be so positive - I liked the image but wondered if it was just too simple.

I was also wondering about the sunrays poking in from the top - I deliberately left them in, but the more I looked at it, the more I wondered if I should crop/erase out?
 
posiview said:
Can't see the connection :)

Works for me. The subdue colours, the slight rays of light from the top, the wonderful light on the waves. Yup.

Crit, can't decide on the ship on the horizon :thinking:

Cheers.
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Thanks Andy... for some reason, although everyone seems to love this picture, I wasn't 100% convinced by it! I was quite pleased, but not sure whether I should tweak here & there... I guess I'm glad I didn't, but I can see what you're saying re: the ship.

Dem55 said:
watery - stunning, I love the minimalist feel to the shot :clap:
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Thanks Lorraine :) It seems I have more success when I reduce the number of things in my photos! ;)

d00d said:
... stick a picture hook ... that was going to be my next question.

On my monitor the wall looks decidedly wonky ..... how wrong you can be.:confused:
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:)

d00d said:
Watery .... if that's what they call "Scotch Mist" .... I love it.
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Cheers David - seems to have been a bit of a surprising hit!
 
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