weekly Stevesc's 52 in 2016. Week 35 "Black and White" added

[SteveSc]

Nice delicate shot. I prefer the second of the two on this thread (which I think was your choice too as that was the one you selected for the main thread).

Beautiful images Steve, particularly the second I feel because the blossom is more prominent and less distracted by the bg. Lovely colours.

Topical...Not a shoehorn at all IMO. Right on theme and any excuse to get out a board game

The Living World....I think the second for me. Like @Carl Ayling I like the isolation of the blossom from the BG

both work but I think I agree the second one works a little better

I like both shots. The flowers are really pretty and you've captured them very nicely. Perhaps the second one is a bit better because there's less distraction in the bg and I really like the light on the petals.

Topical - Very topical Good choice of props .

Living world - both good shots I like the 2nd better

Well done with the blossom Steve you've caught it perfectly ....second shot for me, love the way it gently curves round into the frame.

Steve, I prefer the second image for living world, just seems to me a better balanced image, all the interest is on the flowers

very nice image nice subtle colour,

Thanks for taking the time to comment, really appreciate it. Looks like the consensus is the second shot which probably just shades it for me as well.

 

[Cobra]

..but I think the 1st one just takes it,..

Thanks, I do like the add DOF but felt that the blossom gets a bit lost because of the closeness to the OOF blossom in the background at this angle.

Looks like the consensus is the second shot which probably just shades it for me as well.

And that is how come I never pick the winning lottery numbers

 

[SteveSc]

And that is how come I never pick the winning lottery numbers

haha...it's good to be different

 

[pjm1]

Hi Steve nice shots of those flowers/blossoms for living world. Could do with perhaps a tiny touch more exposure, personally, but a good capture and nicely composed too. Good job!

 

[sparrow]

Topical - Good choice for the theme, tax is always topical.
Living World - I think number one just has the edge for me, but both beautiful images.

 

[d00d]

"The Living World" ... #2 for me. Love the sharpness in contrast to the OOF BG with great colour.

 

[Jon.P.73]

Living world - lovely capture of the blossom and the DOF and tones portray them wonderfully

 

[SteveSc]

Hi Steve nice shots of those flowers/blossoms for living world. Could do with perhaps a tiny touch more exposure, personally, but a good capture and nicely composed too. Good job!

Topical - Good choice for the theme, tax is always topical.
Living World - I think number one just has the edge for me, but both beautiful images.

"The Living World" ... #2 for me. Love the sharpness in contrast to the OOF BG with great colour.

Living world - lovely capture of the blossom and the DOF and tones portray them wonderfully

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.

With a mixture of work, family and illness I've not been keeping uptodate with this but hope to catch up over the next week or so. I'll also try and start to catch up with viewing and commenting on everyone else's projects.

 

[Pinkbikerbabe]

Living world - I like the first shot, nice composition and colours.

 

[SteveSc]

Finally got round to a catch up. I've missed 3 of the themes but the others have been taken more or less around the right time but haven't had time to process and upload them until this weekend.

Week 13 - Effort:

TP Week 13 Effort by Steve, on Flickr

My eldest playing on an adventure area while on holiday over Easter. The weather wasn't the best so all the shots were a bit dull but the best I got for the theme.

Week 14 - Technology

TP Week 14 Technology by Steve, on Flickr

I had a flying visit to London for a few photos the other week, specifically to shoot some tube stations. The tube system has the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 yet is still one of the busiest in Europe. Technology that we often take for granted.

Week 15 - Horizontal

TP Week 15 Horizontal by Steve, on Flickr

Taken on a local walkabout.

 

[Carl Ayling]

Nice catch-up Steve. All three are excellent responses to the themes. I like the obvious expression of effort in the first, wonderful capture of movement and colour for Technology and the abstract nature of the trolley shot for Horizontal.

 

[DowntonMini]

Great catchup Steve love your image fro Technology the DOF for Vast work really well

 

[pjm1]

Hi Steve, some really good shots there. Effort is a nice capture and the only tweak I'd apply would be to re-stretch the dynamic range back by moving the white & black points to get more contrast. Dull skies are great in some ways because you get nice lighting (on the face) and it compresses the dynamic range, but often it's worth stretching the histogram back out in post otherwise contrast can be very low.

Technology is a super take - well done And horizontal too... no crit at all on those as I think they're spot on

 

[SteveSc]

Nice catch-up Steve. All three are excellent responses to the themes. I like the obvious expression of effort in the first, wonderful capture of movement and colour for Technology and the abstract nature of the trolley shot for Horizontal.

Thanks

Great catchup Steve love your image fro Technology the DOF for Vast work really well

Thanks, assume you mean DOF for Horizontal?

Hi Steve, some really good shots there. Effort is a nice capture and the only tweak I'd apply would be to re-stretch the dynamic range back by moving the white & black points to get more contrast. Dull skies are great in some ways because you get nice lighting (on the face) and it compresses the dynamic range, but often it's worth stretching the histogram back out in post otherwise contrast can be very low.

Technology is a super take - well done And horizontal too... no crit at all on those as I think they're spot on

Thanks for your comments and for the suggestions with editing the Effort shot, I'll have a go at it later.

 

[susiejb]

Hi Steve ....good to see you're still in the challenge. All three are spot on for the themes .... nicely caught action for Effort, love the moving train for Technology and that's a simple idea for Horizontal but it works really well.

 

[Emja]

Three good shots there - I really like the sense of movement captured in both effort and technology. A clever idea with the supermarket trolleys too - I would never have thought of that.

 

[SteveSc]

Hi Steve ....good to see you're still in the challenge. All three are spot on for the themes .... nicely caught action for Effort, love the moving train for Technology and that's a simple idea for Horizontal but it works really well.

Thanks, I've managed to get on the wall of shame and have struggled for time over the last few weeks but I'm pleased I've managed to get back into the challenge again and looking forward to catching up with commenting as well.

Three good shots there - I really like the sense of movement captured in both effort and technology. A clever idea with the supermarket trolleys too - I would never have thought of that.

Thanks, I went out with a friend to take some photos the other evening but was very uninspired. I barely took any shots until I spotted these trollies and thought of the theme.

 

[purplepleaser]

Good catch up Steve, Effort is very good, plenty of 3D pop and action. Technology is superb, love those type of shots and Horizontal is a good idea for the theme.

 

[SteveSc]

Good catch up Steve, Effort is very good, plenty of 3D pop and action. Technology is superb, love those type of shots and Horizontal is a good idea for the theme.

Thanks

Hi Steve, some really good shots there. Effort is a nice capture and the only tweak I'd apply would be to re-stretch the dynamic range back by moving the white & black points to get more contrast. Dull skies are great in some ways because you get nice lighting (on the face) and it compresses the dynamic range, but often it's worth stretching the histogram back out in post otherwise contrast can be very low.

Technology is a super take - well done And horizontal too... no crit at all on those as I think they're spot on

I've had a go at editing it, moving the white and black points in levels, is this what you meant?

 

[jakeblu]

I really like your horizontal, very imaginative, and well spotted.

 

[d00d]

Good catch-up Steve

Horizontal ... clever stuff.

Effort ... genuine action .

Technology ... I always love those kind of shots.

 

[LC2]

Hi Steve,
Effort - Plenty of concentration going on there. A real shame his eyes were closed at the moment of the shot.
I may have tried to add a bit of saturation to the blues to help him pop out of the shot a bit.
Technology - This year's 52 is far more railway oriented than last year Nice bit of motion blur there and a very empty Euston station. First train perhaps?
Horizontal - On theme. I like the way the greens subtly change in hue as the shot recedes. Different lighting I assume?

ETA I see you've got more pop in 'effort' following advice on black points.

 

[SteveSc]

I really like your horizontal, very imaginative, and well spotted.

Cheers

Good catch-up Steve

Horizontal ... clever stuff.

Effort ... genuine action .

Technology ... I always love those kind of shots.

Thanks for the comments

Hi Steve,
Effort - Plenty of concentration going on there. A real shame his eyes were closed at the moment of the shot.
I may have tried to add a bit of saturation to the blues to help him pop out of the shot a bit.
Technology - This year's 52 is far more railway oriented than last year Nice bit of motion blur there and a very empty Euston station. First train perhaps?
Horizontal - On theme. I like the way the greens subtly change in hue as the shot recedes. Different lighting I assume?

ETA I see you've got more pop in 'effort' following advice on black points.

Thanks, your right that it's a shame that his eyes were closed, had a couple of other shots but didn't match the theme so well. Also, thanks for the suggestions on editing, it's something I need more practice with but I'm slowly learning.

The Euston station one was taken late morning on Bank Holiday monday over easter so although it was quite it wasn't empty. This one was taken as the train was leaving but before anyone else had walked in to wait for the next one.

The Horizontal one was taken at night under their outside storage which if I remember was lit with some strip lighting. It was the lighting that first caught my eye.

 

[Minx]

Effort - great capture you can really see the effort he is putting in.
Technology - great motion shot
Horizontal - right on theme good spot

 

[SteveSc]

Effort - great capture you can really see the effort he is putting in.
Technology - great motion shot
Horizontal - right on theme good spot

Thanks

 

[SteveSc]

Week 16 - Vast

I was really hoping to get out and have a go at some star trails for this but a mix of cloudy nights and other commitments have meant that it didn't happen. Not wanting to get to far behind again I have gone for this one, which is the best of a not very good bunch for this theme. My son's football team had a mini tournament day last saturday and +this was my attempt at capturing the several hundred young children playing across a large area of the park (this is about half of the pitches they were using).

TBJC panorama by Steve, on Flickr

 

[SteveSc]

Week 17 - Rough

Found this one a tough one, only really had this one idea but struggled to get a clear shot. It was shot with an extension tube and reversed 50mm. The shot is a bit noisy as I was at ISO800 but was struggling to get enough DOF and the image sharp enough, think I need to practice with the set-up a bit more.

Little rocks by Steve, on Flickr

 

[sirch]

Vast - star trails would have been a good idea but as you say the weather at the moment is just too variable. The football shot ticks the box though, the people lined out along the sides of the pitch give it a good sense of scale.

Rough – is it sandpaper? I’ve never tried macro like that but I imagine it is hard with such a wafer thin DoF, interesting approach to the theme and for me a big part of the 52 is pushing the boundaries, good effort.

 

[susiejb]

Football works for me too Steve ....those rows of goal nets (?) and all the activity ...it certainly looks vast.

Smashing idea for rough and it works really well ....the colour makes me think it's not sandpaper, but I can't think what it is ...it's very eye catching whatever it is, I like that a lot.

 

[SteveSc]

Vast - star trails would have been a good idea but as you say the weather at the moment is just too variable. The football shot ticks the box though, the people lined out along the sides of the pitch give it a good sense of scale.

Rough – is it sandpaper? I’ve never tried macro like that but I imagine it is hard with such a wafer thin DoF, interesting approach to the theme and for me a big part of the 52 is pushing the boundaries, good effort.

Thanks Chris, yes it's sandpaper. I've done a few macros before but never used the reversing ring, it was strange that I seemed to lose clarity when it was on the tripod with a longer exposure. I agree about the 52 helping to push boundaries, it's the first I've done and I've definitely found that I have tried a few new things.

Football works for me too Steve ....those rows of goal nets (?) and all the activity ...it certainly looks vast.

Smashing idea for rough and it works really well ....the colour makes me think it's not sandpaper, but I can't think what it is ...it's very eye catching whatever it is, I like that a lot.

Thanks Susie, the pitches are fairly small as it was for under 9/10 year olds but there were lots of them. It is a type of sandpaper, although I'm not sure exactly what type as it was just some that we had left laying around in the shed.

 

[Carl Ayling]

Vast definitely works Steve - got loads of detail and the sky looks great too. My gosh is that really sandpaper for Rough ?!?! Would never have dreamt it would look quite like that - brilliant macro. Well done for experimenting and pushing your personal boundaries.

 

[Allan.H]

excellent vast pic lots going on there the inclusion of all the people works well,
I didn't know the "rough" pic was sandpaper I don't think you could expect much more in the DoF without focus stacking a very good attempt

 

[sparrow]

Your 'vast' shot works really well and the sandpaper shot for 'rough' is brilliant - I had no idea what it was!!

 

[LC2]

Hi Steve
Is Vast really a composited pano, or is it a cropped wide angle shot (I can never tell). It certainly does sell the story you're trying to achieve
Rough - I guessed glasspaper. I like your explanation on how it was taken, not something I've ever tried, but certainly a good effect.

 

[CliveH]

Vast, as well as all the pitches thats a big sky.
Rough well taken and a great idea.

 

[SteveSc]

Vast definitely works Steve - got loads of detail and the sky looks great too. My gosh is that really sandpaper for Rough ?!?! Would never have dreamt it would look quite like that - brilliant macro. Well done for experimenting and pushing your personal boundaries.

Thanks Carl, there is lots of detail in vast but wasn't sure if it was a bit too busy with nothing really to hold attention.

excellent vast pic lots going on there the inclusion of all the people works well,
I didn't know the "rough" pic was sandpaper I don't think you could expect much more in the DoF without focus stacking a very good attempt

Thanks, would like to try focus stacking at some point, maybe something for me to have a go at later in the 52.

Your 'vast' shot works really well and the sandpaper shot for 'rough' is brilliant - I had no idea what it was!!

Thanks

Hi Steve
Is Vast really a composited pano, or is it a cropped wide angle shot (I can never tell). It certainly does sell the story you're trying to achieve
Rough - I guessed glasspaper. I like your explanation on how it was taken, not something I've ever tried, but certainly a good effect.

Thanks, vast is a composite of three seperate images. I stitched them together using the automatic process in Elements which worked well, apart from having two people in the shot in two different places...I ended up cloning one pair out which I think worked out ok.
Glasspaper would make more sense than sandpaper, didn't really check what it was as it was just a bit I had left over in the shed.

Vast, as well as all the pitches thats a big sky.
Rough well taken and a great idea.

Cheers

 

[dankabass3]

Love Technology shot - excellent. The rough is a good choice but I have to admit I didn't know first what was that - interesting though

 

[Minx]

Vast - so on theme vast playing area, vast sky, and vast number of people
Rough - great macro interesting shot

 

[Emja]

Your composite works really well to add vastness to your footie shot and the sandpaper is fascinating - I could work out what it was at all! Nice dof

 

[Winter]

Hi Steve, good job catching up and now I have to catch up on comments, too.

Effort - Love it! I like your composition and the processing. The dullness of the weather gives the photo a carefree, dreamlike quality, which I think fits the surroundings and the action, so I think it works!

Technology - Nice motion captured!

Horizontal - This made me smile. It’s a good idea, definitely, and well taken.

Vast - Wow, the clouds. Seems like you don’t have much luck with the weather? I like the dark clouds very much, though, as it gives the scene a sense of drama.

Rough - Hmm, couldn’t figure out what this was supposed to be until I saw the title of the photo “Little rocks” and then I still don’t know what they’re supposed to be. You probably did it for a good reason but I feel the dof is a bit too narrow and I don't really know what to make of the very thin strip of in-focus bits. I want to see more bits in focus!