chrisvest

nice image: complimentary colors, good balance, dazzling light. success!

thanks kim-- thanks for browsing around my recent pics and commenting-- i appreciate your encouragement. happy holidays, solstice and new year!

hi frank, thanks for the comment. i'm not sure if you meant that the cross seems squeezed, or if i should have left it out. the mission is at laguna, new mexico and supposedly was built in 1699, quite a beautiful structure-- that's part of what i wanted to convey. cheers.

gorgeous pic and model. for a woman this luminous in her splendid accoutrements, i'd consider dulling out the background a bit-- it has rich patina, but i personally wouldn't make it compete with her in terms of saturation. i'd also experiment with moving her up and to the left (with a crop) to draw the viewer along her line of sight. it seems that the area under her right arm next to the shash should be part of the background. great subject, bravo.

veeeeeeerry nice creation. great pose: feathers fluffed to ward off the chill-- plus splendid light. i would've added just a whisper of a shadow for the bird-- on a separate layer so you can play with the relative darkness. and i would erase the pixelly edge along the bottom of the branch as well. excellent bird!

kinda like the amish in that way, aye? great pic, the droopy horizon is "fixed" by the drama of the passing car.

i wanted to put a white bird against this dark sky. my first thought was to use a snowy

owl, but they never get this far south (new mexico). well, a few wintering ring billed

gulls pass through....

thanks fellas. the main pic in this montage was but one still taken from a digital movie. so as for david's remark about wanting to see more detail i have to say: you and me both brother! i get impatient and want to post the pictures as soon as i have a reasonably "workable" image. the plan is to gather some comments and then go back to the drawing board. so i appreciate the comments very much. cheers, y'all. chris

thanks michael, yep: mother nature is the source of all, but sometimes some finessing is called for.

 

al: the software is just photoshop CS. there were actually 3 different roadrunner pictures combined. if there is a plain background, it's helpful to use the "magic wand" to select similarly colored areas. in the case of a complicated background, i use the "lasso" tool-- i've gotten to be pretty fast at it, but it still takes a lot of patience. cheers, and thanks.

some of the most approachable warblers at magee marsh (ottawa national wildlife

refuge, ohio) are the jovial black-throated blue warblers. with this one, i'm considering a

crop of about an inch or so off the left. what else does it need?

hi michael,

 

thanks for the comments, glad you like. i'm attaching the original to show that glint of blue. i probably exaggerated it a bit, but it's not entirely fiction. (i wish i would've lifted the tail more). thanks for dropping by.

this is another well balanced, wildly colorful, and vastly entertaining auto pic. bravo!

funny, dramatic and delightful. what a great snout, great perspective, telling eyes, motion, and the story of the proud apparent "owner" of the dog in the background. sweet.

the elderly scribe is looking into the corner, so, in the purely abstract sense it's a story about convergence rather than being about the model. even the english words don't give any clue (to me) about the subject of the text, except that they are very deliberately wrought. david is right, it's certainly interesting, tho i'm ambivalent about the corner. there is apparently something kinda zen about calligraphy-- as witnessed by the great oriental painters with their practiced spontaneity and the exhaustively intricate renderings of medieval decorators of biblical texts. it may have something to do with mortality-- coming to one's end-- for only one line remains for the aged and dutiful stenographer of cryptic knowledge. anyway, what the hell: it's fun to consider, and that makes a great photograph! cheers.

always a marvel to behold, the lights are spellbinding: like a wild stroke of kelly green spray paint against the arctic sky. a great capture, both documentary and artistic.

nice pic: it conveys incredible mass and brawn. excellent light with a key habitat element included in the form of the acacia. line of the tusk gives balance to better-lit right side. good field study. save the rhino indeed!

groovy pic, i like the colors and textures. the door handle's keyhole suggests something of a snake eye, giving the image a strong focal point. good work.

thanks sheryl, good hearing from you again. yep, reckon i'll have to find some similar kinds of windows to add to the ol' collection. cheers.

hi jim

 

thanks for taking the time to comment. one version i did had big cactus back there, but i agree with you: it seems the minimal background keeps it clean and simple. thanks to everyone who rated.

 

cheers, chris

for once i was ready with my camera when this guy hopped onto an adobe wall feet

from where i was sitting.

seductively simple and utterly charming.

i'm fascinated and delighted by the tight webs of foliage-- like a fine etching hand colored. intricate and nicely flowing. bravo.

good score! brilliant documentation of the thrill and power of a fast moving squall. the foreground really locks it in too. bravo.

i like. the sign seems to bend in anticipation of the weighty cloud. overall the various lines push and pull in a way that draws us in. good pic.

hi. thanks for sharing any ideas or sundry acumen.