t37traveler

Beautiful color and lighting on the dove, and wonderful detail and clarity. My only comment is that  I wish the background were a little less "busy" or perhaps a little softer.   The large areas of white, especially in the lower right, keep drawing my eye from the dove.  

Bachir - Thank you very much for your comments,  and for sharing your feelings and perceptions that this photo awakened. It means a lot to an artist when someone truly connects with his/her work.

Any comments suggestions appreciated. I shot this during the 202 Kelby

Walk in Leesburg, VA. It struck me as just a little different from the usual

bike pic.... and it's my first motorcycle shot.

Tony - 

Nice to hear from you! Thanks for your comments. This was shot early in the morning - misty and very unphotogenic skies, hence the crop at the top, which really accented the reflections.  (And I'm sure you got some great shots in spite of the skies in Brooklyn - you always manage to squeeze lemons into lemonade!)

Giuseppe, PDE and Sergio - thank you for your comments

@ Dave-  I love your pun. The glass blur  was a DOF choice I had to make - no way to get the glass and the clock tower, hundreds of feet away, both in acceptable focus - the broken glass was just too close. I suppose I could have taken multiple shots with varying focus points, but I wasn't thinking in those terms at this point.... but I opted for a bit of soft foreground for a bit of 3-D effect ... overall I am happy with the photo, but would like to go back and try other options, provided the glass is still there!  Thank you for commenting.

A place in ruins, the site of 1001 horrors for the mentally ill and criminally

insane from the Civil War era to the 1960s... located in Weston, WV. Full

of "rust, rot and ruin." I moved a piece of wood from in front of a broken

pane of glass to get this shot of the asylum clock tower.

Comments/suggestions welcomed. I thought about cropping the bottom a

bit to reduce the black roofing cap on the lower right, but then the photo

lost the sense of depth created by the long roof line. Yes or no? crop or do

not crop or other suggestion?

Larry - 

Wonderful water/rockscape.  Love the colors and lighting.  This is one of those photos that could have been sharpened into banality. You didn't do that. It is tack sharp in the foreground, and sharp but soft (if that makes sense) in the background, which really helps create a 3-D effect. The softness of the water and background cliff  is perfect and sets the mood. Well done. You have really motivated me to get to Zion, especially since I have a good friend in UT... no excuses!

Beautiful.. reminds me of a patchwork quilt made of tulips. Love the colors, lighting and composition. Fun to look at and a "must have" for every wall in February!  : )

Tony - 

I've been wondering what you've been up to; now I know! This is an incredibly beautiful pice of work. The sky and its reflection, along with the "directional nudge" from the rock and driftwood, simply suck my eyes straight to the deepest recess of the photo where I wait, breathlessly, for the that moment when the sun flickers out at the horizon line. Your placement of the horizon line just barely about the midpoint is perfection. Nice sense of suspense in the midst of serenity. Just sit and stare, waiting for the light to go out.  I could hang this on my wall in a heartbeat!  

This is an item from nature; photo was created entirely in camera with a

pirsm lens- no post process special effects filters used. Comments would

be much appreciated.

Alf -

Thanks for the comments and careful observation. I don't see any white specks at all in the background, and I gunned up my monitor brightness all the way. I've also had this printed twice, in two different large sizes, and they didn't show up in the printing (or they would have been gone immediately) and photo reprinted. But I hate the idea that they are there and someone can see them. What size/kind of monitor do you use? The background was dark green shrubbery = no sky peaking thru... maybe it was another rose... but I sure ca't find it. Maybe I'll take this to my printing guru and see what his large screen 

Tony - thank you for your comments. I submitted a square crop of this for a competitiion a year ago, and the judge loved it all the way to first place honors - however she is from this area of CA, and I suspect has a fondness these types of sea/landscapes.

Fabulous shot with great bokeh in the background and perfect detail on the subject. This is not an Eastern Bluebird (they have red breasts) like we have in the SE US.

What kind is it? It is lovely - and I think too big to be an Indigo Bunting, which is the only "all blue" bird I know of.

Beautiful piece of work. Love the diagonal created by leaves - just strong enough.  Lovely light and colors. 

Interesting concept, well named - and well done! It reminds of the sculpture in Paris in which a man is emerging from a stone wall.

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! Lighting, leading lines, reflections, soft gentle colors, mist... so worth braving the cold temps to snag this shot!  Well done!!

Lovely lighting and intriguing design. The only suggestion I would make is that I would have preferred to have seen more of the right side  elements - I think the spiral would be much stronger if it weren't cropped so closely - but perhaps  you couldn't get more to the right. Would love to know where this was taken; I spent a year in Paris as a student....way back when.

Hi Richard - Thanks so much for your comments. You are right; it is a pretty high contrast photo. I never really thought much about that really since it is a not a "pure" BW.

I actually shot this hand out outside, literally  in the early morning dew (and rain drops). It was not done in a studio with a black backdrop. The light was pretty flat, so I bounced my flash.  (Would have loved to have gotten rid of that shadow on the right, but I only had one flash at the time...but maybe that adds some dimension and softness).

The background was very dull, lifeless "olivey" green foliage that I thought detracted from the pale pastel pink and yellow colors of the rose.  When I converted it into BW, the background mostly disappeared into the dark, and I helped the few bits that remained to disappear as well.

Richard - Thank you for your comments. I was shaking like a leaf for two hours after I shot this. It was more emotional and exciting than I ever imagined. So glad I did it.  I decided about 20 minutes before Discovery was "scheduled" to fly by to go out and try to get a shot. I made it to an overpass near the Dulles Toll Road with time to spare... one of the benefits of (formerly now) living within ten minutes of that airport. Even being so close, I used my Sigma 50-500 racked all the way out to get this. I couldn't have asked for a better vantage point and angle.  End of an era......

Beautiful lighting!

Alf-

I love your entire  "Vague Recollections" series. Tranquil, beautifully composed and a wonderful addition to any wall. 

Painted on the wall of a building in a small NC town.... it made me chuckle,

and I liked the textures. Comments?

Hey PDE - good to hear from you! I've been off PN for over a year...doing a lot of photography, figuring out where I'm going as a photographer.  Thanks for your comments!