fmueller

Tony,

I think what initially made me suspicious about this photo is not a general assumption that good photography can no longer be created without the use of photoshop, but the same details that Christopher Thompson noticed, namely the shape and flight pattern of the birds.

Most certainly ducks have a different shape. I am no ornithologist, but I believe that they have a different flight pattern too. I believe when they are flying in a flock they will all have their wings in about the same position at any given time. Assuming that these birds are ducks, Christoher gave a plausible explanation how such an 'unnatural flight pattern' could have been created by somebody with better photoshop skills than knowledge of ornithology.

Of course I did not analyse all these aspects whan I first looked at the picture, but having read the title made my brain expect ducks, and the picture just looked unnatural to me.

However, once you realise that the birds are actually cormorans - more commonly known as shaggs to Australian readers ;-) - this whole issue resolves itself, as do the concerns that some people raised about the size relationships between the trees and the birds. Cormorans are a lot bigger than ducks!

I too, was wondering if this is photoshopped, and was amazed when I read it isn't.

It must have been quite bright despite the fog, if you could use a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the birds in flight as you did - but I suppose using ISO800 film and a f2.8 lens would help. There doesn't seem to be much DOF required here.

Did you record shutter speed and aperture by any chance, or can you roughly remember what they were? I am most curious.

That you caught one of the little birds in the tree in flight adds a lovely detail.

Congratulation to a wonderful and unique photo.

Hi Dejan, like pretty much all pictures in my portfolio this was scanned using a Minolta Scan Dual II film scanner with the Vuescan software at maximum resolution. If there is an objectionable colour cast I will correct it in Photoshop by using curves, usually in CMYK mode. This was not necessary for this particular shot, and I just I sharpened the L channel in LAB mode. I then reduced the size to 800x???, converted back to RGB mode and saved as JPEG.

So it is enhanced in Photoshop, but just unsharp masking, not the colours, and there is no print - I scanned the slide.

A much photographed subject, but I think the lighting makes this shot

special.

Any comments & suggestions appreciated.

Many thanks

Sunset over Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra, Australia.

All comments & suggestions appreciated.

Many thanks

I discovered this lizard's regular sun bathing branch on one of my

walks around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, Australia.

Any comments and suggestions appreciated.

Good thing you stopped. A great shot - you are right, it looks like some sort of mystical sun symbol.

Since you might be able to go back and take another photo I wonder if/how you could get more contrast into it, and if this would improve the photo at all. Maybe if you could have the sun behind you when you take the photo (morning, late afternoon), it would light up the gate and you could darken the sky by using a polariser.

I would be very tempted to further experiment with this subject, but the picture is pretty good as it is.

I find this shot captures the spirit of this amazing train journey on

the South Island of New Zealand well. All comments and suggestions

appreciated. Feel free to look at the remainder of the Taieri Gorge

Train folder.

All comments and suggestions appreciated!

Many thanks

All comments and suggestions appreciated.

After I have finally got my scannig problems sorted out, you can now

devore your full attention to the actual shot ;-)

Many thanks

Frank

This is quite a neat shot - more comical anyhow than some of the other stuff we have been served in this category.

However, there are several areas in which the picture could be significantly improved. Some of them could easily be addressed now by appropriate post-processing.

First of all there could be more colour/contrast. I think strong colours would realy help to underline the comic nature of the photo. As an alternative, you might wish to check how this picture looks in B&W - as one previous commenter remarked, it's almost B&W as it is. In this contect, I'd love to know which of the four film was actually used.

Also, I find the background in this shot rather distracting. At least it doesn't seem to add anything valuable to the shot. Particularly the 5th penguin is disctincly present, but so out of focus that he only appears as a white blobb.

Unfortunately you can't get rid of him by cropping, but you should at the very least crop the unsightly white margin around the top of the picture.

This is great! For a photo from the other side of the street see my portfolio. It's a little down (or up?) the river too.

I love the colours in my shot but I kept on looking for something to put in the foreground. Too bad I didn't come up with the light trails idea :(

"social renegades such as myself" -- Tris Schuler

Tris, with your writing skills I bet it wouldn't take you long to turn this into a mission statement for yourself ;-)

Aldo. One honour you certainly do deserve is that of "Most Ungracious PoW Recipient."-- Vuk Vuksanovic

What a terrible thing to say. I think he's been in there boxing with the best. He's missed a few sucker punches, and flailed a bit, but Ungracious! No.-- Henri Mathieu

I believed Vuk's comment to be a compliment that I had not previously thought him to be capable of - who wants to be gracious?

I live in Australia where these sorts of images are not so "cliche" as someone put it (we have our homeless problems, sure, but obviously nowhere near as bad as you guys).

Open you eyes, mate, open your eyes! You don't even have to go to Alice Springs. I live in Canberra and there are more homeless people here than in most places in the US I have been to.

I don't know if it's intentional, but the wizard's upraised hand is mirrored in the statue behind.

I don't know either, but if this guy has been around for 20 years, I wouldn't be surprised ;-)

It is easy to do street photography . . . .

You couldn't be more mistaken, Frank.

Tris, you have quoted this out of context. It is easy to do street photography in the way this POW is done - but it is hard to do it well!

You might wish to re-read my initial post. I have the highest regard for street photography.

Well, I think that's easy to answer, Mike Czepiel's photo shows a group of homeless people in an unexpected situation - enjoying a good time. This reveals their humanity, ie it conveys the message that they are people like you and me, not just the faceless, suffering subjects that many of see on a daily basis in the centres of big cities around the globe.

The current POW shows a homeless person in exactly this latter, totally expected, role. Whatever the good intentions of the photographer might have been, IMHO he has failed to express them in this photo, which consequently might appear voyeuristic to many, including myself.

It is easy to do street photography, and pictures of suffering people will always have a 'wow' effect with a large audience. However, it usually requires some sort of engagement with the subject do this sort of photography well.

Even though both of the photos discussed might have been the result of 'drive by shooting', Mike Czepiel's photo does not look like it, the current POW does.

OK, I think I arrived at this conclusion once before and I should have just kept my mouth shut.

From what I understand Juergen wanted to have a dark murky/moody foreground with little detail, he wanted to make this the main focus of the picture, he has achieved what he set out to do, and who are we to question the value of this endeavour.

Brian Mottershead wrote: I am sure that when Juergen has collected his thoughts, he will speak for himself; however, I suspect that what is on display is what he visualized. Probably he exposed for the sky, knowing that this would underexpose the foreground and render it dark

Brian, you seem to have overlooked the third contribution of this thread were Juergen stated that in this picture his emphasis was on the foreground, not on the sky.

This is the latest of many efforts to get a good shot of a bee in the

lemon tree in my garden.

Grateful for any comments or suggestions.

Just wondering what it takes to become known as a B&W photographer around here. Tony Dummett was listed in the catogory, and his portfolio contains 26 B&W but 36 colour photos (I just counted). In fact, his POW is in colour!

Is the underlying assumption 'good photographer = B&W photographer' showing through in some of the posts above?

Just me pouring oil into the fire ;-)

Wonderful shot by Ian. This is not your usual eye catcher. I suppose that's easier to achieve in colour, but can be done in B&W also, as eg. Chris Battey's photos 'Trish, Saturday Night' and 'Hawkeye's Portrait' show. Ian's work is much more quiet.

'Children in Wales' gets better the longer you look at it. Many thanks to the Elves for bringing it to our attention.

The last two POWs have really been a revelation for me regarding composition. I think the short take home message is 'tight cropping is not everything', but of course it is much more complex than that. I am just hoping that with lots of practice I can incorporate at least some of this technique in my own work.