Chat- PICK ME UP - w/e comp 21st to 23rd Jan 2011

[HinFrance]

Above: Highlandscenincs – Take a Seat. What a perfect place. Nicely done, but I'm afraid that the composition just doesn't quite work for me – I'm not sure whether to focus on the bench or the path or the waterfall.

Below: jinky – Pick Me, No Pick Me. Practicing the bakery again? Lovely looking cakes, and I would pick one up, but I picked up a good book instead If you'll forgive me for saying these are not quite up to your usual photographic standard. A little more depth of field would have stopped the bottoms of the cakes from blurring.

Anyway, just posted the theme for the coming weekend, and then noticed that ogga had already done a picture with the thought I had come up with. Still, I might do it anyway and see how it turns out.

[Reinardina]

First of all congratulations to the joint winners and also to the runner up!
DD that was a great gritty piece of (almost) reality.

My comments on the 'above' and 'below' pictures (subjective as always):

Above: Eyeayen's 'Iced.'
I don't know what it is, but it did not remind me of a real G&T. I knew it wasn't real in the first place, but I don't think that prejudiced me. The colour seems to be too pale and the fizz wasn't fizzing enough somehow. Insipid is the word that almost immediately sprang to mind and however hard I looked at it, it did not improve.

Below: Silversnapper's 'Sunrise Surprise.' I love the colours and patterns in the sky and I felt your happy surprise at the unexpected sunshine; after all, I was enticed out by the same glorious weather. But it didn't go further than that, with which you should be very happy, as I wouldn't know how you, or your wife would react if I suddenly had a great desire to be there and you found me in your back garden, admiring the view!

[michaelb104]

Firstly congratulations to Mark and H on the joint win, I was unsure which one of the two I was going to vote for but in the end my vote went to H but it was close. Also we done DD on a very close runner up, it doesn’t half give your ego a boost eh!

Thank you for my vote, much appreciated.

Andy thanks for picking such a challenging subject and still getting so many entries.

My above and belows, these are my opinion only and to be taken with a pinch of salt as I’m still waiting to get to the level where I can talk about a photo with knowledge.

Wavemachine – A nice idea that never even entered my head, you’ve really highlighted the money with the depth of field and focus point (is the rubber band a Post Office one?), I do find the single ivy leaf a little distracting but overall a really good photo that fitted the theme

DigiDiva – With all the chat beforehand I didn’t think anybody would actually do this shot but well done for giving it a go and pulling it off (as the voting showed). I think your worries about the noise were unfounded as it just adds to the atmosphere and enhances the photo, as mentioned earlier maybe a black and white conversion would make it even grittier. I have to agree with others and say I’m not sure it fitted the theme as I’m not sure either the ladies or gents feel better from being in this situation, but keep up the good work

Best put my thinking cap on to think of a well known saying now!!

[wavemachine]

Thanks for the critique Mike, the rubber band is indeed a post office one. I wasn't sure about the Ivy leaf myself and nearly cloned it out but didn't want the shot to look to artificial although I could have removed it in situe but I simply didn't pick it up then (no pun intended).

Forgot to mention that I voted for Ogallily with Royal Flush to me it was a stunning shot well lit, nice colours, lovely DOF, good compostion and I just wanted to grab the cards absolutely cracking shot.

Forgot to also thank Andy for picking such a fun and challenging theme.

Have some ideas for this weeks theme so time to make them so

[Eyeayen]

Thanks for the crits on mine, I'm really struggling with my lighting, I tried the side shot but it just looked absolutely rubbish, and the cheapo water I bought to try and replace the G&T visually didn't have a lot of fizz to it so the effect looked really poor and I was too embarrassed to post the side shots I got with the combination of bad lighting and lack of bubbles, also I haven't gone and bought any large white paper to use as back drops and you could see the break in the paper, so in in all a bit of a failure this week... we live and learn...

Above and Belows...

Above - Peter Piper, take your pick

Sorry this didn't grab me at all, yes the title was a very clever play on words and all that but all the colours seemed to be quite distracting and leading out the top of the image, I also found the colour cast at the bottom of the green purple distracting in the image, maybe black and white would have made the impact more, it didn't grab me though.

Below - Promise of Spring

Quite a nice shot, good colours, shame the background wasn't more out of focus to lessen it's effect on the image, the bright yellow's were lovely but maybe the dark area's of the image were too much and the yellow should have been cropped in tighter ? Also with it's spikey bits this didn't capture what the theme was in my eyes, the title didn't fit the image in my opinion either, when people say 'spring', gorse is the last thing that comes to mind.

DigiDiva got my vote, great effort getting a model to pose in the freezing weather and getting the most votes you've ever achieved.