Monthly Competition # 15 The letter A. Competition

Thanks for the entries to this competition it was hard to judge them.
This is just my opinion and it may well be wrong so here we go.

Learning to fly
Nice opportunist shot but I think a tighter crop may work better as the main subject is a bit
lost in the background.

Amplifier.
Great use of depth of field here with nice lines fading into the distance. I think I would have moved the focus point more to the right and used a slightly narrower aperture bring the on off light more into play.

Amanita Muscaria.
Nice shot of a very colourful fungus, perhaps a lower angle may have worked a bit better but I find the out of focus blades of grass in the fore ground a bit distracting I have been known to cut them away with a pair of scissors.

Alcedo Athis.
Having tried to capture these on a couple of occasions and failing to get a decent shot I liked I know how difficult it can be. But this is a bit on the blurry side whether this is down to camera shake or missed focus I do not know but keep at it practice,practice.

Acorn
Quite a bit of work gone into this and it shows I tried focus stacking once before and failed miserably Well done

Alcedo Atthis.
Great shot, great pose, pin sharp where it needs to be nice colours fantastic.

Arches
Nicely composed shot with the tree framing it and the pebbles in the river giving a bit of fore ground interest and nice detail in the bridge,not sure about the thick black frame though.

Underneath the arches.
Nice colours and detail in the shot but I find the composition a bit strange. I think a few steps backward to include the bottom of the gate and the wall would have been more pleasing.

Anchor
Nice colours, textures and sharpness . Perhaps a tighter crop may have worked better to isolate the main subject.

Apalis
Not sure about this one as the subject seems a bit lost in the frame there is loads going on down the left hand side that does not really need top be there also I think you have missed the focus on the bird as the branch above and in front seems sharper to my eyes.

A million pounds worth of Aston Martins.
Certainly a bob or two parked there, an unusual crop but I like it and also the mono conversion.
I think I would have cropped the left side straight down the middle of the wheel as I feel there is some thing missing there . Great spot.

Ancient Architecture.
Definitely not a lot straight there . Nice colours to the buildings and good detail and a nicely exposed sky. I love old French buildings and the different pastel tones you can get but we have not been for a couple of years, must remedy that.

A Natural Arch
Well spotted ,nice light and detail if this was hand held at ¼ sec well done A few years ago I would have had a rope over the top of that and a great swing would have been made!!

Apple Preserves for a cold Canadian Winter.
Nice bright sharp clean image might have moved that left Apple into the frame more instead of cutting it off and maybe had the top of the storage jar in the shot.Bet your kitchen smells nice.


1st Alcedo Atthis Pentaxfriend
2nd Acorn GlynM
3rd Amanita Muscaria John Riley.

Many thanks George for another good competition, a great set of comments and, of course the judging .

Thanks also for awarding my acorn image the coveted 2nd place.

Congratulations to Pentaxfriend for the well deserved and beautifully shot winning image, John Riley with whom we share the podium and everyone else for a great set of pictures.

Glyn

Congratulations to everybody for the beautiful pics! Especially to the three people standing on the podium!
Big thanks to geordie01 for the competition (and the feedback for my pic! )

Well done to Pentaxfriend for the win and to Glyn and John for their podiums. Thanks to Geordie for the comp and judging.

All the best....Jim

Congrats Pentxfriend. That is a super shot. And to Glyn and John. Thanks for judging and constructive comments Geordie.

Well deserved win to pentaxfreind, it's a smashing shot. On to the next