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Weekly #490 - Roadscape Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 04/12/2016
Judge: JAK

You may believe I've just made up the word 'Roadscape' but it actually is a word that features in the English Oxford Dictionary. It is described, "A view or prospect provided by a road or roads; a picture or other artistic interpretation of a road or roads."
So show me your photographic interpretation of a 'Roadscape.'

Usual rules-
Entries can be shot for the competition or taken from your archives.
Pentax cameras only apart from the exceptions as usual which include Ricoh and some Samsung clones.
The winner will be expected to set and judge the next weekly competition.
Closing date midnight (GMT) Sunday 4th December.
Competition Entries
JAK
Posted 05/12/2016 - 00:12 Link
How on earth is one supposed to judge and select a winner from such a varied and excellent selection of photographs. All have their merits though some are more 'roadscapy' than others. I can't though just ignore the ones that have gone off on a bit of a tangent as they bring something extra to the theme. However the theme requested a roadscape, not a photograph of something else that just happens to include a road. One image submitted managed to reverse that by having the subject the result of the road which has grown on me each time I see it. Please remember all these thoughts are my own personal opinions, I'm positive others will think differently.

The road out of the woods - Perspicador
I'm not really convinced this is a roadscape. It's certainly a novel interpretation but I keep coming back to the thought that the subject here is the mobility scooter and not the road/path which is purely incidental to the photograph. We're left wondeirng what it's doing there, riderless! From an artistic point of view the subject is too central, consider designing the finished image around the rule of thirds. It might not work for every subject, but at least use it as a starting point. Have a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

The Road Home - AndrewA
A January winter sunset features here with a road heading west, leading to the sunset. A super roadscape, simple, effective, and I can feel the evening chill! And I think I'd be pleased to get home sooner rather than later. Hope you weren't broken down with time on your hands to take it! Just wondering the the image might work better with a horizontal flip so it 'reads' left to right? It might not be how it was in reality, but artistically I feel it would look better and there isn't anything in the photo such as a road sign to give the 'game' away!

Durham Dales - tyronet2000
Another chilly roadscape, even colder than the previous one, probably due to it being in B&W. The composition gets slightly distracted by the nearby bend where the road veers left then later comes back into frame and starts veering right; I appreciate you didn't design the road (presumably!) What might have worked better is loosing the first bend and concentrating the photograph on the road where it comes back into view and goes up the hill. It would, in my opinion, have made for a stronger, though simpler image.

Surrey Road in Snow - GlynM
Thought I recognised the location right away! Yet another chilly prospect. The very subdued colours suit the subject well. Great capture of a snowy day. I like it very much. It's a scene that would look good framed hung on a wall display.

Wet Manchester Streets - johnriley
There are some lovely textures here which have captured the mood of the autumn day very well, and the use of the leaves close by gives the photo good depth. The low view point to make the leaves prominent has led to pointing the camera up a little which has caused the buildings to appear to lean backwards slightly which is a bit unsettling; I wonder if this could be cured by a perspective tweak? Not withstanding, I do like the feel of the photograph, in particular the wetness look of the paving and the leaves.

The Long descent - paulb531
You're right about the location, more precisely it was taken in Glen Docherty and you're heading towards Loch Maree. (You were at OS Grid Ref NH 067593. Hope that helps!) I seem to remember having to sort out where my slide of it was taken! Certainly a good interpretation of the view and roadscape, albeit from a well frequented tripod spot, however it's a view one can't resist taking the moment you come across it.

A One Legged Man Running for a Bus on a Foggy November Afternoon - kh1234567890
A really interesting photograph, and definitely includes a road! But the real subject isn't the road, it's the interaction on the left between the one legged man and the bus as recognised in your title. You did well to spot it and photograph it as its just a fleeting moment. I do like this image very much but given the subject is the happening on the left the roadscape element of it is purely incidental. Had the competition theme been 'A One Legged Man Running for a Bus on a Foggy November Afternoon' it most certainly would have won!

Light Trails on the A14 - vic cross
It's a photograph of a road - which is what was asked for! And very good it is too. Great composition, good exposure, the light trails get hidden at the end rather than simply go out of frame. I've seen this done before but not always as well as this. Spot on.

All too often - michaelblue
I like the idea of the headlights floating over the road, it makes a wonderful pictorial roadscape, but think I'd have preferred this without the run-over fox. Initially I dismissed this image from being a contender but on reflection it is quite relevant, well thought out and very well photographed. I keep coming back to this. It may have helped my decision making not to hide the exif!

Bend - Simonmac
Technically this has been very well handled. It can be quite difficult to get acceptable looking results in built up areas due to the highlights and shadows one finds. This has managed to overcome that potential difficulty very well. Care too has been made to keep the buildings perfectly upright in the frame. As a record of the area the photograph is superb. As a pictorial piece it's a shame the composition doesn't feature an 'S' bend as the picture reads initially from left to right, then goes back left again leading the viewer back out of the picture! After reflecting on what else is left after the road has gone I find very little to focus on. I'm sure there's a great pictorial photograph waiting to be found nearby using much the same technique as this one, but I don't think this is it.

Buffalo crossing - Noelcmn
Just a couple of weeks ago I changed my dash cam, on reflection perhaps that's subconsciestly how this theme came about this week. I can just imagine it recording one of these leaping out in front of me! This is a roadscape with a difference, like some of the other photos this week, the road has come incidental to the subject here (the buffalo.) It's a great photographic capture (I presume you didn't really capture it!) The road itself isn't particularly notable however. I really appreciate seeing this photograph of the buffalo crossing the tundra (is that the correct term?) It is a well taken photograph, nicely composed, but I feel the roadscape element is not the main feature of this image.

Dont know why - ken2390
Fortunately I haven't been tasked with selecting one high street over another as well, judging the photos is more than enough for today! Composition - good. Image quality - a bit dull, could do with a contrast boost or maybe HDR it to make it more vibrant (unless you wanted to make it look rather dull in which case you've succeeded!) I'd consider this to be a pedestrian-precinct-scape with the road paved over. Looking at this today it is an everyday scene that could have been taken in any high street, but in the years to come it will be a historical document of our age as early 20th century photographs are to us today. I wonder what this will look like in a 100 years time.

Foggy rural Mid-Devon rush hour... - MikeInDevon
I'm often attracted to scenes like this when driving along but it isn't always possible to find somewhere to stop safely to take them. Kudos points for doing so. I note this was taken during the last week so wonder if you had the competition in mind when you took it?
The photograph has atmosphere (literally!) which is great and I really do like the two crossing trees and the gate which add to quite an artistic interpretation of a roadscape. Also to depict the scene much as I suspect you saw it. Well done for that. It's actually got a sort of an 'old masters' look about it!

Rural Roadscape with Signs! - drofmit
Wow, what a lot of signs for such a minor road work. Interestingly, the yellow 'think' sign wouldn't be illegal in the UK, it's the wrong colour. Our local council did put up some yellow road signs (goodness knows why) and I had to point out to them that they did not comply with the DfT traffic signs manual. They replaced them eventually. As for taking six months to sort it out the waterduct, we had a road subside due to undermining by badgers and it took nearly three years to fix it! Your photograph is an excellent image to document the events of installing the waterduct, it succeeds perfectly for the task. It is though more of a record of the event than an artistic roadscape.

Taxi! - andymat
That almost looks colour popped yellow, only it's natural, or I presume it is! Even the traffic lights are yellow, and the contractors' vehicle in the building works on the left. Only the shop name banner on the right suggests it wasn't colour popped. The photograph doesn't have any single subject, yet cumulatively the taxis combine to make one. Not sure how anyone would know which lane to drive in. Its a really interesting photograph. Technically I don't think it could be improved on. I looked at your Google link and it has nothing like the abundance of yellow as in your photo and the linear park doesn't feature in your photo. I'm guessing the linear park was once a railway viaduct. Well done on your image!


As I said earlier, in some of the images the road seemed to be a secondary part of the photograph to some other main subject, that's why several interesting images didn't make the podium. Also it's a shame the exif wasn't available for the second placed entry as it is a very powerful image. In fact it has been a toss up between the top two since they were posted, but I have given the win to Vic due to the missing info in Michael's entry. I'm not suggesting there's anything inappropriate with Michael's image just that he has left us a little in the dark about it. I'd make them both first if I could.

1st: Light Trails on the A14 - vic cross
2nd: All too often - michaelblue
3rd=: Surrey Road in Snow - GlynM
3rd=: Taxi! - andymat
HCs: The Road Home - AndrewA, The Long descent - paulb531, Foggy rural Mid-Devon rush hour... - MikeInDevon

I'm sure we all have our own favourite entries and the order here is purely my own thoughts which has been changing continuously. It's been hard deciding! Once again, well done to all who entered and thanks for all the fabulous photographs. It's been an honour to judge them. Over to Vic for next week.
John K
tyronet2000
Posted 05/12/2016 - 08:23 Link
Congratulations to the Winner and other places. Thanks to JAK for the interesting subject judging and comprehensive comments.
Regards
Stan

PPG
AndrewA
Posted 05/12/2016 - 09:22 Link
Well done everybody, and great theme.

Interestingly John, the original of mine was the other way around, I flipped it, I will post it in the gallery.
Andrew

"I'm here because the whiskey is free" - Tyla

PPG link
Flickr link
vic cross
Posted 05/12/2016 - 09:24 Link
Thanks JAK. Well that's the last thing I thought would happen. I have always dreaded winning. Not because I have to set next weeks theme but because I'll have to judge them and I don't know if I'm qualified to do that but I'll give it a try.
I thought the Long decent was a cracker, and the rural roadscape with signs would have beaten me. Congrats to everyone else. It was a good show this week.
Having used the word cracker I thought that might be a good subject. "CRACKERS"
there are Cream crackers, Christmas crackers, Firework crackers, Crispy pig skin crackers. AND anything or anyone that is just plain "CRACKERS"
CHEERS
Born again biker with lots of Pentax bits. Every day I wake up is a good day. I'm so old I don't even buy green bananas.
Noelcmn
Posted 05/12/2016 - 09:33 Link
Congratulations Vic, wonderful image, those starbursts are magical. Worthy winner in a tough challenge, and even tougher Judge Extended to michaelblue, GlynM, andymat and the HC's AndrewA, paulb531 and MikeinDevon. Thanks to our Judge's work, which despite the description of being tough, is much appreciated. A learning curve that one!
Mag07
Posted 05/12/2016 - 09:56 Link
Awesome topic and great judging. Congrats to a worthy winner and everyone else. So many lovely photographs
'Photography...it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten....' (Aaron Siskind)
GlynM
Posted 05/12/2016 - 10:20 Link
Many thanks John for a grand competition, writing a fantastic set of reviews and your excellent judging.

Thanks also for the joint 3rd place .

Congratulations to Vic for the well deserved winning image, my fellow runners-up and everyone else for another great set of pictures.

Glyn
Simonmac
Posted 05/12/2016 - 10:30 Link
Great winning entries.

Tough yet eloquent judging and some interesting lessons.

I will be sticking to my world view though!

All the best.
macmccreery.com
www.flickr.com/photos/simac/
www.500px.com/simac
Posted 05/12/2016 - 11:10 Link
Thanks for a great competition, entries and critiques. An HC, I'm chuffed! And yes I did take my entry with this competition in mind.

Cheers
Mike
JAK
Posted 05/12/2016 - 14:04 Link
Thank you all for your thanks and anecdotes!
John K
andymat
Posted 05/12/2016 - 16:03 Link
Yes - Thanks John for the comprehensive comments . And an interesting set of images - well done all!

Just to confirm that the colours other than yellow were subdued shall we say in my image, Taxi! I just felt it was already very busy and decided it looked better with less colour. So your eyes weren't deceiving you!

And good luck to Vic for the judging - you'll be fine!
paulb531
Posted 05/12/2016 - 17:32 Link
Congratulations to Vic - excellent winning shot. Many thanks to JAK for the competition and the feedback which was excellent. Thanks also for identifying the spot where it was taken. I was on my way to Torridon Youth hostel after starting the morning in Inverness and wasn't sure of the exact location.

Regards

Paul
michaelblue
Posted 11/12/2016 - 15:08 Link
Many thanks JAK for the competition and your kind comments about my photo.
Congratulations to Vic and Glyn for wonderful entries and well done evryone for a varied selection

I'm not sure what happened to the EXIF, my uploads here seem to have a problem with EXIF....either a jumbled mess or nothing at all, if anyone can help I'd be very grateful
Regards,
Michael

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