Weekly #509 - Clocks Competition

apologies, having written comments 3 times now, twice accidently closing the tab and once having completed everything then pressing select winner and seeing everything vanish, i'm on the verge of throwing my laptop across the room. I will add comments later

Many thanks John for awarding my turret clock the winning slot . I thought it was a great competition subject which produced a very nice set of pictures.

Probably hind-site now but I find the easiest way of doing the reviews is to write them in your preferred word processor, but keeping the format simple, and then just cut & paste them into the comments here. It means you are exposed for the least amount of time to variances of the web and have a fall-back if it all goes wrong.

I look forward to seeing your comments.

I will post a new subject up soon.

Glyn

This happened to me when I was new to PUF and won my first weekly competition. Now I write the comments as the week goes on into Office Word and store it in My Documents. I also make a copy on a memory stick just in case.
This was a very enjoyable competition with some fine entries John, thanks for the subject and many congratulations to Glyn on his well deserved win.
David

Beautiful entries and a worthy winner. Co gratulations all. As for vanishing comments, I either do what David suggested or select/copy to clipboard every paragraph or so (Shift A, Ctrl C); you can paste it (Ctrl V) back even after browser crash. Granted, all this advice doesn't make it any better now

You really need to it this way, but be prepared for late arrivals..

Ok, I was going to say this is my first go at judging, but seeing as this is the 4th time I’ve written these comments I actually feel pretty well qualified now !! These are only my opinions and or ideas around what I may have done with the image, so no rights or wrongs.

Clock Tower – Perspicador
Nice and big in the frame with good natural light, a vignette could have toned down the plain blue of the sky and added something to the whole.
Solar Powered Clock – Mudge
I wondered if there’d be any sundials submitted and this is a beauty. I love the stark whiteness of the building contrasted by the almost paint like appearance of the handrail and shutters. My view is pulled to the right and you do get a great image if you crop just to the left of the lamp, but a fab shot overall.

Isham Church Clock – Vic Cross

I like the foreground interest generated by the slow shutter speed, unfortunately this has blown out the areas where the spotlights illuminate the tower. It’s a beautiful building which has a great image waiting to be drawn from it.
On the Clocktower – Abe_Normal
A gorgeous clock with good detail throughout, which I think is difficult with gold. It is a little soft in areas due to the crop, and if it’s part of a larger image I’d consider revisiting to give it a shot in its own right. I’m curious as to how it’d look with a subtle hdr treatment. Nice
The Shepherd 24 Hr clock – Smudge
Beautifully sharp considering the low light and slow shutter, and a unique and important time piece to boot. So sharp in fact that this would have stood a tighter crop to exclude the additional viewer.

French Baroque – Davidwozhere
I was intrigued by the angle here; a quick google shows that there are some unsightly low hanging lights which spoil a more conventional viewpoint. Therefore I believe you’ve gotten possibly the cleanest shot possible. Considering all the glass I think it’s great exposure and depth of field. The more I look at it, the better it becomes.
Countdown to Noon – David Troy
A lovely clock, well lit, strong in the frame and a lovely verdigris colouring. I can’t say why but it looks strangely at odds with its background. A pity because it detracts from an otherwise attractive piece, but one I’d keep and use in a future creative shot.
Buckingham Town Clock _ Laupd
Great use of vignette and burning to draw the eye to the clock, however this is still untidy through the bottom 1/3. A tighter crop perhaps from the roofline upwards and some texturing in the sky may benefit, though the actual clock could be sharper.
The Original Clock – i-berg
Love this, the texture, the simplicity, the alternative interpretation of the subject, beautiful.
It’s not a clock though, sorry.
Right twice a day – drofmit
A Plethora of clocks.This is busy but still feels balanced. Lovely and sharp throughout and well lit despite all those reflective surfaces. I think I’d be losing money at this stall.
Turret Clock Workings – Glyn M
I hoped I’d see something like this, the inner beauty of precision engineering that makes a mechanical clock. An excellent record shot that I think a master craftsman could use to re build from. Thankyou for sharing this image
If It aint Baroque – go4IT
A gorgeous piece, great choice of background colour to show the gold colour against. The face on the character looks slightly out of focus , though the adjacent branch is sharp in the same plane. Is this a focus stack or perhaps a reflection throwing my eye. None the less, beautiful whether functional or simply aesthetic. Fab record.
Sundial – Paulb531
Another sundial, somewhat different than would be seen in an English churchyard. A well taken shot as assuming its right, the noon day sun would lend itself to overexposure , especially with the colour range involved. Not to denigrate its location, but some blurring of the background and clone out of the spots would enhance the overall image. Lovely shades of blue.
A Minute to 12 – JAK
Back to the car boot, however this time things have got messy and cluttered. A lovely clock, not enhanced by the authors reflection unfortunately. I’d have been tempted, with the sellers permission, to lay the clock on the gravel and use the contrast of the textured ground to show off the brushed metal finish.
At the Seaside – Ken2390
A great angle showing two faces of the tower. However the sun directly behind the tower has blown out the sky. A portrait orientation and some work on that sky would generate a more useable image. Some beautiful clouds, and great to get some detail where you would expect only shadow.
Kick Off Time – NoelCmn
Nice and big in the frame, well lit and a good record. Perhaps a little tight at the top and the face isn’t as sharp as it could be. It does look like some fun could be had with the reflections of the dial in the steel surrounding it.
So to Placements,
1. Glyn M – Turret clock workings
2. Mudge - Solar Powered Clock
3. Go4IT – If It Aint Baroque
VHC to Drofmit and Davidwozhere

Thanks to all who entered, some gorgeous images.
Now I understand the coveted 2nd place.

Well done for getting the results up eventually. how frustrating!
The object of my photo was to show the clock in its cluttered location, its the nature of boot sales! I have many where they are carefully placed on church towers etc. but not where they are looking for a new home. The reflection is a side effect of using an MX-1 in sunlight... the screen can barely be seen and in this case this the photo was grabbed at waist level.
Is this the first Pentax User competition where a photo taken on a Canon has been awarded a podium placing? Tut, tut!

Ha ha. There'll be some red faces over this. I 'spec Headmaster will be inviting culprits to his study.
David

Oops, hands up I didn't check the exif info, assuming that entries were all pentax, Apologies to all.

Oops
Sorry about that!
When I saw the comment, I thought "I've nearly done that in the past"! I then checked the winner and saw it was taken on a K5, and my suspicions were aroused
Yep it was me at fault! What can I say::::::
Once again sorry

Following the 'ticking' off, If it ain't baroque then get yourself promoted! (fantastic title on that one). Nice one Glynn.

Great winner, Glynn....
with an interesting subject like this, I'm surprised that there weren't more entries....
but it was Easter w/e???

Thanks for the HC... you wouldn't want to spend money at that stall...
I doubt if they were working examples...
or if they were, why not have them wound up and set at the right time!!?

Good work Glyn and the placegetters - yes, even Mudge

Congratulations to Glyn. I really liked Mudge's shot with its strong contrasts - even though its a non Pentax. Thanks to John for the competition and feedback. I agree with the others, its better to construct your comments in word and paste them in later.

Regards

Paul

Many thanks John for a great set of comments and your judging. Certainly worth the effort to get them up. I too thought Mudge's image was very good and had not checked the exif as well, an easy mistake.

Once again many thanks for the win.

Congratulations to my fellow winners, including Mudge (even if it was shot on the wrong brand :blush, the VHCs and everyone else for a grand set of pictures.

I really enjoyed exploring Tim's collection of travel clocks and thought the title was excellent

From my experience the coveted 2nd place is somewhat difficult to achieve and certainly not without an element of risk as proved this time .

Glyn

Well I just now saw that the remarks and placings have been posted and was of course very pleased to learn of my third place finish----or is it second place? If it were up to me, Mudge's excellent clock would retain its second place, despite the EXIF oversight. By the way, I do not understand the comments about secon place being hard to achieve. As a newcomer in 2017, perhaps there is some history behind those remarks which occurred before my time???

It was a lovely little contest and I'm looking forward to "Transitions." Got my thinking cap on....

It is a sort of running joke, often called the coveted second place. The winner has to set, judge and comment on the next competition. The person that gets awarded the second place gets the maximum amount of praise without having to do any more work .

It is difficult to achieve because there is often very little difference in the top entries and, as proved this time for me, you can end up first rather than second.

I hope that helps,

Glyn

Ahh, thank you Glyn; now the comments make perfect sense. On the other side of the equation is the satisfaction, for first place winners, of having quite a few people pay very close attention to your comments in Pentax User---a "payoff", perhaps, as coveted as it is rare. LOL!!