Weekly #662 - Last summer Competition

Mmmm--got notified of this, a day after it closed !

Blimey Terry, what happened there?
It's results time instead!

Unlike the last 'monthly', there are a good number of entries here. The interesting bit is that the weekly allows pre-existing photos to be used but the monthly demands new photos taken that month. Are so few of us taking pictures now that we are 'locked down'? The topic was chosen (things that roll) to facilitate lots and lots of easily available subject matter but perhaps the motivation was not present? One to think about.

Starting from the latest this time:

Summer Flowers by John Riley
I've no idea what these are but they are lovely. DoF just right to include the subject and foliage but leave the background in a pleasant fuzz of bokeh with the brilliant colour capturing the attention at once.

Wild flower meadow by retsoor
They don't come much more summery than this one. Perfect exposure and every last detail sharp to the horizon. It looks to have been a bit of a compositional problem, however with the huge draw of the flowers surrounded by distractors from top left to bottom right, none of which can be dealt with.

On Tour in Glorious Devon by sprite
Another nice 'high summer' shot. The square format suits the curving subject perfectly and even the clouds are playing the curving game, echoing the railway's shape. You can't help the time of day the train ran and the vantage point is perfection - pity the sun was on the other side of the locomotive. (Jolly good firing going on there too as evidenced by that lovely light gray exhaust!)

Krit by kingvar
You can imagine yourself there and hear the little waves on the beach. This is a beautiful piece of landscape composition.

Free frolicking by Noelcmn
Great action shot, frozen at just the right moment in the leap and composed with the dog in just the right spot in the frame. It hits the right spot in the collective psyche at this time too.

Lone tree at Llyn Padarn, Snowdonia by newbiek50user
The full leaf and lush covering on the slopes tells you that this is, indeed, summer but you have also captured a fantastic brooding quality in this one. The fact that it was a 20 second exposure tells us that this is no fortuitous snapshot but a carefully considered and composed job that is only mildly marred by the pesky clouds insistence on moving!

Staffies in the surf by russellparker66
Splashing good fun at the beach that is clearly being enjoyed by the dogs. I can only guess that this shot was taking advantage of a situation as it presented itself? The camera settings are reflecting use for general landscape and views more associated with the seaside, rather than fast action up close.

Sheffield United promotion Celebrations by paulb531
Nice celebration of the K5 too - old but certainly not out ! This contest was deliberately posed as LAST Summer and so doesn't have to be 'summery'. You have captured the raw emotion of the occasion very well, although I find their consumption of Heineken a bit off in the home of Stones Bitter!

Collecting Pollen by PRYorkshire
A lovely composition that has been deliberatly switched around to improve presentation. The diagonal composition is just the job and the placement of the bee IMHO is just so - even if it is not on the classic intersection of thirds. Bumblebees present their own problems, being very dark and often against bright foregrounds so I am being a bit picky by asking for a bit more detail in the shadow below its body and on its face.

Mayflower by EricD1306
The intent of this shot is clear. Power and motion, leaning into the curve - which may or may not have been present. In that regard it is bang on but the front and left footpate and the front of the smokebox and chimney are just out of focus. Oh for a click a fraction of a second earlier!
(perhaps a fan of the locomotive or is 1306 coincidence? I would have been really worried if it had been EricT)

A song for The Fringe by davidtrout
It IS a candid portrait but it is also a lot more than a candid portrait due to its near perfection in execution and composition. This is a shot to be very pleased with.

August 2019 on The Edge by jofford
This is a really pleasing shot. You can almost hear the silence, broken only by the buzzing of bumblebees and the wind. I've no idea if it was really like that but a good picture should evoke more than visual memories, and this one does. The composition works well with the major lines constantly leading the viewer around but it comes back to that millstone every time when it ought to be the figures in the distance. There is also a potentially useful triangle in there of the millstone, the figures and the distant pylon (left horizon). A composition anchored by those, with the millstone somewhere in the bottom right, replacing those big rocks, might make an asset out of a distraction? (Just my opinion. I masked it out using a couple of envelopes).

Beach View by Nigelk
Composition great, colours wonderful. Just the wrong place for a whopping fisheye distortion. On the other hand, I can't say how much would have been cropped out using (say) a conventional 24mm?

Goth Diversity by vic cross
Inclusivity rules! This guy is certainly getting stuck in with it. Looks a busy street so the ability to secure such a shot must have been restricted. A bit more contrast might be nice to lift the subject from the backgound a bit? I say 'might' because again, you were constrained by what was before you and the overall tones may not permit that.

Head first by Benz3ne
The nice thing about close up/ macro is that you learn a huge amount about things that normally pass straight by. The thing about fuschias is that you learn just how difficult a flower can make it for a photographer. It tries to take over the whole frame with its bright, neon red colour! I find myself having to deliberately focus on the bee and then have my attention turned yet again to bright red. That said, the detail on the bee is wonderful and your point about it having to shove right inside is well made.

Red Admiral I believe by Perspicador
A charming portrait of an English garden favourite. Pin sharp and with all the detail where you'd like to find it.

Fishing on the Nantes-Brest Canal by mr.mellow
Another image that generates all the memories of summers past - for me, especially by the canal. The placid calm and the constant presence of deep contrasts from light to shade, which are well exploited here. I would have liked the end of the fishing rod to have been still and one's eye keeps noticing that the other end of it is slightly cropped off. Both tend to undermine the calmness of the overall theme.

So, from those pictures taken last summer:
1st
Lone tree at Llyn Padarn, Snowdonia by newbiek50user
2nd
A song for The Fringe by davidtrout and
3rd
Sheffield United promotion Celebrations by paulb531

with special mention of
August 2019 on The Edge by jofford and
Fishing on the Nantes-Brest Canal by mr.mellow

Over to our, by now, not-so-new K50 user !

David, Thank you so much for choosing my photo for first place. This was unexpected as I realised afterwards that it didn't look very summerlike and was probably not in the spirit of the competition. Anyway, the next competition is active now and better luck to all the other competitors from last time, most of whom I had thought stood a better chance than I.

I thought Lone Tree at Llyn Padarn was a likely winner as soon as it came up. Its such a beautiful landscape. Well done to Gerald. Well done also to David for choosing a subject which has attracted more than average numbers of entries and judging them. Thanks for my second place and congrats to Paul and the HCs Joffard and Mr Mellow.

The Winning photo was truly very nice so well done for that, but taken in October it is technically an Autumn shot.
(No sour grapes 'cause I didn't enter this one!)

Congrats Newbiek50user, stunning shot, albeit that it does tend to fill the longings to get out and about quite a bit! But it amply satisfies the aesthetics as well as a measure of serenity in these troubles times. And extended to davidtrout and paulb531, and not forgetting the HM's jofford and mr.mellow. i had expected the last mentioned to be on the podia as well, it is a fantastic shot, that kid dwarfed by the length of that fishing rod! Thanks are in order to our judge, for the challenge and C&C's- as usual much appreciated.

Many thanks to David for the competition and Judging. Great winning shot by Newbiek50user.

Regards

Paul

Thank you for the comp and judging davidwozhere. Congratulations to newbiek50user, beautiful winning shot, taken no doubt in an Indian Summer . Well done to the other podium places and HC's. Good to see so many entries

Thank you David for your constructive and helpful critique. John

Thanks for posting this winning picture. There wasn't a tree there in 2013 when I visited but had been told one had taken root

Thanks David, a good competition and comments. Congratulations to Newbie50kuser - a stunning photo. Well done also to David and Paul for the podiums and to Jofford and Mr Mellow for the HC's.
The weekly competition is an oasis of joy in these troubled times -good health to everyone.