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Weekly #683 - Tree and Leaf Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 30/08/2020
Judge: Noelcmn

A title of one of JRR Tolkien's books. And seeing that there is an abundance of new life sprouting around here, this weeks challenge hopefully is wide open. You may opt to show a favorite tree in all its glory, or go macro with a leaf. Good luck

The usual rules apply:
1. Only Pentax cameras and acceptable clones.
2.The winner is expected to set, judge and preferably offer some comments/critiques of submissions.
3. You are free to use images from your archives, or take something new.
4. The challenge closes on Sunday 30th August 2020 at midnight BST.
Competition Entries
Noelcmn
Posted 31/08/2020 - 08:45 Link
What a wonderful wad of inspirational images in this challenge, some parts of me delighted that I have chosen an obviously loved subject, other parts dreading that I have to choose one winner. As usual, I have vacillated between images as they arrived on the challenge page, with many a WOW emanating from me. I am sitting down with a bowl of Muesli, bananas, nuts and yoghurt, what a way to enjoy all of these images as I have my breakfast. Thank you all, I am both honoured and humbled to be judging images that far exceed my skills.

Pespicador – Beating the birds- As usual, first off the mark, with a bar setting quality image. Well spotted, love the isolation, and that pop of red in an overall green background. Good use of complimentary colors, and composition spot on!

Nigelk-Oaks- Fabulous! Well spotted and opportunity taken, excellent composition. Looking at this bigger is well worth the exercise, inducing a roving eye.

Davidtroute-Autumn at Thorp Perrow- Another image well worth looking at bigger. Such lovely complimentary colours, as with Nigelk’s image, excellent composition, employing diagonal technique. And, those bokeh balls! Adds a nice contrasty pattern to those abstract shaped of the leaves.

Aitch53- Ivy doesn’t care- Lovely, another well spotted opportunity, employing juxtaposing technique. Textures, repetition and some very fine details blend beautifully here. Excellent composition too! And not forgetting a wonderful range of colours!

JAK- Frosty Oak Leaves- brrrrr… Never mind that I am envious, highly unlikely that I will get anything like this down south of the equator where I live. Beautiful shot, palpable coldness. I like the almost two tones element here, adding to the feel of the coldness. No issues with the composition. Nicely detailed shot too! Once again, well worth looking at this bigger on the screen. For a scanned image this is excellent, telling me the original is a quality image!

Snakey-foggy firs and ferns-What a lovely moody shot, with a top notch element of contrast-horizontal and vertical lines, light and dark. Stunning composition, and wonderfully detailed. You got me counting trees! That mist is to die for!

Tyronet2000-A Crooked tree reflections – I do hope you will share with us some more details of this wonderful image- location, technique and PP. It is a wonderful image, full of emotion. Colours, composition, reflections, flare and elements of abstraction – it’s all there!

GlynM-Spring trees- Hope springs eternal- well those are the words that come to mind! So too does joy! Timely, as we prepare for Spring (officially tomorrow). Lovely colour range, and the overall greenery is very appealing, nicely detailed shot! Should I mention that I feel young again, ready to climb trees!

MHOL190246 –Autumn Leaves - I’ll forgive you for taking us back to Autumn . And that only because I love leaves, a favoured subject. Beautiful russet colours, super composition, and ever so finely detailed. Sharp too! Nice bokeh too!

Retsoor- Guard of honour- What a stunning composition! Well spotted! Right out of Loth Lorien from LOTR! Nicely detailed, lovely colours, and those dominating lines work very well. A delightful place to be!

Drofmit – A touch of Klimt – Oh, he would be proud to have this in his collection. The famed Pentax colour rendition amplified here! Feel good image, making me breathe deep of all that atmosphere. Finely detailed, and once again, well worth looking at this bigger on the screen. Beautiful!

Tiny2- Windswept- The only B/W image in the challenge, and a whopper it is too! Agree with you, the monotone adds huge impact to this image. Textures, juxtaposing, composition and excellent details – one for the wall!

PRYorkshire – Chinese Red Birch- Another image that employs the diagonal technique and it works very well here. Love the dominant red here, and the contrasty colours. Another finely detailed image.

Breakfast is over, and it’s on to the results.

1st spot to Snakey- Foggy Firs and ferns
2nd Spot to JAK- Frosty Oak leaves
3rd Spot to Retsoor- Guard of honour!

HC’s
Tyronet2000 and Tiny2
Edited by Noelcmn: 31/08/2020 - 08:46
Tiny2
Posted 31/08/2020 - 09:16 Link
Thanks for all your comments Noel. It’s nice to see all the excellent images entered to your chosen theme. A worthy winner indeed and congratulations also to everyone else who entered with their interpretations of the theme. Nice work 😀
Carl
davidtrout
Posted 31/08/2020 - 09:26 Link
Well done Snakey, JAK, Retsoor, Tiny and Tyronet. on taking the top spots. Many thanks to Noel for his keen analysis of the entries and also his enthusiastic remarks.
Incidentally on the day I took my picture of leaves at Thorp Perrow Stan (Tyronet) was also there with some members of his camera club.
David
Edited by davidtrout: 31/08/2020 - 09:35
tyronet2000
Posted 31/08/2020 - 10:58 Link
Congratulations to the Winner and other Places including the HC's to Tiny2 and myself. Cracking images so wouldn't have been straightforward to judge. An interesting subject and good critique.
Always enjoy Thorpe Perrow David and meeting friends is a bonus. Using a different system now so nothing that could be entered, but still plenty Pentax stuff in the archive.
Regards
Stan

PPG
drofmit
Posted 31/08/2020 - 11:59 Link
To quote Stan "Congratulations to the Winner and other Places including the HC's" what a lovely selection... thanks Noel for the judging and comments!
Never be afraid to talk about your techniques...
"Give a thousand photographers...
the same camera, lens and scene...
and you'll always get a thousand different takes!!"
Anon.
JAK
Posted 31/08/2020 - 12:43 Link
A lovely wining image form Snakey, well done. Thanks to Noel for the competition and my second spot. Something quite majestic about that avenue of trees in Retsoor's image. All in all a super collection of photos this week.
John K
Posted 31/08/2020 - 15:53 Link
Thanks Noel for a good competition and judging, with some lovely photos. Well done to Snakey and JAK - two excellent photos. well done also to Tyronet and Tiny2. Thanks for my 3rd spot and nice comments
GlynM
Posted 31/08/2020 - 20:21 Link
Many thanks Noel for another grand competition. I thought it was a great subject and loved your reviews and your judging which I am sure was probably quite a challenge.

Congratulations to our winners and everyone else for another excellent set of images.

Glyn
Edited by GlynM: 31/08/2020 - 20:21
snakey
Posted 31/08/2020 - 22:04 Link
Many thanks Noelcmn for the judging and my No1 spot for which I was surprised and very pleased. Well done to all the other entries which were of equal standards and must have been difficult to place.
All the gear, no idea (but trying)
K5, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8, Sigma 70-200mm f2.8, Tamron 90mm f2.8, SMC FA 50mm f1.4, Sigma 150-500mm, Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4, plus far more bits than I need.

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