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Weekly #762 - Habitat Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 17/04/2022
Judge: Noelcmn

This weeks challenge is Habitat, defined by wikipedia "Habitat can be defined as the natural environment of an organism, the type of place in which it is natural for it to live and grow. It is similar in meaning to a biotope; an area of uniform environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants and animals". I am happy to make this fairly broad, including inanimate objects, such as mountains, or even cars on the road. I am looking for contextual images, that show of a habitat in one form or another. Couch potatoes welcome

The Rules as usual:
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 opt to shoot something specific for this challenge.
4. The challenge closes on Sunday 17 April 2022 at midnight BST.

Good luck
Competition Entries
Perspicador
Posted 18/04/2022 - 18:21 Link
This competition closed on Sunday at midnight. That was 18 hours ago. If you do not want to participate in future, that is an option. if you do want to participate, please do so properly. My view is that photographers do not need to wait this long for the adjudication of 8 photos. Comments are welcome from all participants.
Noelcmn
Posted 18/04/2022 - 19:28 Link
Thank you all for your submissions, not as many entries as I had hoped, but the quality of submissions more than make up for that! Pardon my late judging exercise, I was out early this morning, and just got back home, after a visit to Rietvlei Nature Reserve. Some thoughts:

PRYorkshire-Robin- Just the kind of image I had in mind, and even though the Robin is almost lost amid the habitat, yet holds center stage, literally and figuratively. I would have liked to see it pop a bit more, but that is a personal preference. Love the range of colors to this, and everything looks all natural. What a good start to the Challenge

Johnwnjr- I have those in my garden a delight to the eye and the Camera. Lovely comp, good pop of the Flowers and buds, with solid notes of colour contrast, DOF at f/6.3 is well handled giving some lovely Bokeh! Nice touch with the cobwebs.

MHOL190246-Mute Swan Cygnets- Gotta love the DOF to this one with wonderful details, nice and sharp too. The ugly duckling story is challenged here, they are too cute to be ugly! Good comp, the almost monotone colours work well here too Just wondering if you should remove that black blob top left.

Newbiek50user-Hawthorn blossom- Lovely, a bit of selective focus to highlight those blossoms. As with PRYorkshire’s image, would have liked to have them pop a bit more. Good comp and nice Bokeh! No issues with the colour palette.

Vic Cross-Laetiporus Sulphurous- Had to Google those, and some interesting facts, all adding to my initial “yummy exclamation! Excellent shot, sharp, with lovely colours to match, and one of those images where the subject is in the centre that works very well. Love the textures of the fungus and the tree bark. And DOF to boot!

Perspicador- Spring Bluetit-Good swap from your initial peacock submission, this one has a lot more habitat. Love the balance between the bird and the blossoms, both sharp, both piquing the interest and makes for a super composition. The bird though, pops a lot more. Great shot!

Flan - Sandra and Sandy Martin- They’re a bit lost in the habitat here, but a commendable effort in one of the most frustrating photography exercises, to get these birds in flight. And 200mm focal length Not sure how much of a crop you have already employed here, but may be worthwhile to go more, to bring those two to the fore. For the challenge, a solid habitat image.

Nigelk- Pond life – Beautiful, well spotted, well taken for the challenges of that come when shooting something like this and you’ve achieved some excellent DOF and kept the murkiness. Solid composition, a fine balance between the eggs and the pond flora. Not forgetting the very nice colour contrast. Pretty good for an old Optio W60.

And onto the Judging exercise

1st spot to Vic cross for that delectable fungus.
2nd spot to PRyorkshire for that lovely habitat image for a Robin
3rd spot to MHOL190246- for those cute cygnets.

HC’s to Nigelk and Perspicador
vic cross
Posted 18/04/2022 - 19:34 Link
Thanks for the win. NOW to set a new Comp. Later tonight.
John can you remind me how to do it as it's such a long time since I won one.
Congrats to PRyorkshire and MHOL190246.
I'll be back later.
CHEERS Vic.
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.
PRYorkshire
Posted 18/04/2022 - 20:20 Link
Well done to Vic for a well deserved 1st place and many thanks for my 2nd place. Looking forward to seeing what Vic comes up with for this week's competition.
Paul

K1000, Espio 140, ist, istD, K70, K3iii and numerous lenses, just don't tell my wife.
Flan
Posted 18/04/2022 - 20:57 Link
Well done to Vic and runners up, and thanks Noel for the summarizations and yes the sand martins are lost in the grand scheme of things
Oh and next time don’t upset anyone by having to go somwhere
MHOL190246
Posted 19/04/2022 - 14:53 Link
Congratulations to Vic with his fungi - a cracking shot. Thanks for third place and to Noel for setting an interesting topic and for the useful comments
drofmit
Posted 21/04/2022 - 21:03 Link
Perspicador wrote:
This competition closed on Sunday at midnight. That was 18 hours ago. If you do not want to participate in future, that is an option. if you do want to participate, please do so properly. My view is that photographers do not need to wait this long for the adjudication of 8 photos. Comments are welcome from all participants.

That was totally uncalled for!!
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.
pipinmels
Posted 22/04/2022 - 11:16 Link
Perspicador wrote:
This competition closed on Sunday at midnight. That was 18 hours ago. If you do not want to participate in future, that is an option. if you do want to participate, please do so properly. My view is that photographers do not need to wait this long for the adjudication of 8 photos. Comments are welcome from all participants.

I do partialy agree with you, but time zones come into it, and the late entries. The two times I judged, I did my comments as the photos came in, but there were stil entries after I had gone to bed. Just Give people time, although some do take the mickey with the time they need. Maybe this should be a debate in the forum section.
Edited by pipinmels: 22/04/2022 - 11:17
vic cross
Posted 06/06/2022 - 01:47 Link
Hello again people. Just to let you know a new crop has just started on the yew tree for this years crop. If I'm lucky it crops every two years or if I'm unlucky like this year it has taken three years. Not to worry I'll give it a little time to grow and then some will go in the pot and the rest in the freezer. Yummy Yummy.
CHEERS Vic.
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.

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