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Weekly #793 - Human Presence in the Landscape Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 20/11/2022
Judge: davidtrout

A lone figure walking a dog along a country lane, a dramatic view of a silhouetted climber on a hill or mountain peak, a farmer on his tractor ploughing a field, someone walking through an autumn woodland or evidence of his presence left by man in the landscape - there are many possibilities to test your powers of observation and compositional skills.
Deadline: Sunday Midnight November 20.
Entries must be taken on Pentax cameras, freshly taken or exhumed from your files but not previously used in a weekly competition.
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Winner
Competition Entries
davidtrout
Posted 21/11/2022 - 00:42 Link
Weekly competition #793 Human presence in the landscape
A fine set of entries with a good variety of ideas. I found it challenging to separate the leaders in a field of excellent photos but here's my choice

1 Watcher by Mhol190246
2 Elevenses by Vic Cross
=3 In the woods by NigelK and Sea Life by Simonmac.

Poster Girl by Perspicador
Not quite what I exected when I set the topic for this week's competition as the setting isn't a landscape in the accepted sense. But I suppose you could argue a street scene with a poster is an urban landscape. It certainly introduces a different perspective to the subject.The human element isn't 'live' but a reproduction of someone else's photography but feeling generous I must add that at least its an original idea and the model is both cheerful and attractive.

Elevenses in the shade by Vic Cross
An interesting location for elevenses - and what a view. The lone tree placed centrally in the frame with the vastness of the landscape spreading to infinity concentrates the eye on the group of people taking advantage of the shade. The wildlife appears to be giving them a wide berth, otherwise I'd expect them to be grabbing cameras and scrambling ino the Landrover. A well balanced and appealing photograph that tells a story.

Watcher by MHOL190246
The silhouetted figure is classic and is just one vital element that draws the eye into this wonderful Lake District landscape. I also love the fence which funnels the view towards the distant small islands and the fells. The layers of light intensity, receding in stages, in the background hilIs and the late September afternoon light are lovely.

Which way now? by Gareth Morgan
Gareth takes us back in time, perhaps to the late Victorian or Edwardian era in this imaginative and well crafted picture. Its such a marvelous scene with the beautiful autumn colours that allowances must be made for the modern colours in the subject's map. This could have been desaturated or converted to sepia in PS. But that's just nit picking and in no way detracts from the enjoyment of this wonderful photograph.

Promenade Provencal - Provencale walk by Francisbd
What a wonderful landscape. The lavender, hazey distant hills and the curving path through the trees leading your eye through the image are delightful. There's even a hint of rising smoke set against the hills in the distant right of the picture. The two figures in the landscape are a little indistinct, partly obscured by shadow amid the trees but overall its a very attractive scene.

Crossing the bridge - Cragside by Sue Riley
The house and grounds at Cragside, a National Trust property in Northumberland, are a rich source of photographic possibilities of which Sue has taken full advantage in this. The colours in the scenery are gorgeous and I like the angle of the bridge with its crowd of visitors, conveniently broken up into three groups of varyoing sizes. The hight of the Victoriam bridge over the stream, no doubt designed by its great Victorian engineer and owner Lord Armstrong, is considerable so goodness knows what heights Sue scrambled up to get this eye grabbing shot.

In the woods by NigelK
If you go down in the woods today you'd better not go alone. Some spooky things are going on. Dismembered hands and arms and apparently ghostly people. But its all good fun. Nigel has come up with a novel idea for this week's theme. The double exposure works a treat and there's a rather attractive location in the woods where it's acted out.

Looking down from Uffington Castle by Rayw
Another really attractive misty scene, this time in the Downs of southern England. (I'm assuming the location is the same place as the famous White Horse of Uffington which I visited many years ago). The landscape is so well composed with two long lines of hedging, one lining a country lane and creating a cross just right of the centre of the picture. The wintery light fading gradually into the distance and the colour and fine details become increasingly and artistically diffused. The foreground is enhanced by a muddy track in a farmer's field adding texture. Finally to the point of the photo: Two people with a dog on the afore mentioned country lane, tiny in the frame but, important to the composition and the point of this week's topic.

On the beach by Retsoor
The human figure gazing out over Mounts Bay is perfectly positioned at the classic intersection of the thirds and is ideally placed between St Michael's Mount dominating the view and and the rocky beach area which is full of detail. Its a lovely capture of the tree lined island capped by its medieval castle. I hope the beach comber found something of value, if not I'm sure he enjoyed the view.

In search of the sea by PRYorkshire

From Cornwall to the flat lands of Eastern England and the Lincolnshire coast. Grandma and grandson are enjoying the vastness of the North Sea coastline, adding human interest and a tiny splash of extra colour to the scene. I really like the way the picture has turned out with its three horizonal colour bands of colour - the blue/grey sky, dark yellow wey sand and bright yellow dry sand.

Sometimes I just sits by Noelcmn
Noel's picture takes us from England to South Africa but we are still at the seaside here. A similar theme to the two previous entries but this time in South Africa. The mood of the sea is more animated giving us plenty of texture in the waves and a rocky shore line which supports the seated figure taking in the view.

Sea Life by Simonmac
And still at the seaside, Simon, an expert at black and white photography, gives us a Lowery-style rendition of a scene packed with humanity. Perhaps they've all gone to Weston from their Northern mill town factories on a coach trip and headed straight to the beach. I love the abstract feel to this picture.
MHOL190246
Posted 21/11/2022 - 07:18 Link
David
Thanks for the win and prompt judging and comments. Congratulations to the other podium places. The new competition is up
vic cross
Posted 21/11/2022 - 10:19 Link
Congrats to MHOL190246 Michael on the win. and to Nigel and Simon. Thanks for the coveted 2nd. place quite a lot of the glory without the responsibility of setting up the next comp. It's nice to win but I'll settle for 2nd.
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.
Simonmac
Posted 21/11/2022 - 16:11 Link
Thank you for the competition and your helpful comments. Chuffed to have come joint third amid such great photographs.

Trying to enter more and I love seeing all of the interpretations of the themes set.

Lovely winner and well done for that 2nd place!

All the best
macmccreery.com
www.flickr.com/photos/simac/
www.500px.com/simac
Posted 21/11/2022 - 20:23 Link
Thanks David for the competition, prompt judging and good comments. Once again some good entries and congratulations to MHOL for the winning entry. Well done also to Vic, Nigel and Simon.
Noelcmn
Posted 24/11/2022 - 11:41 Link
Congrats MHOL190246, lovely silhouette and leading lines in that image. Worthy winne! And congrats extended to vic cross, NigelK and Simonmac. Once again, a super challenge, attracting some great entries. Thanks davidtrout, for the challenge, the judging exercise and C&C's. As always I appreciate those.

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