Weekly#521 Landscapes Competition

I hoped for a lot of entries and you provided them. What a wonderful variety and all of them quality images! Consequently, to narrow them down, I had to be a bit tyranical with those that were seascapes or didn't contain much 'land'. Judging does enable learning however since one has to examine what is presented and justify one's opinions. These images have taught me quite a lot so thank you all for providing them.

The following are simply my opinions. I hope they are helpful:

Trio of Geese over Mill Lakes
Perspicador's love of birds shines through here although the three on the left tend to divert one's attention from the intended subjects showing that we can't always get quite what we want when dealing with nature.

The Wicklow Mts
This is certainly a magnificent skyscape (is it I.R.?) and although the composition presents a spot on rule of thirds, the drama above constantly wins against the more 'lightweight' lesser drama below. It might have been different had a deeper format been used, when the two could have been balanced differently?

Schonau am Konigsee
Been there and I agree with your description. You have captured much of the feeling of this superb alpine location.

Excursion
And another superb skyscape, this time combined with a seascape. As an image, it is an arresting one and it compels you to look at it, but is it a 'land'scape? Tricky bit of definition there that I had not considered before.

Trevor Boatyard Nr LLangollen
The symmetry of this composition really works well with the arch suggesting a division into thirds both horizontally and vertically (was this deliberate or coincidental I wonder?) Perhaps the crop at the top might have included the entirety of the coping stones, which would then have mirrored the similar line seen reflected in the water.

Fields at Staxton
A lovely, well composed, classic, 'English' scene. The level of detail in this is remarkable, all the way to the horizon. The EXIF says 60mm, which suggests a zoom rather than a prime? Whatever, it's a jolly good image.

House In The Mist
The author says 'early' summer morning -- the EXIF says 0230! Whether or not the KP's clock was accurate, it was worth the loss of sleep to capture this one. The sea bit is complemented by a fair chunk of land this time and the compositon is near perfect.

Smoken
Another early morning job (0834) producing layers on layers of mountains and layers of mist between them. A difficult job of balancing the exposure demands of each. I'm torn between 'with' the forground grass or 'without'. Masking it out with white paper to see the difference inclines me to 'without'.

Tyne Swing Bridge
The *ist takes excellent pictures, as demonstrated here. I like the contrast between the bright red and the remainder. Could the crop have been handled differently? Some of the water could be removed, which would avoid the impression of two horizontal halves in this image.

Flinders Ranges
The arid harshness of this scene is well suited to the contrasty B&W treatment. One is left in no doubt concerning the nature of this landscape. The composition is excellent, including the curvature of the rocks from the bottom right and sweeping round to the upper left, along the horizon and back again. A very well crafted image.

Urban Landscape at Twilight
Another 'landscape' aspect I hadn't considered -- the man-made, urban one. Not the easiest of compositions with all those angular chunks to include or exclude. It certainly invites close inspection. Any one of those individual facades would make a fantastic study of reflected colours (the glass of the central one or the darker tower on the left, for example).

Wheat hill at Cornhill Northumberland
Those srtong tractor tracks would be a problem were it not for the sharp, undulating horizon. With a cloud as a stopper, the horizon takes over where the tracks leave off. A very simple and very effective image.

Another brick in the wall
Well, for me, that is the problem. The whole point (no pun intended) of this image is the newly inserted brick. There is no land in this scape at all.

Vindolanda Evening
I'll admit to looking this one up - Hadrian's Wall, facing West with a vista of lowland Scotland (?) on one's right. A 'half and half' image that works well due to the division being stopped by the monument. The clear air gives fantastic visibility and lots of detail all the way to that attractive sunset.

Sunset on the Mara
An (almost) similar view but whereas Vindolanda was welcoming and peaceful, this one is stark ad hostile looking. While, for me, the neon sunset helps towards the hostility, its intensity has been very well handled. Another item from an *ist series camera, showing how capable they can be in the right hands.

Sao Vicente Island, Cape Verde
Unfortunately, another seascape - and a very well executed one also. One could argue that there is land in the background, but the emphasis on the rollers undermines this somewhat.

Transition landscape
As an educational and geographical image this one makes a very lucid statement about this particular landscape. As a photographic image it has a distinct horizontal division straight across the middle that is emphasised by the narrow band of darker sky. One appreciates its import quite clearly but it is less pleasing aesthetically.

The Hills above Srni
I'm glad you explained that this is a truncated version of a panorama. Compared with, for example, "Fields at Staxton" it displays very little detail and I wondered about that when I first viewed it. The original panorama probably looked rather good !

Desert
This one could usefully be compared with "Smoken" and my perplexity over the triangular strip at the bottom. There is a similar, brighter white strip here at bottom right but it doesn't intrude; rather, it blends with the rest even if it is texturally different to the other shapes. The tack sharp monochrome from front to back defines the terrain really well and the inclusion of the mechanical whatsit and driver serves to emphasise the vastness of the general desolation.

Landscapes don't have to be ....
Indeed, you are quite right and you demonstrate the fact well. The sloping site presents a slight problem of an (apparently) wonky horizon. This illusion disappears as soon as you scroll the image sufficiently under the Pentax User banner to chop off the small amount of sky at the top. The house and the solitary figure then arrest one's eye at once, whereas with the sky present, I find that one's view can easily slide straight up and out of the frame.

So much for narrowing them down.
But, it's gotta be done ...

1st Desert by Magdalena
2nd Flinders Ranges by I-Berg
3rd House in the Mist by MartinKP

All the others have got to be commended. Well done and Thank You.

Thanks for the competition... and constructive comments....
congrats to Magdelena.... helluva spot that one...
it took me three goes before I could work out exactly what it was!!
And the to runners up and all the others.... must've been difficult to choose!!
But.... you've missed two photos out... there were twenty-two pix, not twenty....
easily done, and I don't think either would have knocked the winner of the top of the podium.
But that's just my opine....

Having done what you did, yes... I should have chopped the picture at the top! It makes all the difference....
and the "wonky" horizon of the houses as they climb up the hill away from the river really distract againt the verticals of the trees...
mental note "LOOK HARDER!"
I have now corrected my version of the picture..........

Hi david,
Sorry to say, you seemed to have missed the first 2 images (now on page 2)
mudge

Co gratulations to all winners and thanks so much for 1st place, however you may have to reconsider haha.
I wish there was a proper indication that there is a second page. I had my prefered winner 'vanish' once .
The strip on the bottom is just a cropped dune. It did have a slightly different texture to all others as we walked all over it. Together with stronger light it was especially pronounced after mono convertion so it got reduced somewhat until I thought it did not distract from the rest. I am not the most skilled 'cropper'. I tend to try and compose 'right' in camera and get a bit lost when it doesn't quite turn out the way I imagined out of the box. Thank you for comprehensive comments
I will refrain from posting next week's comp until you've had a chance to include the last 2 images.

Thanks for the competition and judging David.
Perhaps the fact one can only see 20 entries partly explains why only around 20 people enter.
Can't the number of thumbnaiis be increased to allow seeing all the entries? I suspect it would be incredibly quick and simple to alter the value from 20 to something else. 50 should cover it.

Thanks for an excellent competition. Great feedback too.
And for mine you are bang on, it is indeed IR

Congrats to the winner and all entries

Cracking winning shot! Congrats Mag07. That is one WOW image. And extended to i-Berg and MartinKP. And a hearty thanks to our Judge, as usual excellent C&C's and the images for this challenge a boon of inspiration. Seems B/W is the way to go when it comes to landscapes. Must remember that!

Congratulations to the Winner and other places. Thanks for the interesting subject, the judging and the comments for those that got them. Disappointed there were none for the page two entries (the first images entered) but hey ho shit happens.

Aarggh! Mea culpa. I abase myself. There was nothing to indicate there were two others and I have deliberately not been looking during the week so that I would not pick any favourites. Having looked, the podiums remain unaffected. Please accept my sincere apologies for the dreadful !"£$% !

Private apologies have now been sent and Magdalena will set the competition and be doing the judging next week.

Aha! I was not expecting a podium place given the strength of this week's competition. Thank you David. And you wouldn't have been the first to miss images that had snuck over to the next page!

Congrats to Magdalena and Martin. Commiserations to Tim - I thought he had it in spades over mine. Lovely shot.

What an excellent field this week, great learning opportunities.