Weekly Competition # 104 - Craftsmanship Competition

First – the usual disclaimer that what follows are just my personal thoughts and I hope that nobody will be upset and perhaps a few might agree with some of what I have said !

As I had hoped – a huge variety of ideas in interpreting the ‘craftsmanship’ theme with endeavours from both the animal and human kingdoms represented.

Also quite a few entries specially taken for the competition, which is very impressive..

Bees – Beakynet
The fascinating world of bees.- master craftsmen! Does anyone know why the honeycombs are five-sided? Anyway, it’s an interesting, detailed shot with good colour. Would it be better if more tightly cropped around the two (centre left) bees that are in better focus and which would still show the honeycomb? Shot wide open I see, with ISO 400 and a slow shutter speed (I think). I guess you shot this with an upper limit for the ISO of 400, but possibly on this occasion, it might have been worth accepting a high ISO in order to be able to use a smaller aperture?

Tunnel – Draken
It might not be a new photo – but I like it too. ‘Craftsmanship’ equally applies to the work that has created this man-made structure and the way you have treated it to produce a strong, clean piece of modern art that has a great balance of shapes and colours. I wondered whether shooting well off-centre might have been more interesting, but on balance the symmetry works well, even with the yellow line slightly off-centre. Another one shot wide open. With an ISO of 200, I think a higher ISO and smaller aperture might have been beneficial.

Hand blown/cut antique wine glass – Tony-O
Another one that beautifully captures the duality in the competition title. The more I look at this photograph, the more I like it with numerous reflections to be found in the glass. It’s a beautifully crafted glass that shimmers with light in your very well taken photograph of it. Very clear with good colours. My only slight niggle is the pair of white-ish dots in the (otherwise excellent) background that I find just a little distracting. I had wondered about verticals and horizontals but decided that the glass, being an antique is no doubt far from true in this respect. Being nitpicking, I think that I might have tried f8 or f11 and a slower shutter speed.

The Butcher, The Baker … - Judith Ann
Food photography is reputed to be very difficult, so top marks for both making the product and photographing it. Nice colours and the textures show up well. There is something distracting in the background behind the tallest peak of the topping and I guess that I am seeing the ‘highlights’ resulting from the use of flash? Definitely good enough to eat!

Basketmaker – BlueJohn
Nicely satisfying portrait (with good focus and clear detail) of someone totally absorbed in their craft. Almost inevitably, though, it loses focus on the hands, which is a shame. Difficult to judge but would it have been possible to take this more head on, cutting out most of the clutter on the back wall? I can’t work out the EXIF data, which is particularly strange even by the Gallery’s standards, but a small aperture that achieved focus on the basket, the hands and the head might have been better.

Precision Engineering – John Riley
Machinery – in this case at least – can be stunningly beautiful and, as you say, made with such precision. As a pilot, you would have needed total faith in the skill of the person who assembled the engine and firing mechanism, to be sure that you did not shoot the propeller apart, the first time you opened fire! The use of wood in these old planes is always slightly surprising to our 21st century minds but it certainly enhances the photograph. Great shot – clarity and colours make it very satisfying. As it is based on a circle, though, I wonder if it could have been even better if cropped square rather than being oblong ?

Gravestones - gartmore
Very atmospheric, striking B&W. It’s a grim, austere piece of craftsmanship – no comforting angels hovering here. The church behind – literally towering over the graveyard – is menacing too. Nice one, with great clarity of detail.

Vespine abstract – Telstar
What a lovely thing – I would never have guessed what it is! Soft whorls and pastel colours well captured. The lack of focus at the bottom of the photo is a bit distracting, though and at the risk of sounding very repetitive a small aperture would have helped a lot, I feel.

All-together – Aiki
Mellow, harmonious colours are very pleasing. The great sharpness too captures the craftsmanship required to produce both the clothes and instrument (which I hesitate to call a harp but see you have classified it as medieval so perhaps it is a forerunner of the modern instrument?) I feel that the hands, very white, are perhaps a little too dominant, though to produce a completely well balanced photograph. I am not convinced about the head being absent !

Statue – Gary John
Smooth, classical and stunning craftsmanship well captured in this naturally lit photograph. Paris is particularly well lit although (counsel of perfection) Helen could have done with a little more light to make her head and shoulders stand out equally clearly. Perhaps photographed slightly more from the front would have given a better balance of light? Shame that Paris’s elbow is just clipped off by a couple of millimetres and the background is slightly distracting. Nice one though.

Leitz Wetzlar – Prieni
Glorious piece of precision craftsmanship with lovely muted colours. I assume that this was taken with the trusty Sigma 105 Macro ? I found my eye wanted to focus on the dial rather than the eyepiece and then kept moving back and forth – rather distracting. I struggled initially to fully understand what I was looking at and did a Google search to see more images. I then looked at your website and I have to say that I prefer the shot of this microscope on your website, which is more readily understood and sets the item in context. For me, the website shot would definitely have scored higher ! In order to get this different and unusual viewpoint, you set yourself quite a focussing challenge and chose f32 with good reason !

Pergola – Technoblurb
I’m assuming that this is the entire photo and has been taken at the widest end of the 18-55 lens? So the only way to show the whole of the pergola roof structure would have been to lie on the floor or use a wider lens, neither of which may have been options. Had the whole roof been accommodated then the photo would have been a natural candidate for a square crop, thereby emphasising the circular form.

I’m not sure if you have done any post-photo processing but the shadows could usefully do with lightening to let you see more detail on the stonework surrounding the open filigree of (presumably?) ironwork, which is remarkably delicate and demonstrates great craftsmanship. I like the sky above and the muted palette of colours.

Lemonade - Mikew
There’s a dilemma here – photography is primarily about vision/sight and – if we apply the ‘craftsmanship’ criteria to this photograph – judging ‘craftsmanship’ depends on taste and not sight!!! Overall, it’s a promising subject and the yellow colours are pleasing and the central bottle (Monsieur Perrier?) is an attractive shape. (On a culinary note, the apparent 1st prize looks more like orangeade! There is good clarity overall (and I’m not talking about the lemonade but the background is a bit too messy. Hope it was a good brew! And I think I prefer your alternative entry – ‘Bamfords’!

Fireplace bellows, detail – terje-1
Nice crisp carving – your father-in-law is a talented craftsman. Nice crisp photograph too with excellent detail. I do wonder if it would be more interesting set in context, rather than on the slightly sterile background?

The sound of a hundred years – Dwight-Morton
Interesting subject - I assume the reference to a hundred years means that this is a traditional piece of craftsmanship in Korea to produce a musical instrument from what looks like a tree trunk? Compositionally, it might have worked better taken from a slightly different angle showing the interaction between his smiling face and his wife’s. At present all we can see is the back of her head. A different angle would also have given definition to the bridge on the second instrument that is currently tucked into the nape of the wife’s neck! The colours seem a little anaemic and I wonder if this is a scanned image from your film archive?

Dragon - Rob
Presumably the tree is wood but the dragon is alabaster or bone? It’s an effective piece of craftsmanship – although I find the teddy bear eye slightly out of place on a piece like this! The overall colour tones in the photo are good with nice detail. As with some others I find the background slightly sterile.

Beautiful Beast - hefty 1
Is this a Bugatti Veyron? Certainly a beautiful piece of engineering and your photograph is very sharp. There is a bit too much shadow on the right hand side, but I guess that moving the car was not an option! Traditional Bugatti blue although I have never been too keen on it as a shade. A nice record shot but more is required to turn it into a great poster shot.

Nice Drink - Anvh
This works well as a photograph with beautiful, toning colours against the very dark background and shot from an unusual angle. The same sort of comment as made about ‘Lemonade’ by Mike W, though. Making whiskey undoubtedly requires craftsmanship but what you can see is an ordinary bottle and have to taste the contents to savour the contents and appreciate that craftsmanship! (I prefer Scotch whisky myself!)

1st Place - Hand blown/cut antique wine glass – Tony-O
2nd Place - Gravestones - gartmore
3rd Place - Tunnel – Draken

Highly Commended – Precision Engineering – John Riley
Highly Commended – Prieni

Best Craftsmanship by an ‘animal’ – jointly won by the wasps and the bees !
Best Craftsmanship by man – I can’t make up my mind on that one!


So, over to Tony-O for the next round

Well done Belinda for some good judging. Early start?

Also well done to a worthy winner which in my mind had to be a front runner.

AS for my own entry, I too felt the Bamfords one was more appropriate but felt it unwise to enter that having already put it in the forum. I also misread the brief and thought a craftsman was allowed.

Congratulations to Belinda and the winners.

Mike

Congrats to the winners and I'm verry happy to yet again be in the top 3 position in this competitions, with so many good photographers.

/Magnus

Well done Belinda, some very fair comments, and yes I did have to lie down of the floor.

Congrats Tony, great shot.

Graham

A great image by Tony-O, well done indeed. You have an e-mail link to follow to create the next competition!

Thanks BelindaB, you did a great job there and managed to get the results in very quickly as well.

Well done, Belinda, and congratulations to the winners!

As for my own entry, I selected a neutral background to concentrate on the theme/subject: craftsmanship.

The new "Spots 'n dots" competition link doesn't work for me.
You all get the same error "page does not exist" ?

Congratulations to Tony-O for a great shot and well done Belinda for judging! As for the car; it wasn't a Veyron, it was the Chiron concept that was floating around as a styling study before the Veryon was launched - gives a better view of that magnificent engine than the Veyron though.

Thanks Belinda for a HC and congratulations to Tony-O for a well crafted pic!

Yes, it was.
I know what you mean. I took several shots (obviously) and thought about focus stacking. At the end I put the focus somewhere in between for compromise (in most cases a bad idea as you end up with neither fish nor flesh) and hoped that f32 would do the job. (I would have preferred the dial sharp as well, but the OOF eyepiece did look a bit odd.)

Yes, I agree that that is the nicer shot. But as I had submitted that in the 'Your photos' forum already I thought it better to try something different. And I had some more fun this way...

Prieni

Congrats to you Tony.
Oh that distraction is a candle...a birthday candle...LOL Thanks for your kind comments!

Thank you Belinda for judging and congratz to the winners
I'm also more for Whisky myself instead of Whiskey but didn't had a shot of that

Thanks Belinda,I thought Draken would grab this one.Your right about the wonky production of this glass,this was the best(straightest)perspective i could get.The DOF was a bit tricky on this shot,more produced a much busier backround,and less gave less detail so the white blobs were a compromise.But that gave me the inspiration for the next competition,Spots and Dots. Tony.