Weekly Competition # 98 - Protection 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 ‘protection’ theme. There’s a lot of humour in many of them, which is nice.

I was also impressed by the number of entries that appear to have been taken specifically for the competition: glad the topic got you out there!


Crispy Duck - Armed and protected
Subject is great – fearsome thistle and great clarity of focus. You can really feel those grey-green spikes. The background is a bit distracting though and lets down an otherwise very good image.

JudithAnn - Love and protected
Charming, classical interpretation of ‘protection’ – baby burrowing into mum’s protective arms. The flight from frightening Grandad (!) is over by the time the photo is actually taken but the ‘misting’ still gives an impression of movement but perhaps it is overdone. Needs to have some more sharpness at the centre.

Draken - In God we Trust
Good subject but not quite sharp enough to show the detail of the stone. Could it have been photographed from further left to avoid the greenery in the left hand side of the photo, which might also have shown all three angels more clearly against the white stonework of the building?

Tony M - Scarecrow
Very nice pneumatic (?) scarecrow – I haven’t seen one like that before! Good, balanced photo, quite simple with good colours (especially the sky) and composition.

Furfix - Under mum’s wing
Animal world interpretation of the same theme as no.1 – charming again. The photo isn’t quite sharp enough; the detail on the adult swan’s feathers isn’t quite there and I wonder if it would have made a more effective photo to crop it quite severely to depict just the single cygnet looking out towards the onlooker. Having said that, the cygnet with its head under the wing but the rest of the body showing is amusing – a new take on the ostrich head in the sand joke!

Gary John - Steel Caps
Nice composition and muted colours work very well. The scarred toecap is a good detail – you can feel the shiny metal contrasting with the scuffed leather.

davidtrout - In some corner of a foreign field…
Very good reminder that Rupert Brooke’s 1914 poem ‘The Soldier’, written for the English dead in Flanders in the Great War, is very relevant also to these Second World War dead who came from America to England to help us.

The photo is compelling as well as poignant; you really want to read the head stones and the central positioning of the keystone really draws the eye in. The slight ‘posterisation’ (?) is, I think, very good, making it very slightly surreal. A podium contender I think.

Dr Mhuni - Harbour Wall
Lovely scene and nice composition with the wall curving into the end point of the view. I am very keen on harbour walls having been grateful for the protection they offer on many occasions. The house walls leaning over in the background (a result of the DA 12 – 24 at the long end, I guess) distract from what is essentially a very natural photo and they could do with a bit of perspective tweaking in PS. Also I feel that there is almost too much going on in the top third of the photo. However another podium contender I think.

beakynet – Protectors of the Faith
Stunning subject but focus not overly sharp and, therefore, the all-important crisp detail in the stonework is lacking. You have attempted to draw the eye towards the centre section by the technique of desaturation and a hint of colour but I feel that perhaps just a closer crop might have worked better by focusing attention on a more limited section of the frieze.

John Riley – Armed and Ready
Looks like a modern Little John! Track stretching away in the distance is nice and so is the juxtaposition of little and large! But the figure on the right tends to merge rather with the background. I am not entirely sure about the main ‘stake’ being dead centre in the composition.

Hefty1 – Security Services
An interesting topic! I’m concerned that such an important key has been displayed on the internet!

On a more serious note, this is an obvious subject matter – and an amusing interpretation – with the padlock and key fob well captured but I find the background clutter too distracting. Perhaps the shed door closed would have resulted in a more pleasing image.

Galoot – Fay
Undoubtedly meets the theme for protection – does it mean you are a biker? A very crisp image with a lot of impact. My only criticism is that the perfect symmetry is marred by the helmet sitting slightly off-centre on Fay’s head.

Saliakbari – Passargad
My initial reaction was that the scaffolding (which dominates) was intended to be significant with regard to the theme of protecting the workers (although that’s not the primary purpose of scaffolding, of course). However, I then thought that the subject is the tomb, protecting the body of the king and the scaffolding is incidental. But the scaffolding is also required for the preservation of the tomb – and so, in turn, protects it. Tricky, so difficult to comment further!

lenscape – Garden HQ
Really like this image. The overall lighting, ranging from bright to dark shadow and the focus rapidly dropping off from the hasp onwards works well. Very much how I think Hefty1’s could have been treated. Like the framing but the watermark is too distracting.

Isdky – Walking in the rain
Interesting idea with the black-clad person under a black & white umbrella, set against a coloured background and the silvery road surface is good. However, a much tighter crop would, I think have given much more impact. Nice discrete watermark.

PS. The dog clearly knows who is boss!

Bob and his Pentax – Handcuffs
An impressively sharp image with good lighting, which highlights the metallic sheen of the handcuffs. However, I feel they would be better set in some form of context (on an old oak table, for example) since this is a bit reminiscent of a catalogue shot. Perhaps it is an antiques auction catalogue entry?

StrawberryBeret – Green fingered
Initially – without looking at the title – my reaction was ‘What is it?’ I then realised it is a stout pair of gardening gloves and a very prickly bramble (?) Interesting idea and my main criticisms would be the lack of focus on the thumb and slightly too dominant background. Nice colours, especially the red thorns.

Tony-O – Allium breakout
Most unusual and good lateral thinking; great colours and very sharp. Nice even background bokeh.

Nathanever82 – Umbrella in Istanbul
I really like this shot with an unusual use of an umbrella (certainly wouldn’t be the norm in the UK). Nice colours and the unusual angle is good – whether intentional or not! The only slight niggle is the intrusive, horizontal section of handrail at the bottom of the picture which could have been easily cropped.

Father Ted – a Hard Shell
Nice colours and an imaginative use of the theme. A shade more light and definition on the underside would help lift this out of the background. Might a view from slightly off-centre have been more interesting as it might have shown the texture better?

pnjmcc – Bags of protection
Another original idea but very difficult to get across given that you can’t actually see the airbag and are reliant on reading the inscription. I think this one would be greatly improved if cropped heavily to lose the air vents, concentrating on the subject and then tweaked to really bring up the texture of the dashboard. A tripod would have helped but difficult to set up in a car!

Jacko – Swinging safe
A nice family album shot of a child enjoying herself on a swing. Not sure about the idea of swinging and eating at the same time – let’s hope she kept it down!

Position of the image is very nice but unfortunate that she turned away at the critical moment and most of her face is in shadow.

Prieni – Beach protection
When I first saw this I thought it had mistakenly slipped across from Hyram’s concurrent ‘Art in the Community’ competition!

It has quite a surreal quality with the strong colours and texture of the bunker contrasting with the tranquil sea and sky. My only concern is the right hand edge, which just tends to fade away. Perhaps a slightly tighter crop down that edge would improve it?

Overall very satisfying. Another podium contender I think.

MGraley – In the bag
A very good close up; perfectly symmetrical; very good lighting with pleasing, shadow under the dish. But I still don’t know what I’m looking at! Could you please enlighten me (and maybe others).

Molejones – Come up for coffi
Crikey – I hadn’t expected something like this to be entered but it certainly meets the theme. The wine glass (where’s the coffee!?) is a bit out of focus. F16 might have helped but I appreciate it would have made the shutter speed even slower but I assume you used a tripod?

The blue packaging stands out well but the wallet and table are a bit too similar in tone.

mikew – Clunk click every trip
A striking image with excellent lighting and great colour – love that red. Slightly contrived to have to drag the seatbelt out of the car (?) to meet the theme and I am not sure what is happening in the top right hand corner but overall very satisfying.

So now for the results and the special awards :-

1st Place - davidtrout - In some corner of a foreign field…
2nd Place Dr Mhuni - Harbour Wall
3rd Place – Prieni – Beach Protection

Highly Commended – Nathanever82 – Umbrella in Istanbul
Highly Commended – Tony-O – Allium breakout

Commended – lenscape – Garden HQ
Commended – Father Ted – a Hard Shell
Commended - mikew – Clunk click every trip

Lateral Thinking Award – Tony-O – Allium breakout
Cute Award - Furfix - Under mum’s wing
Humour Award - Tony M – Scarecrow


So, over to davidtrout for Round 99 !

Well done David for a clever approach and photograph - and well done Belinda for the detailed judging.

Contrived? When do I ever set up a shot? In fact shot as seen at a transport show. You're not even allowed to touch the exhibits!

Mike

Well done David, great shot! And well done Belinda, for swift and thorough judging. Thanks for the third place.

As for my entry:
I do understand your concern. I wanted to keep the second bunker in the frame, though. Most likely you only notice it when you know that it is there. Also cropping tighter would loose the only bit of the cliff in the frame... Perhaps I should have stepped away from the water a few paces...

Prieni

Congrats to David for another good win.Good succinct judging from Belinda.Thanks for the two mentions in dispatches,happy with that.Tony.

Congratulations to Belinda for judging and all the winners, especially David for first place

It's one of my Pentax lens caps in a plastic bag! The cap has a clever lens cap retainer attached - I can give more info if anyone needs it!

Congratulations to David and thanks to Belinda for the judging!!

Commended eh? Thanks very much. But I do take your points about lighting and trying a different angle

Obvious now that you mention it and you can even read the Pentax name

With the set up of the 'ceremonial' plate and the plastic bag protecting something of value etc. I was looking for an inner meaning

Thanks Belinda, this was unexpected as I thought there were some great images. I'm glad you managed to single out so many entries for mentions in the awards, they were well deserved. I love these set subject competitions because, far from restricting the subject matter, they encourage creativity and result in a wide range of interpretations.
As for the next subject: Stay tuned a little longer.
david
edit: PS my entry was slightly posterised to emphasise the edges so you could read the inscriptions.

This was a challenging one, so very well done everyone.

Many thanks for the judging Belinda, and my much-coveted second! And congrats to David Trout. Of those you haven't singled out, my personal fave was Galoot's biker.

Re. shifting perspective - the problem with this is that it distorts everything else in the photo. I had actually already done a barrel distortion adjustment on it (even though this lens distorts very little) in order to partly compensate for the sloping verticals.

congrads to David....Thanks for all the work in judging Belinda. This was a thought provoking subject...NICE