Weekly Competition #113 - Texture Competition

Thank you all for entering such a fine collection of photographs. This is a huge entry – 48 – and many of pictures were of equal merit so it hasn’t been easy. The first and second placed pictures were very close. I’ll make the usual disclaimer and say that the final result is merely my opinion and can’t be taken as definitive wisdom. Forgive me if I have banged on too much about sharpness in the images but for a subject such as texture I believe sharpness is essential. Some otherwise very fine pictures were let down by being slightly soft. Those that were totally sharp were the ones I found most appealing. I enjoyed the wide variety on offer and wasn’t surprised so many featured old wood or food. Because there’s a big entry I feel justified in crowding an extra body onto the podium and giving a couple more highly commendeds than usual.

Feather by Surehpardeshi
Good idea. The white feather looks good against the dark background with the arch of out of focus green over the top. But the focus is not quite sharp enough to illustrate the textures to full advantage. I would have cropped or cloned out the out OOF green leaves bottom right.

Slow waters by Tozza27
I find various elements in this picture very appealing. The strong diagonal line dissecting the picture and dividing the smooth from the troubled water is very effective. Well done to avoid over exposure considering half the picture is dark and could have fooled the meter. The turbulent water has good texture and appears nicely ‘ frozen’ but I cant help feeling the part of the image we should be considering in this competition is the rough textured water not the smooth line of nicely lit water where the smooth meets the rough. This area with its lovely quality and good lighting draws attention away from the subject.

Maritime Texture by Hyram
There are some very satisfying textures here in both the wood and the rusty metal along with lovely subdued colours throughout. I would have cropped off the out of focus section right down the left side to further improve an already strong composition.

Moss by Hardgravity
The repetitive patterns make a good abstract image leaving the moss looking almost like a forest of conifers. There is certainly some fine texture in that green. Would it have been better with the top third cropped off? The image sharpness falls away in this section of the picture.

Plant textures by Belinda B
The image quality here is wonderful Belinda. The plants heads are thrown into sharp relief by the excellent bokeh of the background. I like it a lot.

Blind Texture by Prieni
Great composition, excellent colours and overall an eye catching abstract photo Ralf. The holes where the blind stiffener goes through at first looked like drops of water to me but the real water is seen diffused through the blind. It’s an absorbing image and one I enjoyed but I wondered if the textures in the blind material are quite sharp enough to sustain qualification for a top place in a textures competition. A very near miss for one of the top spots.

Bathroom textures high key by Malo 1961
What imagination and great technique. Here we have a grand selection of different textures making up an appealing picture from every day domestic items. It’s a classy still life and I really like the muted colours in this high key rendition.


Textured log pile by Simonarthurs
Here we have nice lines and good contrast between the green mossy bits and the old wood but I feel you’ve included too much in the frame. To get it all in focus, which I think this picture needs, you would have to photograph the whole subject on the same plane. By looking across it you need much more depth of focus to get all of the picture sharp and show the textures to their best advantage.

Ageing hydrangea by GlynM
Lovely colours and appealing shapes and patterns in this picture. The textures look good also. It’s a fine picture and one I would have been proud to have taken but the textures are not quite as obvious as in some of the other top contenders here.

Time flowing through wood by Beakeynet
It’s imaginative to use the wood contours to demonstrate the passing of time. There are some lovely textures in the scene and also great shapes and lines. Unfortunately the 5.6 f stop hasn’t given the picture sufficient depth to render same sharpness right across the frame. This is a drawback in one or two of the old wood pictures in this competition. Perhaps a higher ISO than the 100 recorded in your EXIF would have given you more scope to stop down.

Variations by Telstar
There’s a good choice of shapes and textures here too. For me the best bit is the corrugated iron roof with it’s slanting lines creating a powerful image. But perhaps there’s too much going on the in the scene and it could with fewer distractions such as the surrounding walls and the old fence. In a way this is a better illustration of lines than textures.

Woods of time by Gabeion
There are some very pleasing details in the centre of the picture with the patterns in the old tree stump being rendered very well. I also like the added green provided by the moss. But I would make similar remarks here about depth of focus to those already made in a couple of previous pictures.

Looking to heaven by Martutt
This is a very fine architectural abstract with no extraneous details to clutter the simplicity of the composition. The selection of shapes and patterns are expertly handled and within the shapes there are some excellent textures.

An old timber by Father Ted
This is a very fine example of textures in old timber. As the scene is all on one plane there are no problems with focus falling away as you progress through the picture. This one gives me a lot of pleasure to view, in addition to the textures and patterns in the wood I find the colour appealing.
Scaled down by BForbes
Gorgeous colours in this delightful picture and the textures in the feathers and feet are superb. .As a picture of a duck it can’t be faulted. But the subject matter here is texture and to illustrate that we don’t need the whole bird on view. If only you could have got closer into that lovely detail in the feathers Barrie this would have been a show stopper

Blade of grass by Darkmunk.
This is what I meant by a really close look at the textures. There is no wasted space in the frame. The subject matter is pure delight. Above all, and this is important in a competition about textures, it’s all pin sharp, from the beautiful drops of water to the dark green of the leaf and the tiny yellow aphids. This photo is a stunner.

.Greek rocks at Sunset by Dr Mhuni
What a lovely warm glow that yellow cliff radiates. The texture in the strata is well rendered and it’s capped by a very appealing blue sky. But is there just a little bit too much in the frame? Would it have been more effective if you could have moved further in to get closer to the textures?

Textures and architecture in harmony by Dadeia Andrade
The textures in the wall of this building are good, especially as the various panels show differing patterns. But while I love the wall with its appealing curve and textures I have one small niggle. I have a personal aversion to the stark, graphic lines of ultra modern architecture being cluttered by trees and shrubs. I can’t help it and I’m considering counseling for my phobia. I quite like trees so long as they know their place and don’t make the place untidy. In this picture I also think there is too much sky, some of which could be cropped off.


Broken glass by Draken
To this point this is the only photo that explores the textural possibilities of broken glass. It’s an interesting subject and one with many possibilities. This photo has some wonderful shapes in the smashed glass and it resembles the wrinkled surface of a barren planet. It’s a pity the highlights have burned out and I would have cropped off a large area of the blank space on the right. The picture has an interesting colour tint.


Eye on a towel by Conexus
You took the hint when you entered this in the Gallery and I suggested it would look good in the weekly competition. It does. I’m not a portrait expert but I always appreciate an original approach to the subject and this satisfies my tastes here. But this isn’t about portrait photography – its about textures and this scores highly there as well. The textures in the fabric of the towel are good and on the child’s arm and hand they are terrific.

Mmmm Muffins by Darlene
Mmm indeed Darlene. They look very tasty. The texture in the pastry and the colour of the blueberries all add to a very appealing shot. I like the background colour which matches the berries in the muffins. If there’s any left I’d be tempted to rig the results of this competition for a sample.

Hurry up before it’s all gone by Summiteverest
I bet the cake has all gone by now, hungrily gulped down no doubt after a visit to the top of a Scottish mountain. The colour is fine but the textures in the cake, while good, could be just a tad sharper.

Weathr(ered) board by DoctorJeff
Back to old wood now after a little feast of tasty goodies. The grain of the wood is lovely and I like the way you’ve angled the image so that the lines run diagonally and not straight up and down. By shooting head on you haven’t had to worry too much about depth of focus so this doesn’t become ssuch a big issue here as it has in some other entries, although I wouldn’t say it is absolutely sharp.

Roof moss by Coriander
The light on this picture is the big draw. You can’t beat early morning light so well done for getting up in time to catch it. The mossy green is also very attractive and so are the strong lines of the texture in the roofing material. It’s a picture with immediate appeal and one to linger over for a bit longer.


Wheetabix by TonyA
Back to food again. This has given me an insight into what a Wheetabix looks like close up. There’s a whole new world in there. You’ve captured the crispness of the cereal and also recorded the tones of colour. It’s not all just a dull brown after all but has subtle tones when you look at it close up.

Duck by Nathanever
It looks delicious and done to a turn. The colour is very attractive but is the texture quite crisp enough? Perhaps a little longer in the oven or a smaller aperture would have helped. I bet you enjoyed the meal and the celebration of the exam results. Congrats.

Eucalyptus bark by Mr Mellow
Definitely one of the better wood pictures. I love the attractive colours and shapes in the bark. The colours are particularly sympathetic to each other. Nature usually gets it right.


Neglect for profit by RR
It’s not only a stunning wide angle image, but also a comment on material greed. This picture has huge appeal for me and the textures in the peeling paint and old brickwork are very obvious. The colour is good too. A very strong contender.

A basket of garlic by Mecrox
The garlic skins provide amazing patterns and textures and look really good. I would just have cropped out a couple of intrusive elements from the right of the image to shore up the composition.


Ceramical Texture by organicimagery
Great colours and patterns here. I like the way you’ve kept part of the pattern of the mosaic in the frame on the left and right to hold in the sides of the picture.


Waiting her time by Aiki
Oh dear Aiki you’ve put me on the spot here. I’ve already said earlier in this thread that I’m no portrait expert but I suppose I’m here just to comment on the textures. I would repeat my earlier statement that I do enjoy originality in portraiture and this shot certainly has all of that. I don’t know what the old lady is doing and why she’s waiting for her time but it is a haunting image and one that stands out in a crowd. The textures in her clothing and skin are exceptionally good as is the overall quality of the photo.

Colour in wood by John Riley
In my opinion this is the best of all the old wood pictures. What lifts it above the rest of a fine bunch is the vibrant colour. John gives us not only the textures and natural colours of the old wood but also the added attraction of the paint. And, as always from this photographer, the image quality is beyond reproach.

The oldest tree in the park by Matwhittington
We go back to the unadorned wood in this fine picture by Mat. I really enjoyed the shapes and gentle colours in this attractive photo. And of course, the textures are well represented.

Pineapple by Randall85
The textures in the pineapple are very good indeed and provide a good photographic subject for this competition. The picture is really sharp and the black and white tones are excellent. But I feel the lighting is uneven and not directed at the bits which most demand attention. The harsh shadow on the background wall is also a little distracting.

Stone eye by Alun
Alun demonstrates an expert eye for composition. His selection of which bits of the sculpture to include in the design and which to leave out seems to be spot on here. It makes a very good pattern picture with some delightful shapes. The textures are well rendered and it all adds up to a very worthy entry in this competition.

Sempervivum red jewel by Sandy
What lovely colours and beautiful shapes in this plant. Sandy has done a good job in recording them but I think a tighter crop to remove most of the background details would have made this a stronger picture. The real interest is in the plant itself. The green and red in the top of the pot is all we need to see, some of the surrounding detail is a little distracting.

Half eaten banana by ASheridan
This banana is a very juicy looking specimen which must have been difficult to put down in order to photograph it. The banana pictured well and I like the way you included the peeled back skin. The most prominent area of the photo, the bitten end, is the least sharp unfortunately but overall it’s a good example of textures.

Fishermans’ shed by Bluejohn
Fishermen’s shed provides another fine selection of good colour and textures from old wood and masonry. The peeling paint on the old rendered masonry and particularly on the door works very well. As a picture illustrating the age old state of such buildings the inclusion of all the surrounding bits, like the drums, it is very successful. For textures I would have cropped in a bit closer to tighten up on the subject although I must admit there’s some fine texture in the ropes.

Mixture of texture by Giving Tree
This is the first entry at the time of writing to use the textures of frost or snow. Perhaps by midnight tonight someone else may have entered another one. This is very good indeed. The snow is crisply sharp, the strings in the racket form a fine grid pattern and the colour of the racket stands sharply out against the snow. Even the stubble of the dead grasses adds a shade of yellow to the palette. Love it. Do you get much snow in Tennessee Emily? I always imaged it would have a milder climate than northern Europe.

Textured breakfast by Snappycaz
That’s one helluva confection to serve up for breakfast. It certainly has texture. On top of the smoothness of the creamy stuff there are the textures of the added bits of nuts and fruit. I like the yellow of the syrup contrasting with the white and darker ingredients. Another tasty entry.

Nature’s texture by timcx500e
The vibrant colour is what gives this picture it’s immediate appeal. The slightly diffused purple head of the thistle sits comfortably on the much sharper green of the prickly part of the plant in an attractive, well composed tightly presented image.

Stocks by Thordell
There is good texture here in this straightforward record of the village stocks. I wondered at first if a tighter crop would have been more successful but then realised if you went in too close to show only a small part of the textures you wouldn’t be able to see what the picture was about. I do feel this is another image slightly let down because it is less than pin sharp.

Ready to harvest by Thoughton
The wheat arches across the frame in a very attractive manner and the texture is rendered well. While the light is pleasantly subdued I believe the colour and contrast could have been given a slight boost in post processing to add a bit more impact.

Ivy by MikeW
I’ve been boring on a lot about critical sharpness. If anyone has doubts about what I’m getting at take a close look at Mike’s photo. This is a great example of why a really sharp picture of textures is so much more satisfying. You feel you could strike a match on a picture of that rough grave stone. The green of the ivy is the icing on the cake and that single brown leaf forms a perfect focal point. It’s not on the traditional intersection of the thirds but right on the edge of the frame, thus breaking the classic rules of composition but adding an interesting element of tension

Old brick wall by Ben76
The red brick and rusty metal ring give the colour in this photo a warm feel and the trace of cobwebs adds interest. The sharpest part of the picture is quite rightly the metal which looks very good but I feel that the picture would have looked even better if the bricks and cobweb had also been sharper.

Green door by ProSigma
More peeling paint here gives us another very fine texture shot. Apart from the textures in the green paint the shapes of the door and window make a very satisfying pattern. I enjoy the little clump of weedy looking leaves at the bottom and the way you’ve framed the picture with a raggy border.

Stones by MarkD
The is a pleasant arrangement of stones, and whether you arranged them or photographed them as found it works very well. There is some attractive colour and patterns in the stones but I think a slight lift in exposure and a touch more contrast would have brought those stones more to life.

Brring by Rob
The textures in the frost are superb. As I said about MikeW’s gravestone photo this is a subject where absolute sharpness is essential and this is what you have provided. The rusty old ring creates a good focal point. I would have cropped off the bottom part of the picture where the focus falls away very slightly to leave a frame full of frozen frost and some very satisfied viewing admirers. But I wouldn’t touch the dark line across the top, it’s just fine.

So here goes with the final result:
1 Darkmunk
2 MikeW
=3 Johnriley and Malo 1961
Highly commended: BelindaB, Prieni, Martutt, Conexus, RR, Aiki, Alun and Rob.

David, you're either very fast with the keyboard or you've been doing this as it went along! Very well done anyway, especially as there are so many entries.

Congrats to the winners! Thanks for the 3= as well.

David
Thanks for the hint and the comment on my shot - my first comp entry
It was really interesting reading your comments on the shots
cheers

Always thought you'd have your work cut out, both in numbers and quality, with a subject such as this, David. So the speed with which you posted your comments is exemplary - nice to wake up to a result! Thanks for the detailed judging and congrats to Darkmunk (thought this would be the winner - regardless of subsequent entries - as soon as I saw it) and the others. Along with many of those you highlighted I also thought Giving Tree's was a nice shot.

Congratulations to Darkmunk and the other winners. David, thank you for your very rapid judging and in-depth comments.

I really enjoyed tramping around trying to capture shots for this week's comp, and now have a whole directory of pictures entitled "texture"... Well done to everyone for their pictures and to David for the excellent quality and speed of judging.

Mat

Well done David for some excellent detailed judging of oh so many entries. Congratulations to Darkmunk for his winning shot and thank you for the enjoyable second place

That 70mm lens is indeed very sharp and using a monopod will have helped to let it perform to its potential.

Mike

Thanks David,
A monster job, well done. Gongratulations to Darkmunk.
A well deserved winner. Thanks for the joined third.
Over to Mark, for setting the next theme.

Martin.

Congratulations to the winners and well done everyone for an enjoyable set of shots.

Thank you to David who has done a stirling job very well I hope I never have to face anything so daunting.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks for your kind comments David.

I worried about it being on one plane and wondered if I shouldn't have cropped in so close, but, to be honest, the rest of the image didn't add anything. I'm glad you like the colours as they were the deciding factor for me.


So, as Martin says...over to you Mark

Ooooh! I won
Sorry guys, I forgot all about this I have been out this morning with my 4 year old son on his last day of the holidays before his 1st day at school... and we were out taking macro shots of dew and moss and spiders. yeh! I'm pleased to report he loves all that stuff

WOW! Thanks David, what a job. Well done everyone on a set of really lovely images and particularly MikeW jammy b*gg**.

I'll be back shortly with a new comp. Apple-ogies for the delay.

Awsome judging!Great job well done Iam not so sure Iam ready for all that judging so I dont think riging the results would be my plesure But hey if you want to have tea sometime it would be my pleasure to serve you one or two maybe three of these MMM Muffins... Thanks

Congratulations to Darkmunk and huge thanks to davidtrout for undertaking such a mammoth judging task.

Many thanks for my Highly Commended.

I was worried that by choosing to use the X70 for my entry, the IQ would have noticeably suffered compared to entries using K20's + Ltd. lenses etc. but I think the little camera has done well

Congratulations Darkmunk for a really awesome shot! Worthy of National Geographic! Wish I'd taken it

Also thanks for all the hard work David! A mammoth job which you handled incredibly well (and quickly )

Thanks David for a great competition and congratulations to Darkmunk.

I shot myself in the foot picking textures as the topic. I had worked out that the best competitions were those which had subject matter open to the widest possible interpretation. As it got towards midnight on Sunday and the pictures were still coming in I began to wonder if I should have picked something like 'bell ringing nuns in Bognor on a wet Sunday in March(In black and white with a sepia tint).'
In the event I had taken the precaution of starting to write comments on each picture on Friday so I only had to do write-ups on the last few when the deadline came. I also had a pretty good idea which ones were top of the pile but kept an open mind in case of last minute goodies. MikeW's was one of these.
In retrospect I wish I'd added a couple more commendeds. I think Giving Tree should have been on the list. Sorry Emily.

Congratulations to davidtrout for his marathon effort and to Darkmunk for the top slot.

We have had very open topics before such as "Something Red" but they have not produced such an enormous entry.

I must admit that the hard bit for this competition was selecting which image to enter rather than thinking "do I have anything suitable".

Congratulations to Darkmunk and to davidtrout for your hard work and perceptive comments on all the entries.

Amazing job on judging, David! Very informative to read. Congrats, Darkmunk. (and thanks for the belated commended, really didn't know how this one would go over with the judge)

West Tennessee doesn't get much snow at all. Maybe one fall of about 2 inches per year, which is usually gone in less than a day, as it just doesn't stay below freezing for too long. The kids still get out of school for it though!! And NOBODY knows how to drive in it!!!
The mountains of east TN get regular snow and it's a beautiful sight.