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Weekly Competition #124 - Fog/Mist Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 22/11/2009
Judge: Prieni

As the year draws to a close the foggy days are more frequent (at least in some areas). As this is the weekly competition where also older shots are allowed in I think there is no disadvantage to those being happy enough to enjoy summer at the moment.

(If you live in year-round heat and sunshine: Tough luck )

Competition closes on Sunday, November 22. just one second after 23:59:59. As I will be away over that weekend (again), it might get a bit later on Monday until the results are back.

Good light!
Competition Entries
Prieni
Posted 23/11/2009 - 07:28 Link
I'm still working on the late entries. How do they put it so nicely: We thank you for your patience
How inappropriate to call this planet earth when it is quite clearly Ocean. - Arthur C. Clarke
Prieni's PPG page
Prieni
Posted 23/11/2009 - 09:51 Link
mikew is right, judging this competition is difficult. Once you accept that you will fail in doing justice to each and every entry it gets a bit easier. I have accepted it and I will fail. Which doesn't mean that I'm not trying hard...

hefty1 - there goes twenty quid I'll never see again...
A quick first entry, certainly well within the theme. I like the idea behind it and it does have some interest in the focus, i.e. the group of riders. I also very much like the group of onlookers, but for my taste they are far too close to the edge. Turning a bit to the left would have resulted in a better balance (or would have ruined the shot because of something we don't see in this view).
I think the image is a tad too dark, I tried using curves in Photoshop to lighten it up a bit and thought the result was better...

summiteverest - Early morning mist rolling off the mountains
A wonderful and peaceful landscape shot. Without the title I would have categorized this occurrence of water vapour as cloud, but I appreciate that the borders are fluid (or should I say gaseous?).
The top part I find a bit too bright. Putting a gradient layer on (layer mode "soft light") improved it a lot (for me at least).
I do like the composition, the water is nicely leading the eye into the picture and the mist is a prominent element of the picture, making the atmosphere of this shot.

imagesteve - Meadow at Gordon's Bay
I agree, the noise is a feature of this image. I do like the depth of the further parts and how the fog does enhance the sense of depth. What I am missing is some focal point or parts of interest in the foreground.
I would have tried cropping a bit off the bottom, getting rid of the shrubs. Then the lone tree on the left in the foreground would have been more prominent and maybe pulled off the role as a focal point.

Iam1of2 - Great day for a picnic?
Nice fog at the beach scene. I think this image only works in fog, it would be far too cluttered without it. As it is the fog is giving it depth and one gets a sense of the 3-D arrangements. Having said that, I feel that the lower right corner still is a bit too cluttered, though the light on the driftwood is really nice.

davidtrout - Mist in the valley
A classy classic is my first association. One type of image I imagined when setting the theme.
The ramparts in the foreground give an extra bit of interest, the landscape panning out with the wafts of mist breaking the gradations of distance that we get with denser fog and allowing a glimpse of the colours. Very nice!

Draken - Night at the soccerfield
A fog image with a difference. A very good idea and nicely executed. Compositionwise I think it would have had even more impact with the goal being a bit more to the left and less central. I do love the colours and the light fading into the dark night sky.
The goal is nicely isolated, not only by the mist but also by the choice of aperture. Well done.

johnriley - Scottish Dawn
And another wonderful entry, just as I had hoped for. Excellent colours, I like the fading greens of the vanishing landscape. The house is well placed to make for a good composition. The only slight niggle I have is that the house should be straight.

Bill_And - Fishing on a misty Humber
Wow! This is one picture! It does convey the tranquility of the foggy evening, no breeze, the day drawing to a close and the two figures relaxing enjoying their hobby (as you enjoyed yours, I'm sure).
The Humber bridge, of course, is putting the icing on the cake here, I like how you just see it and long to see more details of this bridge.
Two minor points: A sensor smudge about dead center and an ever so slight deviation from the horizontal in the bridge. They are not taking away anything from this brilliant shot.
As I'm writing this I have the feeling that this is the shot to beat...

nathanever82 - Fog and a Lady
I'm of two minds on this one. I do like the swaying lines of the streets, the bollards and the lamps and the lady is adding interest to the picture. I'm slightly put off, however, by the burned out first lamp that is loosing it's shape and shows some solarisation.
Having had a little play with it in Photoshop, I think that cropping that bright lamp off at the top and then some of the right side (i.e. all of the rightmost tree's trunk) the image works much better and suddenly I like this a lot.

Escaladieu - Misty Mountains
A wonderful view over the foggy valley, nice landscape shot. Lovely autumnal evening (or morning?) colours.
I don't understand why the mountains in the back are so dark. Lighting them up a bit revealed an interesting sky.
Excellent fog landscape, well done.

snappychappy - Yorkshire Mist
Is that really the first b&w entry? Surprising.
Yes the mist sometimes gracefully hides what we don't like to see. If you hadn't told us that we are overlooking a landfill site I at least wouldn't have guessed.
It's a nice landscape shot and the sun is doing it's best to light up the wafts of mist (and it is putting some nice reflections on the TV aerials.
The roofs in the lower left are one big black area, which usually is not a good thing. Here I think you get away with it somehow. The things that bug me more is the power lines (though I appreciate that the inhabitants of the houses are happy to have them).
For a shot from the loft window, though, it is top drawer!

isdky - Into The Mist
If I hadn't opened it in Photoshop I wouldn't have seen that this is not a b&w shot.
Wonderfully moody graveyard in the mist shot. Almost eerie.
I like the composition and the path leading into the picture (and into the mist). I did brighten the lower part a bit (that's when I discovered the faint colours) and think it works better that way.
All in all a very good shot!

Aiki - in the Mist
It might not be to everyones taste but I do see it's merits. The diagonal composition is a good idea, I think the lower right could do with a few more leafs. But it's hard to argue with mother nature...
It is another example of how the fog is adding a depth perspective to an image.
Somehow this image is leaving me wanting something more. Brave move, though, to go with something different.

Malo1961 - Path into the unknown...
Ahhh, an autobiographic picture with some relevance for the here and now. Where will the path lead you? It's tempting to keep you another week... but I hope you will stay anyway. Back to the shot:
Forest and fog go together well, as is seen in this shot. Unlike iskdy you have put the path off to one side and I think it was the better choice in this case. I like the shapes of the trees, showing individuality. As does the toning that is, unfortunately, not to my taste (although it is masterly applied).
If what you find behind that bend is not to your liking, be assured that you always can turn round and come back.

Galoot - Hill Mist
Another fantastic landscape with wonderful colours. The mist licking over the crest of the hills makes an additional interest of this image. The shadows of the clouds make for the different shades of green on the ground. Excellent shot, I imagine that the Scottish Tourist Board could be interested in a shot like this.

bforbes - Maid of The Mist
Another shot for the Tourist Board (though I don't know if they need to advertise Niagara Falls). The ride with the "Maid of the Mist" is an unforgettable experience even though I did enjoy it more just to stand about where you took the photo and to feel the rumble of the falls.
Excellent shot with the clouds giving you an excellent opportunity to emphasize both, the boat and the rainbow (with the 2nd order clearly visible). I also like the tourists on the boat in their raincoat tourist uniforms. Very nice shot.

Dr. Mhuni - High Street
Not sure what to make of it. For me it's something between the family snapshot (and I guess that that was the original intention of the shot), a car ad and something else I can't put my finger on.
The car certainly is a prominent element of the shot and I do like the low angle that you took on this. For a car ad, though, the people are not posh enough. For the family snapshot it is a bit "too good" (though there is nothing holding family snapshots from being good photos). There certainly is some mist/fog/cloud in this shot and not having been to Greece I would hazard a guess that this would be a rare sight in sizzling hot July. For a nature documentation, though, the car is too prominent.
On composition, the two figures should have been placed a little bit away from the car, I think.

Jyrkira - A foggy bay
Another fine foggy landscape shot, very moody. I find it a bit too dark and would have lightened up the lower part and darkened the sky a bit. Something in me longs for more saturation in this shot, I'm well aware, though, that this might be a wrong move.
I do like the composition and the tree lines in the distance work well together with the swaying line of the top clouds. The shrub in the foreground I find a bit distracting although it does contribute to the "3D-ness" of fading contrasts in the mist.

GlynM - Spring Mist
You must hate to go to work in the morning, what an awful place to work... NOT.
A nice shot of your morning walk from the car! I think I would have tried the same as for the previous shot, i.e. darkening the sky (it's a bit burned in places) and lighting up the foreground a bit.
For a fog/mist shot the wide angle should perhaps have been swapped for a tele lens (at least from this vantage point) as I imagine a shot along the footpath with the darker tree groups left and right and the trees in the mist further along would have made for the better shot.
But overall I do like the composition of the shot.

doingthebobs - As I walked out...
Another excellent entry. The New Forest is one of the things I miss most since moving back.
A wonderful birch tree with the rising sun next to it. Very dreamlike atmosphere. Here the fog is used to enhance the presence of the tree (and to dampen the sunlight a bit more than usual).
Nice composition with the square crop, very balanced. The only niggle I have is the burned out sun, but there is nothing you can do against that (apart from shorter exposure/smaller aperture, which in turn would make everything else a dark blob).
It might be worth lightening up the lower part a bit which would also accentuate the mist a bit more.

mikew - Early morning
Wonderful moody shot, I feel like watching over the world. I was thinking about some far-eastern music even before I read about the chanting monk so you have done well in capturing the mood, I think. I know it is a bit unfair to snappychappy, but surprisingly here I don't feel that much bugged by the power lines.
Composition wise I would have liked a little bit more space on the top (but without loosing anything from the bottom at the same time). Well done!

Ben76 - A foggy morning in Normandy
Superb shot, I like it a lot. Not only the mist but also the contrast between the "naked" tree in the foreground and the others in the back. The blue sky in the upper right is another plus of this image.

Coriander - Mountain mist
A nice mountain scenery in this shot. I like that you have included the house in the lower right, it gives a bit of perspective to the scenery. I have the feeling that for a mist/fog shot the contrast is a bit on the high end.

piotrloza - sober reminder...
A different angle on the theme. Good thinking, I like the idea and also the realisation of this idea. It would have been even better if the cross would have been in focus and sharp. A bit more depth of field would also have been nice because it would have brought out the structure of the ground a bit more (and I like that a lot in the lower left corner).

Kitykat - Waking Morning
Another wonderful misty landscape. I don't know if the noise is from scanning or if that is on the film already. Here I think that the noise does not contribute well to the overall impression. The landscape, however, is really magic. The lens reflections work for me here.

matwhittington - Misty Park Hop
Another late entry with a fresh look on the them (though some similarities to previous entries are there). I do like the dark-to-light gradient in this image and the trees are very nice big old fellows. The mist does make a big contribution to this image, it wouldn't be as interesting without it. Good composition, a bit more room on the bottom would have been nice (but here without loosing anything from the top). I have the feeling the image is slightly leaning to the right even though the tree in the middle is straight. A bit more depth of field would have been better, I guess you didn't have a tripod with you.

JudithAnn - The Morning Break-up, Finally!
Another good entry from JudithAnn, I agree that your entries are getting better and better. Here I have the feeling, though, that the mist is not contributing to the image in a huge way. Composition is good and it is a nicely balanced image, the sun leading the way on the street. I feel, though, that the break-up of the morning mist had already happened earlier.

Phew, lots of entries and very nice ones at that. Sorry for being a bit late in judging, I had a long weekend in Barcelona (where I had to bail out my wife after a pickpocket got her money, cards and ID) and this morning I let work interfere with the important things in life...

And my winner is....
Bill_And - Fishing on a misty Humber
Second
johnriley - Scottish Dawn
Third
Ben76 - A foggy morning in Normandy

I have to add that I found the winner easy, the runners up were really difficult and it could have been a number of shots. Some commendations:
Draken, Galoot, mikew, isdky, matwhittington

Special mention for piotrloza for his out-of-the-box thinking entry.

Hope that no one feels mistreated, as I set out at the beginning, it was tough judging this competition and I accept that I might have failed some entries (and therefore the entrants).

Prieni
How inappropriate to call this planet earth when it is quite clearly Ocean. - Arthur C. Clarke
Prieni's PPG page
Dr. Mhuni
Posted 23/11/2009 - 10:47 Link
Many thanks for the in-depth judging Ralf, and congrats to Bill_And and the others. There were some great shots this round - including the winner (which is, dare I say it, very Prieni-esque!).

You're quite right to be confused by mine - so was I, but it's the only shot of mist I have! And yes it is basically a holiday snap, souped up (or down?! - it was heavily desaturated) for the comp.
Mhuni

500px
Edited by Dr. Mhuni: 23/11/2009 - 11:12
bforbes
Posted 23/11/2009 - 10:53 Link
Congratulation to Bill on his well deserved win and thank you to Prieni for his very fast judging and comments. Ralf you must lead a very hectic life.
Prieni
Posted 23/11/2009 - 11:18 Link
bforbes wrote:
Ralf you must lead a very hectic life.

Well, I was able to finish the judging while at work. So it seems not too hectic... But don't tell my boss!

Prieni
How inappropriate to call this planet earth when it is quite clearly Ocean. - Arthur C. Clarke
Prieni's PPG page
hefty1
Posted 23/11/2009 - 11:32 Link
Congratulations to Bill_And for an excellent winning shot and to Prieni for some well thought-out and detailed judging, some really nice entries again this week and I particularly liked matwhittington's photo.

A quick note on mine; yes moving to the left would have revealed a rather unsightly PA system in the foreground and the darkness was quite deliberate as it was a really dark day and the only things properly visible were the jockeys' silks. I tried to recreate the mood...
Joining the Q
johnriley
Posted 23/11/2009 - 11:55 Link
Another great entry and a great judging. You didn't fail!

Congratulations to our new winner!
Best regards, John
davidtrout
Posted 23/11/2009 - 11:59 Link
Thanks Ralf for excellent judging in stressful conditions. Your winner was the image that remained in my memory after looking at all the pictures and I would have chosen that one too. Congrats to Bill. It was a difficult judging task because there were so many pictures of equal merit.
Ben76
Posted 23/11/2009 - 12:04 Link
Thank you, Prieni, for the detailed judging and my unexpected third place. Many entries are just outstanding!
Benoît
GlynM
Posted 23/11/2009 - 12:33 Link
Many thanks for some excellent judging and useful comments.

Once again well done to everyone for a fantastic collection of pictures.

Glyn
nathanever82
Posted 23/11/2009 - 12:37 Link
thank you for judging, and congratulations to the winner
'Between the lights there is always a shadow'

www.nathanservi.com & PPG
Aiki
Posted 23/11/2009 - 12:45 Link
Great work done again, Ralf ! So many good shots to schoose from.

Congratulations to the winner !

Waiting the next theme
Aiki

----
Pentax K20D; SMC DA 18-55mm II kit; Sigma AF 70-300/4-5.6 APO DG MACRO
GIMP Flickr
PPG
Coriander
Posted 23/11/2009 - 13:19 Link
Well done on the judging. Not an easy task I'm sure! Congrats to Bill_And on his win. Look forward to the next comp.
K10D with Grip, 28mm,50mm,135mm,18-55,18-200,70-300mm, Meade 2000mm catadioptric, dodgy tripod and luck
mikew
Posted 23/11/2009 - 13:23 Link
Well done Ralf to complete this hard bit of judging and well done to the winner also!

Incidentally my wife was the victim of pickpockets on the metro in Barcelona as was a friend and another friend's Mother in Law was mugged and subsequently died of injuries related to the attack. Not a city I plan to revisit, massively over rated for its culture and architecture, and clearly can't be bothered to control the street crime.

However, congratulations to Ralf and the winning shots!

Mike
---------------------------------------------------

You can see some of my shots at my Flickr account.
Hyram
Posted 23/11/2009 - 13:59 Link
Excellent entries and a good choice of winner

Most of the time I come across fog, I am too busy keeping clear of other vessels to think about getting the camera out
Hyram

Bodies: K20D (2), K10D, Super A, ME Super, Auto 110 SLR, X70, Optio P70
Pentax Glass: DA* 300, DA* 60-250, DA* 50-135, DA* 16-50, DA 70 Ltd, FA 31 Ltd, DA 35 Ltd, DA 18-55 (2), DA 12-24, DA 10-17, M 200, A 35-70, M 40, M 28, Converter-A 2X-S, 1.4X-S, AF 1.7, Pentax-110 50, Pentax-110 24
Other Glass: Sigma 105 macro, Sigma-A APO 75-300
Flash: Metz 58 AF-1 P, Pentax AF160FC ringflash, Pentax AF280T
Malo1961
Posted 23/11/2009 - 14:20 Link
Thanks Ralf, for the kind words. As always the judging was thoughtful and well considered.Congratulations to all the winners. You picked a excellent and well deserved crop.
Best regards,

Martin.


Curious about my photography?? Just Follow the Light.
JudithAnn
Posted 23/11/2009 - 15:19 Link
Wow...a lot of hard work Ralf...Congrats to our winners!

Thank you for the compliments on my improvments...makes me wanna work even harder..on a monday morning to boot!

My favorite was Draken...and I can not even tell you why...I just kept looking and looking at it...It had such a feel to it! I also love bforbes...that was one nice shot!

I await our next shoot!
Galoot
Posted 23/11/2009 - 15:47 Link
Thanks for the positive comments Ralf.

Well done "Bill_And" great picture.

When I first saw the picture I thought I was looking up to the fishermen from a low viewpoint, then I looked at it again and saw the bridge and realised I was looking down on them from a higher viewpoint.

Now when I look at it, it 'flips' up and down from both viewpoints, like one of these optical illusions.

Still a good picture, even if I'm getting dizzy
matwhittington
Posted 23/11/2009 - 18:55 Link
Great competition again. Excellent judging (well done and many thanks) and a great winning shot - truly excellent. And I even managed a commendation this time for which many thanks!!

Regards

Mat W
Mat W

My Flickr: link
Bill_And
Posted 23/11/2009 - 21:22 Link
WOW - Ive won one!! I feel like a giddy 5 year old on christmas day

Danke Prieni

Right - on with the next competition

thanks for all the comments and congrats
Good luck one and all

The brick has it!
doingthebobs
Posted 24/11/2009 - 18:05 Link
I think your win was well deserved Bill-And. Very well deserved!

Thanks for the kind comments and your time on the judging Ralf.
Bob

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