Weekly Competition #128 - Weightlessness Competition

A nice crop of entries! I enjoyed judging these, so thanks everyone for participating!!!

These are my opinions, and nothing more. Some of them could easily be wrong (in fact I'm certain of it). These were written two or three at a time as the entries came in.


Hanging by a Thread - Hyram
Lovely first image! Fantastic colours in the bee, and the detail there is incredible. The strands of web are also crisp and help to fill an what might be a bit too much empty space. The background doesn't quite do it for me, the brown rectangle appears a bit man-made. Having said that the image in general really appeals to me, and it fits the theme nicely.

Butterfly - Mattox
Another insect macro. I hadn't foreseen it but I'm now guessing there will be a few bug shots The butterfly here, and indeed the entire image, shows some lovely delicate shades of yellow and green. Oddly the yellow body and wing appear sharp but the head, shoulder and antennae look a little soft, motion blur perhaps? Nicely saturated and good DOF isolation against a pleasant green background. The hanging posture helps with the theme, it wouldn't have worked so well standing upright.

Mid-Air - Patrick
I agree with you, this looks a bit like an arty clock of some kind. For me the crossed hands look like a stylized bird - I like that. I do however think the hard shadows of the hands on the central circle detract from the overall image. I also think the image might be improved by cropping some off the right and lower side.

Flying Glove - MayDay
Talk about bang on topic! I wasn't expecting to actually see anything really weightless. Well done! If I may be permitted a gripe when you've already pulled out all the stops, it's that the glove isn't more central in the window. The view out of the window is impressive, although it hardly matters given the subject of the photo.

The Eye - Draken
An intriguing shot of ... something! Quite a spooky shot with a strong sense of mystery. The vignette gives it a pleasing further symmetry. It looks cool, but apart from the interesting resemblance to an eye it doesn't tick any other boxes for me - it's a bit noisy (understandable, given the weather).

Fly on an ensete frond - Dr Mhuni
This seems like an unusual shot for you! The colours are great, nicely saturated without being garish. The focus is spot on, even the fly's eye is nicely detailed. The lighting is interesting, the fly is lit from above but the noise in the background suggests poor light. I like the composition, the two visible segments of the brown leave suggest a nice sweeping curve just out of frame. I also like that you captured the fly's 'rubbing hands' motion. I was interested to see that this was with the Raynox 150. It doesn't seem magnified enough?

Dandelion Pollen - Bondy
This is an awesome image! The detail is incredible, and the shapes and textures are compelling. It also clearly fits the theme. The composition isn't bad either, considering the subject and the lack of choice in shooting angle However I do have to ask if you took this shot with a Pentax camera attached to the electron microscope? I hadn't realised electron microscopes had SLR attachments (if they do I'll add one to my LBA list ).
[I later exchanged PMs with Bondy. He forgot that this competition was for Pentax cameras only. Warning to all LBA sufferers :apparently electron microscopes DO have an SLR attachment, but this photo wasn't taken with one]

Holographic Majesty - Tozza27
Funky! You've captured the detail in the hologram nicely, although it's hard to tell it is a hologram and not just an odd green-tinted photo. I do find it quite distracting that it isn't level (tilted pictures are a particular bugbear of mine, sorry ), and it could do with some cropping to even out the left and right sides, and to remove that black band at the bottom. If the photo was more clearly of a hologram I think you might have got away with the weightlessness aspect of it. Unfortunately as it stands it's more a picture of the queen than a picture of a hologram.

As light as a shadow - Frogherder
Well, the white powder, owl dust I suppose, probably doesn't weigh much This photo is interesting to me for the fact that an owl smacked into a window. Unfortunately there isn't much else to it! The dust itself is nicely isolated by the blurred background, but on the other hand there appears to be a visible reflection on the left side of the frame.

Seals at Findhorn - Jo
I love seals! There's a nice range of fur colour going on here which I like. The exposure is good too for what appears to be noonday sun. However they're all facing away, chasing the tide I guess, nevertheless I would have liked to see some sealy expressions. To my eye the image is also lacking in a clear focus point, and seems a little soft as well - perhaps from a very tight crop? I see from the EXIF that you were at 200mm. As for the theme ... weightless seals eh? If the photo was of a graceful swimming seal then maybe. Unfortunately as it stands it seems a bit of a stretch. I love seals, but sorry

Floating Peas - Cardiff_Gareth
Lovely shades of green! A striking image, from the small thumbnail I thought it was an aquarium macro shot of some Caulerpa algae. I'm a sucker for tight depth of field too, so his one strikes a chord in me. The lighting is good, I like the catchlight on each pea. I never thought I'd be talking about catchlights on peas. I think I'll call them pealights . I really like the dimly-lit submerged peas. I might have preferred the focal plane to be further forward, so there were fewer blurred peas in the foreground. Otherwise it's excellent! The image also captures the theme well.

Redundant - davidtrout
An unusual but nicely taken shot. I've tried photographing spiders webs myself and it's much harder than I anticipated! You've managed to get the webs nicely defined without overexposing them. I like the composition with the interesting feather clusters in the sparser right side web. The web itself is nicely eclectic as well, it reminds me of those famous experiments where the spiders were drugged with cannabis and LSD. Lovely tones in the background, although if you hadn't said it was a train I would have guessed some kind of graffiti. However I feel it is missing something. The web isn't interesting enough to hold my attention for long, and the background is somewhat too abstract. I also find the black wheel arch (?) to be quite distracting. I didn't understand the title either, sorry

Float Away Together In A Dream - JudithAnn
This is very abstract for you indeed! It's quite hard to judge You've got halos around the bear's legs, the balloons and the nappy. Plus the flash shadows are quite harsh behind the bear and balloons. Having said all of that, I still like it a lot! The background is intriguing, and the image as a whole just has something compelling about it. I also love the idea of a bear tied to helium balloons

Acupuncture & Incence - nathanever82
Certainly an unusual photo! The first thing that strikes me is the out of focus hand. The hand itself is fine, but I do find the rest of the arm to be a bit too prominent. I'm not too sure what you could do about - perhaps rotate the image slightly clockwise? The black pillar in the background is also a bit intrusive, especially as the towel is a similar colour. The lighting is surprisingly good for what I assume is some kind of clinic or surgery, and the lady in the towels isn't too unpleasant to look at The needle is nice and sharp, but I'm not convinced it conveys the weightlessness message very clearly.

Flutterby - Toonraider2
That is certainly a marvellous colour! The spots and red background are nicely saturated, and the bug itself is nicely sharp. The brown leaf it's sitting on is a pity, especially when you can see some nice green ones in the background. However I understand that chasing butterflies around can be a bit of pot luck sometimes! I do feel the butterfly is a bit small in the frame, perhaps a tighter crop if you have any resolution to spare?

Flying Bubbles - Jyrkira
Our first black & white shot! I liked this as soon as I saw it. The DOF is good, and the pretty girl (looks like Billie Piper!) and the bubbles are nice and sharp. I kind of wonder what it would look like if you were able to get both the girl and the foreground grass in focus. The exposure in general is great, although it's a shame the sky is blown out. Regarding the theme the bubbles fit in well, but I'm not sure whether I'd say the photo was about the bubbles or the (quite distracting) pretty girl . Nevertheless it's a classic image, I like it a lot!

Frozen Cobweb - Malcolm Leader
And our second black & white shote . Very striking! The whole web and water droplets is satisfyingly sharp, and I like the high contrast treatment. The white highlight top centre is a bit distracting. I do like the composition, I think this off-centre framing works well, and almost certainly better than trying to get the whole web in the shot.

Eat me or squeese me! - Darlene
Very colourful! I like this kind of shot a lot. The marshmallows have a lovely shape and the short DOF really emphasizes their softness. I think the shot might have been slightly improved if one of the clearly visible marshmallows was entirely in focus. Perhaps the green one in the lower centre, or the white one left of it. I would have preferred not to see any black in the top corners, and perhaps a white cloth in the foreground would have been a better match for the pastel colours. At first I wasn't sure that weightlessness being suggested in the image, but the more I look at it the more the light fluffiness of the marshmallows comes through. Nicely done.

Butterfly feeding - Weldingblues
Another good shot of a butterly. The insect itself is reasonably sharp although I might have preferred more crispness in the black and white pattern. The head and body are spot on. Unfortunately the red buds above it are a bit off-putting, the pale red highlights look quite oversaturated. I'm also not so sure about the crop, the extra wide frame makes it feel quite tight to me. The big leaf background is good but I think might have been better if it filled the frame to get rid of that dark area on the far left. Despite all my criticisms I still like the shot, it just needs a bit more oomph.

Weightlessness - John Riley
An imaginative shot which fits the bill perfectly! I spent quite a while looking at it just trying to work out if the camera really weighs so little or you had done something clever to the scales! I think it is the former, although the latter might not have been amiss if it could have made the two pans perfectly level. The lighting is just about perfect, the only areas of concern for me would be the almost over-bright areas just below the screw in the center of the frame, and around the 'auto 110' logo. The background sets everything off nicely. I do however think the perspective results in the lens of the camera looking a little odd, as if it's off-center. All in all a technically impressive image which is bang on theme. Indeed it i bang on theme for the whole forum, not just this competition, but I wouldn't have expected any less from you!

Montgolfier - Escaladieu
First off I want to say how jealous I am of the view from your window!!! From my window I can see a road, some 1970s houses, and a phone box. Back to business! What a fantastic scene! I assume it is an early morning shot from the lovely light and layer of mist. Even the balloon is the perfect colour to pick up the warmth of the sunlight. I do think you might have waited a second longer to take the shot, so the balloon wasn't 'touching' the white building below it. Nevertheless it's a beautiful atmospheric shot, well done!

Malham Kite - Daniel Bridge
What a funky view! From the thumbnail I thought the lady was a slightly more adult-orientated object The sky is good, with nicely detailed clouds, as is the ground, and you've balance the exposures of the two nicely. An graduated ND filter I presume? Compositionally I like the other kites, they are nicely spaced out across the frame. Are those two on the right sharks attached to the woman? What a great kite The only problem area for me is the far left of the frame, where I think a small crop might have helped get rid of some empty space and de-center the woman. The two horizontal lines are also more prominent in that area, at first I thought they were some kind of powerline in the foreground, then I remembered I was looking at kites! Still, a striking shot which holds the interest, I like it a lot.

How Do They Do That? - davem
A nice crisp shot. I love these old standing stones and this is a particularly impressive arrangement. Definitely fits the weightless theme! The square crop is an interesting choice, although I think it forces you to keep rather a lot of sky and foreground grass and leaves the horizontal stone rather central in the frame. Speaking of the foreground grass, it looks a little dull considering that the shadows appear to suggest noonday sun.

Floating scarf - mikew
You certainly did try! It's a great idea, unfortunately let down by, in my opinion, excessive blurring. If some part of the scarf had been sharp I think the image could work, but as it stands it's not quite recognisable enough for me. Square crop again! I think this might have worked better with some space for the scarf to be floating into or out of. The clouds are okay but I would probably prefer a bit more definition, as it stands the sky doesn't do enough to reduce the overall impression of blurriness.

Osprey - GlynM
Certainly an unusual plane! Or helicopter. Or whatever it is I love how you can see the pilot's head in the window, and the plane itself is mostly reasonably sharp (the closest engine pod isn't so great). You've got good propellor blur too, nicely showing off the shape of the rotor blades. I do find the whole image to be quite grey and sombre though, the grey sky doesn't help, but I can't help feeling that the image would benefit from a fairly large boost to contrast.

Ready For Takeoff - Bluejohn
Hello square crop although for this particular shot I think this is probably the best framing. Impressive sharpness right across the frame, I've tried these shots and know that isn't as easy as it first seems. Downsides for me are, unfortunately, the centre of the frame, where the seed heads don't stand out enough against the mass of stems and shadows in the background. Your EXIF says f/0.1 but I'm guessing it was relatively small. I think a smaller DOF would have helped with the centre of the frame.

Feather - Oppenheimer45
I like these kind of detail shots Lovely dreamy effect from the small DOF, although with the two in-focus areas I feel you might be lacking a little in the focal point department. The black surface provides the nice muted reflection, but the grey flecks in the material are a little distracting. I was rightly criticised for the same thing in a recent photo of mine - I was using a marble slab and I suspect yours is something similar. I quite like the BW conversion, I normally prefer a higher contrast b&w but with the black background I can see why you've avoided it. Compositionally the image is perfect vertically given the need to keep the reflection in the frame, but I can't help but feel it could be less central horizontally.

Weightless or Strength ... - ericp
Nice pose! I like to think that I could do this. I just choose not to Herculean tasks aside, I like the BW conversion a lot. The shadows in his shirt in particular are fantastic! I like the floor, especially around his hand and waist. It's a pity the entire floor wasn't a reflection of a window, it would have isolated dancer nicely. Including more of his reflection might also have added something. In my imagination this was taken in a crowded public space, so I can see why you've cropped tightly around him. However I still feels quite tight, I would have preferred a bit more room. This might have also been a good candidate for a set of shots of him at various stages in the routine.

Shadows and footprints - Womble
Entered 2 minutes before the deadline Didn't you do that last week as well? With all the snow we've got around here at the moment it's nice to see a snowy shot! I'm not so sure that the footprints add anything to the shot since you've got the theme covered with the shadow alone, although I'm not sure if there is some significance to the small prints on the left, is that something unusual? The top edge of the frame is a bit confused, this is one of those rare cases where a frame would help. Having said all that I still like the shot, the very straight tree you've managed to find is certainly interesting. With the foreshortened fat trunk and tiny branches it reminds me of one of those Boab trees.

Results

First and second place were very very close. I changed my mind several times! In fact, I would have awarded it jointly if I didn't think it would cause loads of problems with next week's judging.

First Place - Malham Kite by Daniel Bridge
Second Place - Montgolfier by Escaladieu
Third Place - Flying Bubbles by Jykira

Highly commended - Floating Peas by Cardiff_Gareth
Highly commended - Hanging By A Thread by Hyram
Commended - Eat me or squeese me! by Darlene
Commended - Butterfly by Mattox
Commended - Weightless or Strength ... by ericp

Most On-Topic Image - Flying Glove by MayDay
Coolest Image That Got Disqualified - Dandelion Pollen by Bondy

Tim nicely judged, congrats to the winners. You were right about the flecks they are pattern effect in cooker hob and they stand out much too much in the photo. Photo isn't a b+w conversion.

Regards
Rob.

Many thanks Tim for a Herculean feat of judging - jeez, I thought I gave detailed feedback! - and setting an interesting subject. Congrats to Daniel and the others.

'Weightlessness' attracted a nicely diverse set of entries. My personal fave was Jykira's (girl and) bubbles. I also really liked darlene's marshmallows - great composition & DoF, though I agree it needed a little sharper focus somewhere in the frame. bondy's pollen was also an amazing image, though not a Pentax one!

Re. mine - the Raynox 150 doesn't magnify that much at 35mmm, which makes the FA35 quite an interesting lens with this attached. The 250 is more extreme, I think - as is the 150 on longer focal lengths.

Congrats to Daniel and many thanks to our Judge ! It was a wonderful round of pictures and so many of them were interesting and fun to look at...It was a real great subject!
Best wishes to all the rest of our winners, and honourable mentions.

As for mine...it was such a different piece of work, I did not know what to make of it myself

Well Daniel for a good take on the topic and well done Tim for detailed and thoughtful judging on a wide variety of subjects. I thought it was in fact quite a tough topic but I seem to say that each time.

My own shot was fatally flawed, I realised that and only entered to make the judging more difficult- no, no ignore that to show support

Mike

Congratulations Dan on a great winner. I also enjoyed many of the other entries, particularly Escaladieu's second place shot with its beautiful lighting. Well done to Tim, I think this is your first judging in the weekly competitions, correct me if I'm wrong.
I thought the title in my entry was self explanatory - a rusting old locomotive=redundant, cobwebs=disused=redundant. Anyway back to the drawing board for the next challenge.
david

Congratulations to Dan for his scantily clad balloon entry

Many thanks to Tim for my HC, a most interesting theme and the very comprehensive judging, all completed minutes after midnight

The 'brown rectangle' in my entry is wholly man-made - part of a trellis on the back of the house

A great subject and well thought out judging. Many thanks for your comments.

Daniel's winning picture is brilliant.

Congrats all round.

Glyn

Excellent all round, so another successful competition!

That was a nice thoughtful judging and a great winner.

I wonder what Dan will choose?

Womble certainly did that when I was judge - I think he is confusing the competition with a last minute e-bay winning bid

Kris has done this at least once when I judged too, seems he's got form.
david

Well, what a nice surprise this morning, especially as the entries this week were all so good. I think I might have picked Gareth's Peas.

That was some excellent judging Tim (and I don't just mean because I won ), and I really don't think I'll be going into quite as much depth next week, as there's the little business of Christmas between now and then. But I'll do my best. Results might not be posted at quarter past midnight though...

Well, as we've all got a lot on our plates this week, I'll try to keep it as easy as possible...

Dan

thank you for the judging, and congratulations to the winner

Congrats to the Daniel and the other winners...Thanks for commended...Nice to seeMade me really smile

There will be no picture from me for awhile as we are going away for family vacation...be back Jan 10/10 (Walt Disney World)