Weekly Competition #147 - Late Competition

As promised, this competition has an all round theme of 'Late', which includes the judging. Sorry for the delay, thank you for your patience!

As I expected, there were mainly three interpretations of 'Late' - time of day, dead/death, and running late. We've had excellent examples of each, so thank you for making my task more difficult. I judged this competition mainly on how well the photo made me think of 'late', some were technically excellent, and may have won if the theme was different, but for this it had to say 'late' to me.

In the end, there was one clear winner for me, which struck just the right chord and presented the theme clearly and with good technique and composition. However, several of the other shots were hot on its heels, so here goes with my round-up...

Hyram: A lovely late afternoon shot with a sweeping curve leading the eye around the bay, and golden light picking out the buildings across the water. A fine shot as a first entry, but it didn't seem late enough for me, if you see what I mean.

Patrick: This is later than Hyram's, with nice tones, and contrast between the yellows and the deep blues, but the composition isn't as good. It's a bit disjointed, and looks more like a holiday snap from a hotel balcony, than a studied composition. The sloping horizon would have knocked it off first place too, even if everything else was perfect...

rustysven: The first of the 'death' themed shots, and a good one it is too, as it also encompasses the 'late in the day' aspect too. Monochrome suits the picture well, but I can't help but feel a closer composition, making more of the shadow, would have improved the shot. Nice though.

gartmore: And here we have the first 'running late'. Black and white again works well here, but I feel that the person is too close to the edge of the frame for it to sit right with me. Interesting that from the wear on the steps, everyone goes down that side.

DadeiaAndrade: I'm assuming this is a scan of a print. It obviously shows a night scene, with the brightly lit subway creating silhouettes of the two pedestrians. I'm afraid it doesn't grab me as an image, although I'm sure others would disagree - it's just not the sort of photo that appeals that much to me. Also, the large white space around the image, and the slight tilt put me off too.

bramela: Not sure if this is meant to look like a moonlit shot, or whether it's just underexposed due to the bright sunlight on the sea, whichever, it just looked a bit wrong to me, which made me check the EXIF. Composition-wise I find the boat a bit too central and not enough of interest to hold my attention.

Dr. Mhuni: I love the colours and composition of this shot, but unfortunately it just doesn't say 'late' to me. 'Asleep' perhaps, 'having-a-bit-of-a-lie-down' too, but sorry, not 'late'. As I say, colours and compositional use of the window are excellent.

JudithAnn: Again, a nice photo of a touching moment between the generations, but not one that says 'late' to me. Without the text you really couldn't know.

TOZZA27: A photo that made me laugh, with an excellent pose from Cyril, but once again, does it say 'late' without the accompanying text?

TimE: This time the necessary text is shown within the photo, so we can see the relevance to 'late'. I find the composition a little too static, with the sundial central, and the plaque and the bush vying with eachother for attention in the background. I might have preferred a lower, tighter composition looking across the dial at the plaque? I'm also, absolutely, a stickler for level horizons... Perhaps I should put that in my signature, as a reminder in case I get to judge another of these.

BAJ: Another great shot that looks stunning, but doesn't say 'late' strongly enough for me. It's an interpretation I can see, but really it just looks like a nice photo using a slow shutter speed. Being picky, I'd like to see the whole of the bannister at the top and the left of the image.

AxelLuther: I thought this was stunning when I first saw it, and thought it would be a hard one to beat. The lighting tells us it's late, as does the lack of people. And the colour of the lighting gives the scene a slightly surreal look, which I really like, I'm glad you didn't 'correct' it. There are two things that improve it for me. A square crop, so that the external stairs are removed from the sides, makes the composition tighter, and even more appealing to me. And looking at the beams on the ceiling and how they line up with the window frame, tells me you weren't quite central, a step to your left would have probably got things absolutely spot on. A very nice image though, well done.

tomw: A classic view of a motorway, with the long exposure giving us the light trails. Slightly earlier in the evening, or a longer exposure, would have given us more colour in the sky, which would have balanced out the composition a little more I think. The sweep of the road leads us nicely into the shot, but again, I can't help but feel we have a lean to the left. I like the starburst effect of the vehicle in the roadworks.

i-Berg: He's very late! You've got good lighting on the face with catchlights on the hair, and composition is generally good apart from the white jacket(?) in the background, shame that's there really. It looks to me that 1/60s wasn't quite fast enough to freeze the movement of the zombie though, which is odd, as I thought they were generally fairly slow...

beebee: I just love this, the blueness and the moon give no doubt that this is late, and the composition is excellent, with the groyne echoing the line of the pier. It's practically monochrome, with just a hint of colour from the lights on the pier. Slight niggles? Converging verticals give it the slight impression of a lean to the right, but to me it's no big deal. It also looks like there's a very blurred dust spot about level with the moon, just left of centre, but again, no big deal. Lovely shot, one I'd have liked to have taken myself.

Davidoff: That's really the moon? Looks more like a sunset to me. Unfortunately (from your point of view), I'm not a big fan of manipulated images, and this one's a bit extreme. Try f/8, 1/350s and ISO 100 and see if that exposes the moon a bit better for you.

mrapisit: A nice shot, which you might expect to see in a holiday brochure, someone relaxing by the sea in the last of the sun. From a composition point of view, I think I'd rather see the sun either directly behind the person, or further to the right, I find the central placement leaves the shot a little unbalanced.

mikew: Another mono treatment of the 'running late' theme. I like this from a composition point of view, although it's a shame about the fencing(?) in the background. However, the mono treatment is a little dull for my taste, and I think it could do with a contrast boost.

davidtrout: A very strong photo, with again limited colour palette and good composition. Looking at the EXIF we can see that it was apparently taken near midday, but the effect here gives the impression of early evening. I saw this before I saw Beebee's shot, and thought that David had another winner...

johnriley: One of three 'late' gravestone entries, John's image has vibrant colour courtesy of some algae, but I find the viewpoint, and the foreground twigs, a little distracting.

thoughton: This is a simpler, clearer composition to John's, with more muted colours complimenting the stone nicely. I'm a sucker for interesting mosses, and I particularly like the reddish-coloured one on the nearest stone. I've seen this before, but that doesn't matter.

Jo: It looks late, whether you've got lights on your bike or not. Reminds me of trips to Lake Vyrnwy, and I like the view peeking through the trees, and the soft colours complimenting the scene. Nice.

womble: Unfortunately reminds me of a joke, to which the punchline is "Gone, but not for cotton". A nice study of this grave, but I find the mono treatment a bit pale here,I feel it needs a bit more bite, more oomph! Darkening the background hedge would work for me too.

zealousdp: Another shot that doesn't work as 'late' for me, unless you get the accompanying explanation. Nice product shot though.

nathanever82: Nathan's once again seen a good image here, with the poster in the background referencing 'time' and the blur indicating speed, which might imply lateness, time running out etc. Not strongly enough for me though, I'm afraid. Converting to mono puts more emphasis on the clock, and stops the eye being drawn to those trousers. Again, a nice shot that just doesn't quite fit the theme for me.

So, results are:

1st Place: Beebee
2nd Place: davidtrout
3rd Place: AxelLuther

Highly Commended: thoughton, Jo
Commended: BAJ, mrapisit, Dr. Mhuni

Thanks to you all for entering, apologies for the 'late' judging, and congratulations to Beebee for a wonderful winner. Over to you...

Dan

Congrats to BeeBee. Thank you to our judge for all his work.

It was a bit of a hard topic for me....and I did not want to take a picture of the 'late evening'...thought you would get plenty of these. I'd tried to think outside of the box a bit. I would agree that my picture is more about time then late.

Well done BeeBee for the win and Dan for the judging.

Mike

The delicious second spot, thanks Dan and thank you for your considered judging. Congratulations to BeeBee for an excellent winning entry and Axl for his great photo in third place.
David

Well done winners. This was an interesting theme and got some contrasting entries - and lots of useful comments too, Dan. I'll remember about horizons - but if you mean the wall in my pic, it was curved .

Very interesting theme, thanks for the late (!) judging Dan, at least you're not the late judge!

Well done BeeBee and we'll look forward to your competition theme.

congrats beebee

difficult one to judge

Congratulations to beebee and thanks to Dan for the competition and the judging.

".......it did'nt seem late enough.........."

Having taken this shot, we got back in the car, drove to the ferry terminal (5 minutes away) and then it was dark

But I now realise that the subliminal message was actually "Very Late" for everything

If you've got photoshop or similar, try drawing a line across the widest part of the sundial - it should be horizontal.

Well, you should have waited another 4 minutes to take the shot!

Dan

Should have entered one of my moonlight on water shots

Well done Beebee, wonderfully atmospheric shot, and I'm now REALLY looking forward to visiting Norfolk this summer

Thanks for the HC Daniel, didn't expect that, much appreciated. Now you've reminded me, did have a lovely sunset shot of Lake Vyrnwy that could've been entered - didn't get quite that far back in the 'catalogue'! Nice topic.

Jo

Many thanks for the judging, Daniel, and congrats to beebee and the other winners.

Congrats BeeBee, good choice Dan, thank you. Well done to all the winners.

Thank you for your recommendation....

Congratulations BeeBee, it is a wonderful photo! Thanks for my HC too Daniel! (Yes, it was taken for a fortnightly comp. about a year ago)

So sorry for being so late logging in - decorating got the better of me. I was so shocked and excited to win - and very surprised. I'm sorry for the dust spot - didn't spot it!! I will set the competition in a minute when I work out how to do it!!

Thanks Daniel - great comp and great judging - well done Beebee and the other high flyers - back home now only 400 Chloe shots to edit !!

Tony