Weekly Competition #224 - Breakfast Competition

First, I would like to thank everyone who entered this week's competition. I hope folks enjoyed entering this comp. When I looked at my own archive, I realized I had no shots of breakfast at all, even though it's something we all relish and enjoy every day (well, most of us, I guess) and this meal takes a pretty large number of different forms around the world. Second, I apologize for being slightly late in the day with the judging. Anyway, here goes:

The Joy Of Breakfast - DrOrloff
It's impossible not to warm to this capture which is so light-hearted and fun quite apart from its other merits (lovely colours, such sharpness). The focus and the framing give this a single point of interest, so we are not caught between two subjects or between foreground and background vying for attention. Above all, the the wide-eyed and wide-angled expression on the face of Junior Orlov (??) is priceless. Yummy, yes, it's good to be alive. Who needs more? A very creative use of a wide-angle lens (12mm here says Mr Exif).

Go to work on an egg - aliengrove
Hard-boiled eggs to go? There's lots of colour here and keeping back a little at 18mm (Mr Exif) gives context - the shop fronts or market stalls, the barrow, the seller crying her wares. I wonder whether a much closer portrait shot of the lady and her eggs would have worked, though the lighting does look a little tricky with her face in shade. That said, the lighting doesn't look very easy to begin with and you've got it really well, with nothing blown out and good strong colours.

Taste of Sunrise - RPLSF
Wow, a very sharp, colourful shot which just pops with life! I love the deep, rich sunrise colours behind, a perfect complement to the main subject. One can almost taste that fresh, zingy juice. I very much doubt I could manage a shot of this calibre and whether it wins a competition like this is purely down to personal preference, imho.

National Bulgarian Breakfast - alexfilipov
This looks a very tasty one! I'm not familiar with the foods but they look scrumptious and I like the contrast here between light and dark, the bright crispy batters and the runny, juicy blueberry jam behind. In fact, one could consider emphasizing that by spooning some of the fruit onto a batter and zeroing in that, which might give the shot more of a point of interest and play down the two bits of out-of-focus batter at the front. Also, it would be good if there was more variation in the rather flat light - a bit of "punch" - but without a torch or reflector that might not have been possible.

Breakfast? Coming Right Up! - JudithAnn
Texture, colour, shapes, simplicity, soft lighting, this one has so much. It adds up to a very harmonious whole, a single thing - all about eggs - done well and with a timeless feel. The old cookbook (Victorian?) is a brilliant touch. Love it.

Live It... Sleep It... Wake It... - VonBatCat
A very clever idea and definitely #1 for ingenuity. The jam jar, egg in its cup, salt and pepper grinders, mug, bread bin - the scenery looks natural but shows a lot of thought of your part. The soft focus and the lighting, which is at the front of the photograph, allows the scenery to support but not intrude, so the toast remains firmly the subject. I might have tried to make the lettering and images on the toast a little more distinct because they are quite easy to miss when your photograph is shown small. I had a lot of fun with this entry.

cafe - ericp
This is a terrific capture, so simple and restrained, love the colours and the bokeh. It's too bad the exif data hasn't been recorded because I would love to know the lens you used for this. There's really nothing I can say beyond "Well done" though without a hint of perhaps pastry or fruit this isn't specifically about breakfast (from the POV of the comp., nothing more).

breakfast - jeeess1967
You've got this little critter centred in the frame and quite close up, plenty close enough to see fine details. Everything is right with this and with your focusing. However, the brightness of the light and the high contrast between light and shade are a problem, imho. In my experience you can expose for one or the other but averaging both rarely works in very bright conditions because camera sensors aren't sensitive enough to record the entire range of light and shade, so they resolve to solid white or black at either end. It might have been better to wait for the squirrel to move into a shadier area away from direct sunlight. Another avenue is to head for the art filters in a software programme like Photoshop Elements or Lightroom and try high-contrast approaches (for example, high-contrast black and white, if the subject is appropriate).

Uncooked breakfast - Dr. Mhuni
The texture, sharpness and colours here are amazing. One can almost smell the place. I'm not sure I'd be keen to get quite so close to a tiger with breakfast in the offing but you've secured a cracking shot.

Good Morning - johnriley
An easy one to pass by on first glance but on a closer look one notices the sharpness, the lovely pastel colours, the lighting and the perfect exposure. Mug plus newspaper hint that it may be early in the day but nothing specific.

Stella Start - bforbes
One could certainly speculate on a few stories behind this capture, most of them ending with a terrific hangover. I might have been tempted to rearrange the objects to allow me to get in closer and make something of the coloured lettering, perhaps the result of Stella-inspired footie fans, but that's just me. You are the only entry this week to give us "found objects", surely one of the joys of photography.

Breakfast (This Morning) - mudge
Adorable. It's softly focused in the portrait areas, gentle, content and with lovely light and colours. Just shows that you don't need a DSLR and high-value lenses to take a great picture.

So, now to the rankings. Since there are several shots which could easily have won or been in the rankings this week, this pretty well comes down to personal preference. Any which way, I have really enjoyed the range of interpretations offered here.

1st: The Joy Of Breakfast - DrOrloff
2nd: Taste of Sunrise - RPLSF
3rd: Breakfast? Coming Right Up! - JudithAnn

All three winning shots make me feel good to be alive. I don't think one can ask for more, not least at 7.30 or 8.00 a.m. DrOrlov inches it because his entry is bang on subject.

Highly commended: Breakfast (This Morning) - mudge, cafe - ericp, Live It... Sleep It... Wake It... - VonBatCat (and #1 Pentax Ingenuity Prize!).

So, many thanks again to everyone and congrats to the winners.

Thanks for the judging Mecrox. Congrats to Dr. O (would've been my choice too) and the others you've singled out.

Thankyou for the detailed judging, and for my second. Congratulations to Dr.Orloff and Judithann , my podium buddies, these were my picks also... I would also like to extend and extra round of applause to the Good Dr., as he now stands as the judge of all three running comps!!!

Well done Dr O and all entries. Great Judging Mecrox.

As I have said before "any photo project that you can eat afterwards is a good project"

Well done Dr O and the the other podiums. Thanks mecrox for the comments and judging, shame there were not a few more entries. The pic I entered was in fact the only shot I had of anything to do with breakfast. I planned on shooting one for the comp, but my work schedule means I haven't seen breakfast for ages!

Thank you for your competition and comments, mecrox. It is a shame more members did not enter. Well done DrO I'm looking forward to your next subject now.

I tend to only have coffee for breakfast, fruit is not my cup of tea then. I have known students (and still do) who have crunchy nut cornflakes for dinner

My picture was at about 8am on the Cote d'azur using a Pentax K10d and Pentax FA 50mm f1.4.

Thanks for the good fudging and congrats to Dr.Orloff.

The above is meant to say judging

Nice pictures everyone. Sorry I didn't enter; I made a jam face on my porridge but the jam ran!

Thank you Mecrox for the small but high standard competition and for the in depth judging. Well done to fellow podiumers and HC's.

Thank You Judge. I did this series about half a year ago and only used one. I was pleased to have a chance to enter another egg photo.

Congrats to our all round JUDGE Dr Orloff(that was a fantastic shot!!!)....and to our new member RPLSF who has been running second place a lot these days...must be close to a first soon!

Regards:

JA