Weekly Competition #35 - "Sky's the limit..."

I already have!

Brilliant judging Will and well done Tony - it was one of my favourites.

My shot was taken from the Ponte Vecchia. Thankfully the sky only threatened so I didn't get wet!

Chris

Put's my attempts at judging well into the shade, great stuff Will.

I've had my son's and daughter pull their mums house apart looking for that negative, pitty it can't be found as I'll never get the chance to see the fantastic sunsets from the middle of the North Sea again....too bloody dangerous and I'm a lot older and wiser to even think about going back

Well Will,....I can only say: THANK You, for giving me a third place.
I did not expect to be in the top 5, so what a surprise this is. There were no filters used. It was Raw out of the K10D, and post processed in L.R.
Didn't need much adjustements. The light on the Danish Eastcoast that morning was real spectacular. An half hour I was hit by a hail storm
I had to run for shelter. Again thanks for the very good judging, and congrats to all the other winners.
Martin.

Will,

Many thanks for your encouraging comments. I had given up by about mid week when I realised that nothing in my collection got anywhere near the quality of entrants that had already been posted. However a clear sky on Sunday night seeded the idea of trying to capture a star constellation.

I have taken pictures of the moon before and learnt the hard way about many of the challenges with photographing the night sky. However on Sunday I learnt something new: When taking a long exposure have a good look around to check what might be about to enter your shot.

Here, very reduced, is an aeroplane just going about its business crossing Orion:






Glyn

That's why I kept my comment brief for yours Vic! All I can say is that you had better picture taking weather than I did...

Sorry Dan

Excellent judging, Will.

And well done, Tony. I have to confess that I like your second picture even more than the first.

G

Wow 2nd I didn't expect that considering all of the really excellent photos that were entered.

The position I was in at the time was somewhat precarious - I was a bit concerned that the nearby hippos would become just a little to nearby and didn't have time to arrange or plan the shot simply just point and hope for the best . I agree that the silhoutte of the figure could have been better defined I did play around with the image in Paint Shop Pro for a bit but I always ended up prefering the original image straight out of the camera, I even manged to get it horizontal which is quite unusual for me
Thanks again.

Thanks will for the tips Very well judged, A marathon effort.
Congrats to Tony, worthy winner.

Thank you for my highly commended... Wow! And thanks for the comments too. I was actually taking shots of just the sky (hence the settings of a fast shutter speed) when the helicopter came over the hill as if from nowhere... if I'd have had my wits about me I would have changed the shutter speed but felt by the time I'd worked it out he would have disappeared!

And you're right, the original shot was pretty much black and white anyway because of the sun and it being an overcast day, it just seemed natural to make it properly black and white.

Thank you, my Highly Commended means so much to me...

Fiona

Just to give you an idea of how low and straight at us he was!

Pentax MZ-S, ILFORD HP5+, Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG MACRO and a Y (K2) yellow filter

Probably best posted under "Your Photos" as I do not think that people generally look back over earlier competition entries.