As I'd mentioned it on another thread, and Amin wanted to see them, here are some smoke shots I took in the garden of the holiday cottage we stayed in a few weeks ago.

This was from an Incense stick, and taken using an off camera flash below the smoke. The breeze outside created some interesting shapes, but also meant focusing was a nightmare!
















Most of these are either full frame or cropped to about 75% of frame at most.

Dan

As far as the droplet shots are concerned, I think you've done a fantastic job with the timing and lighting, but I don't like the double reflections. Presumably you had a sheet of glass under the water, or something very reflective? Have you tried it with something matt?

Dan

Thank goodness for that! It was really hard deciding between 1st and 2nd though - up until the last minute I really wasn't decided.

Dan

I spend loads of time in the woods but never see anything like this.

Dan

There's some bloke in Essex that does very good value for money one day workshops, on general photography or macro, and I'm told they're fun, rather than a hard slog. Can't remember his name off the top of my head...

Dan

Love this one - looks like a basketball player giving the thumbs-up!

Dan

My *istD never used to like Alkalines, on the rare occasions that I tried them, it might take a shot or two before saying the battery was depleted. I used NiMHs and it was always fine.

Dan

Judging now done!

Dan

Sorry for the delay!

Here is my judging, hope it makes sense to you.


Galoot: Sunset Signal. That defnitely fits the brief! Nice the way the power lines draw your eye across the frame, but not so sure about having the sun bang in the middle. Feels a bit too disjointed to me, with three distinct elements vying for attention. Might have preferred just the signals and the sun in a different composition.


Snootchies: Sunset. Love the colour of this, and the wispy cloud above the sun. The bright cloud balances the sun nicely, and the small amount of detail on the ground is just enough. Nice shot (and nice frame too, don't usually like this sort of thing but this is done well).


beakynet: Sun Shine Time. Interesting sundials, and and interesting arrangement. Ideally I would have preferred the compositions of the corresponding shots to have been the same, but I realise that would have been tricky without taking prints of the previous ones with you. Ultimately though, I feel that a more powerful shot could have been made by just homing in on one of the timepieces and showing a detail (the time) on that.


GlynM: Slope of Death! Such a poignant shot... We all mourn for No. 9011016. Still, serves you right for being up at such a silly time of the morning. Hope some sort of insurance softened the blow. The pic's nice enough, but it looks lacking in contrast (obvioulsy not HDR, but was it tone-mapped? Or is that just what it's like at 5.42am?) The horizon's got a lean, which is easily enough corrected, but I would have prefered the bottom of the nearest fence post to be seen, and perhaps more emphasis on the path/fence running into the distance. A portrait format crop of the middle of the frame works quite nicely. Clone out that blue bit of rubbish though.


Prieni: Regenerative energy. For some reason this makes me think of winter sun, rather than a summer's day. Again, like Galoot's entry, I find the three elements vie for attention, rather than working together. Losing either the windsock or the couple might have worked better for me. Nice sunburst though.


JudithAnn: Sundance Footpath. Strong dappled light like this is something I usually avoid in a woodland scene, because it renders any detail invisible. Because of that, this could easily be a stream rather than a path, but I think in this case I like more because of that, the light looking like ripples on water. The colours look too strong to me though.


RR: The Sun King atop his throne. I guessed someone would do something involving the newspaper, I just thought it might have been Galoot! Excellent use of selective colouring, very well composed and lit (3 flashes?). Just has a great look to it, even with those hairy thighs...


Heidi: Some Golden Day-break. A simple shot of cloud obscuring the sun, but I'm a little put off by the blue-ness of the clouds - it's a lovely contrast with the golden sunlight, but it just doesn't look quite right to me.


Unlocker: Red Arrows in Silhouette. I think this is the one that least makes me think of the sun (sorry ). I realised after I'd posted the theme that anything shot in natural light (and some with flash, as RR showed us) could be viewed as "Photos where the sun plays a large part", but I suppose I was looking for the sun to be in frame, or direct sunlight, or someone sat on the toilet, rather than diffused to this extent. Composition-wise, the left hand plane seems at odds with the others - it looks like it's straggling, and with different coloured smoke, and I think the shot would have worked better if this wasn't so.


Mikew: Wheat. Gives me a nice warm glow, and I'm easily able to put myself in your place, which I think is the sign of a good photo. The flare's not too distracting, and although I think there should perhaps have been a little more room between the upright stalk and the sun, the overall feel of the shot is good. I like the vignetting too, guessing this was PP rather than natural.


R o b: Dawn Rocks. This didn't strike me as an HDR image, so well done for that! The sea looks a little odd, so guessing there might be some ghosting from the three exposures, but at this size it's not really noticable. My eye keeps getting drawn to something at the water's edge halfway along the bech though, looks like a big white lump. Overall composition is good, and the shadows of the rocks are pleasing, but the sun looks a little odd, with a darker circle within it. Worth getting up for I reckon.


So there are my comments, and my choice of winner is a tricky one. First and second were very close, and could easily have gone either way, but I chose the winner because I suppose he produced the sort of shot I had in mind when I set the theme.

First Place: Mikew
Second Place: RR
Third Place: Snootchies

Thanks to all that entered, there was a good selection of nice photos for me.

So it's over to Mike!

Dan

Crikes, just realised this competition has finished already and I haven't got my judging prepared. What happened to that fortnight?!?

Will be back soon with some words...

Dan