I agree with the judge, very good image Jaromir, congratulations

And I got a mention too, , thanks mecrox !

Oops !!! ( re. my entry for this weeks competition )

I grabbed a frame from the web to enhance the fact that the Spotmatic is a film camera, unfortunately, the quoted exif is from this imported frame. The actual 'Spot' picture was taken with my Pentax-DS and the 18-55mm kit lens, NOT some sort of Olympus?

I await a good slapping, and the judges scorn

Some of our Scottish posters may remember the 'Treasure Trove' that Quiggs of Glasgow used to be. I could stare through their windows for ages. Without going into the details, the shop was reopened a while ago as Merchant City Cameras. I went in once or twice, but it wasn't as it once was a lot of the old, dusty stock has gone and it has a nice clean make-over.

Anyway, I passed by today and was pleasantly surprised to see a few Pentax items. They had examples of the K-7, K20D and K-m plus a few lenses. They also had a few second-hand Pentax bits, "Pentax - Fit" lenses and a few cameras. They had a pair of LX's, one with the winder on as well. I had a play with the K-7 and was tempted by the LX.

Not all the items are on their web-site, and most of the stuff was a bit pricey, but worth a look in if you are in Glasgow.

p.s. if I get a tenner on the lottery tomorrow, may go back for the LX

Quite a range of images this week, from dark and menacing to disturbing.

Not all the images had the exif data intact, so I couldn't confirm date of capture. But as all Pentaxian's are honest, I'll take your word that they are all within the rules. Some even admitted wrong doing as they posted their image, this caused me huge headaches.


Tony-O
Certainly complies with the theme, dark and brooding.
The picture seems to lean to the left, I would be temped to straighten this.
The person being stalked is just out of focus and the people in the distance are even more out of focus, but this just adds to the mystery and sense of menace.

Malo1961
Fantastic image. Dusty old axe, cob-webs and blood, very dark and menacing. I hope you didn't have to open up a vein for the effect. The lighting is excellent and shows the texture in both the axe and table. Could be a poster for Hollywood's next slasher movie.

darlene
I think this is actually the most disturbing image here !
I would like to have seen it a bit larger and maybe with the background a little out of focus, it also looks very cramped the way you have presented it.

Lilly
I thought I would have seen a few images with dark menacing sky's, but not so. This one certainly stands out. Good use of different images, I wonder how many you used ? At least 3 ? The shoes are a good idea, was the person swept out to sea, or something more sinister ?

mr. mellow
What a monster of a conker. Looks more like alien seed.
I might have desaturated the green grass a bit, as it is fighting for attention with the red of the conker, and maybe darken the overall image. It is as sharp as it could be, may show a little camera shake ?

JudithAnn
Sign him up for an anger management course right away. I would have liked to have seen this image a little larger too. Good sharp image and the look on his face is well captured. I would be tempted to zoom in a bit, to the head and shoulders.

aquadan005
The image is a bit dark ( ? ) for me, especially toward the bottom. It may display better as a high contrast B&W image. You could have put someone behind the bars ?

andrewk
The slug would find this menacing, but doesn't quite work for me.

hefty1
A menace to the local fly population. Good sharp image, perhaps needs a little more brightening or contrast to lift it .

Karl
I think the bright background is a good contrast to the dark of the face, but it just looks a bit like someone sitting on the grass with a mask on, it needs a scary environment ? I think that the face looking through a window, would be very menacing and quite scary.

Belinda B.
I wondered what this was at first, with all the bright colours, I thought it might have been one of JR's. Not easy to see exactly what is going on.

mecrox
Seems to be quite a lot going on here, I think more of the hat in the foreground, with the background more out of focus would be the way to go. Good detail in the hat, but I keep looking around for something to focus on.

Dr. Mhuni
I like the way the head is appearing through it's surroundings. A little bright in places and the colours may be a bit strong.

mikew
Very menacing. Focus and depth of field are spot on. I tried leveling up the gun a bit, and cropping some of the blackness at the top of the image, added some brightness and some contrast, which seemed to improve the image for me. I think it needs less back background, which makes the gun stand out more. Maybe a little smoke coming out of the barrel ?

1st - Malo1969 - fits the theme well, wonderful lighting, good imagination

2nd - Tony-O - dark and moody - makes you wonder what's going on, looks a bit like a still from a 'Film - Noir"

3rd - darlene - I can see why you would take a picture of the T-shirt, but why did you make her stand in a bin ? And why the black bag over the head ? Don't know if I would like to be in your house at halloween.

Karl and mikew got close to a podium finish too.

Special mention to Lilly for a stunning image, and yes, the headaches are getting less.

Just my views on the set of images displayed, I'm sure you will all have your own.

The menacing hour has been reached, 18:00 GMT, so competition closed.

I'll post results after 20:00 tonight.

Another of the cottage with the dark sky, cropped at the bottom, and moved toward the edge as suggested, ( as you can see I had cloned out the poles in the first, but left them in the second one ).




Might like the first one better ?

Thanks for all your comments It's nice to get some positive feedback.

You are right Ken, "Big Sky country", about 80% of my shots included the sky and cloud formations. It's really wonderful up here.

I do have a few more of the cottage with the dark sky, so I will have a go at your suggestions of moving things around.

Mhuni, I did try to darken the highlights in No.3, but I was slightly under the influence at the time, and looking at it now, I think I took it a bit to far,

Things not to do when under the influence,
1. Do NOT email anyone
2. Do NOT go on ebay
and a new one,
3. Do NOT adjust the highlights and post before looking at the image when sober .

I have been working up in Caithness, Scotland for the last couple of weeks, not a lot of internet time, and even a mobile phone signal is hard to find.

But I did manage to get a pic or two,




K10D + Pentax 17-70mm, ( from almost the same spot as my fortnightly competition winner was taken )






Just outside Thurso, on the way to John 'O Groats, about 3 minutes before the heavens opened up.





On the road from Tongue to Lairg





Thurso Bay.

I have been using the 17-70 a lot, but keep trying to force it past 17mm, so had to revert back to the fisheye !!!

Looks like dinner to me

Aiki, what I mean, is, that on my screen, the centre of the lilly looks like a dark 'blob', all black, while the colour version you have shown has varying tones.

So, I suppose what I was saying, was, maybe you could lighten the centre of the lilly a little to show these tones .