Passed the Grangemouth refinery at 06:30 this morning, the sky was red looking toward Edinburgh and the lights on the towers were bright against the dark parts of the sky, I was tempted to back home for my camera, unfortunately I would have missed my meeting,

I've planned to get some photo's here myself, never found quite the right spot though. Possibly from the Boness side as the sun is setting and the towers are flaming ?

I've been away a lot this week and haven't had a chance to view a lot of the pictures until today, so here goes,

There are some difficult decisions to be made as there are some cracking pictures this week.


dirk1000 - at first look I thought you photographed an engineering drawing, maybe you added the information box to appeal to me ? I like the picture, clear sharp and certainly a good view point.

justgetoutandride - nice shot, well presented I can see all shades from black to white, I like the idea too. A rusty old tractor in the foreground would have added to the scene.

Clarky - things appear to be leaning to the right for me, with the horizon not level, like a few other people here, this spoils pictures for me. May a bit of cropping at the top and bottom may have been a good idea.

Gashley - good sharp image, I would have cropped the sky a bit and lost the dark building on the right, and concentrated on the industry and playground.

johnriley - appears to be a tight crop, I would have liked to see a bit more of the surrounding landscape, but I suppose this wasn't available.

Prieni - Windfarms are the only industry in lots of areas of Scotland now, you can hardly take a picture without spotting a wind tower. I like the picture, good idea to shoot into the sun, like the shadow, which increases the presence of the tower. THIRD PLACE.

HowardJ - this is another picture that appears to be leaning to the right, I might have walked over to the fence to take the photograph, as it adds nothing to the overall picture.

lenscape- I would have cropped a bit of the water and lost some of the sky, the branches to the left distract from the subject, which is strong enough to stand on it's own. Otherwise a good photograph.

niblue - very dramatic picture - shows the fisheye aspect of the 10-17mm lens very well

Lilly - stunning photograph - works for me in numerous ways. It does show an industry that we in the 'developed' world see very little of, and having worked in Health & Safety, this would give people nightmares. I like the 'pattern-look' and the upward angle of view, which leads the viewer up from the bottom of the picture, past the people and on to the top. FIRST PLACE - this weeks deserved winner - you have an eye for a picture Lilly !!!!

hefty1 - there is industry here, but also a lot of vegetation. A closer view point, focusing on something specific would have been better.

StrawberryBeret - lots of colour, but again nothing specific to focus on, a picture of the CalMac ferry as the subject, showing the loading docks may have been better.

gartmore - just as Prieni's picture shows the rise of the windfarms, this picture reminds us of the demise of the shipbuilding industry on the Clyde. I like the monochrome effect, and shooting into the sun also works well. SECOND PLACE

Daniel Bridge - technically good photograph, nice colours, the fence at the bottom of the frame is a little distracting for me.

amoringgello - not entirely sure what I'm looking at here, I would have liked to have seen less of the dark area at the bottom of the picture, and perhaps more of the sky area.

For me this week, Lilly was a clear winner, I loved the picture, but the next 5-6 pictures were all good and it was hard to find the 2nd, and 3rd places, but reviewing the pictures in a slideshow, 'gartmore's and Prieni's' came to the fore.

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone for taking the time to enter.

Over to you now Lilly

Being an engineer, I thought I might choose a related topic.

I didn't want to tie the theme to anything too specific in the engineering field, so I've widened the view.

'Landscape' need not be interpreted literally.

Good luck to all, get the batteries charged, and get out there,

Thanks Dan, I did shoot another egg one I liked, but this one got the nod. Maybe post the other one after the competition closes.

Eggstatic

Thanks, Prieni, your comments were all fair I think, and our toes should be ok !!!

Some nice photographs this week. I think everyone is upping their game, I was 'off' a bit the last two weeks, but I like the idea of shooting to a theme.

I actually had my picture, and was about to clean up, when I wondered what it would be like to move the eggs from the wooden chopping board to the plastic one the fire the flash through it, seemed to work ok.

This was going to be my entry before I saw the light . . . .





Anyway, I'll have a think about next weeks theme, and post later tonight

"Hard - 10 minute & Soft - 2 minute"






K10 + Sigma 105 + FTZ500

1/125 at f29, ISO-100

Flash on manual, fired through the plastic chopping board, mirror used to direct fill in light.

No problem, photo*ist, let me know if I can help any further

As a side note, I have a few days off, so next week I plan to travel round a few of my favourite places in the Highland's of Scotland to catch the Autumn
colours, weather permitting, so fish-eye Freddie may get some excescise , and you may get some more pic's.

Took a couple of pictures on the way to a job today, not my best, but I was in a hurry, anyway, you can use the 10-17mm fish-eye lens for landscapes, just don't point it up or down, keep the horizon level and you won't know it was a fish-eye, all the pictures were taken at the 10mm wide end, light was harsh and from the left, if I had more time I would have got the exposure right





Yes, the box on the right is for dog turds, should have cloned that out.






Looking up.






Looking down, ( had to lean over to keep my feet out of the picture ).

Just for you 'photo*ist', I have added the focal length to the picture title, is it the pink number at the start, hope that helps

I took a couple of pictures this morning to show how to reduce the distortion effect, I'll put them up here later.



http://web.mac.com/john_md/iWeb/Site/10-17mm%20Fish-Eye.html

photo*ist'

Most of the shots were taken at the extreme end, because I wanted to show the effect of the fish-eye, as you can see some are quite distorted, but others, like the fountain and the castle, appear fairly normal, I will re-visit the gallery and add the actual focal length.

I took about 400 pictures that morning, great lens for the market I found in Edinburgh, and great for crowded places, depth of field at f8 covers my feet to infinity, just point and shoot, who needs to focus ?