I might have a late breakfast tomorrow as I had to take some left over leave from 2006

It certainly wasn't meant this way

Although I'm not a native speaker of English I would have thought that this is not the obvious interpretation. (I can't imagine you would misunderstand me on purpose, of course).

Well, maybe some of you have read "Spiegel online" at the time of the football world championship last year. And they might have read this article in the series "Germany survival bible":
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,415516,00.html

Then, making the connection to the fact that I live in (East) Germany, this misunderstanding might be excusable.

I trust that you can find some interpretations of the theme that are more appropriate for this forum

Thanks Lilly for exposing these intimate details. The RAW file looks quite different from what I had imagined. I imagined a steep fall-off on which the plants are growing. It looked like seaweed to me but I couldn't make out the waterline as I took it for the upper edge of that steep wall. Above it I thought I made out some forest trees (almost as if sketched with coal or pencil).
Now that I know the topography it still works this way although I can see some cracks now amidst my forest.
I wonder what Dr. Freud would make out of my imaginations here...

But one fact does not change, this is a bl**dy good picture, whatever the process was that lead to it. Thanks for giving the details, I have to try and follow the steps with the original you provided.

Prieni

Judgement day!

niblue: Excellent start to the challenge. I like your interpretation of the theme. (Even the softest saddle can be perceived as rather hard on a long ride.)
For me the crop is a little too tight, would have liked to see a little bit more on the left. On the top it seems you refrained from giving more room because of the dominant red "blotch" in the background. There is also a bit of CA in this shot.
But overall it was in the lead for quite a while. Third place!

gartmore: Another interpretation of the theme, maybe a bit more implicit. Good that you mentioned the "soft" focus filter as I thought it is lacking a bit of sharpness, as it seems intentionally so. By the looks of it your model had some fun at this shoot, all the better.
I can't put my finger on it but somehow this one doesn't work for me, I'm afraid...

spaceraider: The interpretation is similar to what I once submitted for the same theme (oh no, now I gave away that I nicked this theme elsewhere). Difficult lighting situation and I think some of the pebbles are a bit hot. I like the composition but the hard - soft contrast seems not too striking (same was true for my submission at the time).

hefty1: Intriguing picture, what am I looking at? Obviously there is the (hard) steel blade and it is sticking in something soft and transparent. I can't quite make sense of the reflection that I see, is that blu-tack holding the handle of the knife on a table top and the soft "bubble" balancing on the knife? Anyway, I can see the contrast hard - soft nicely.
On the composition a bit more off centre or diagonal would have worked better, I think.
The impact would be improved by adding a bit saturation and cloning out the dark spots in the upper centre and upper left.

justgetoutandride: It's within the theme without doubt and a beautiful specimen of coral.
I think the problems you had with shooting this were, at least in part, due to the dispersion of the water (sort of chromatic abberation problem).
I would have liked to see a bit more light coming from the point of view, i.e. from the front, but I appreciate the problem of reflections this would have posed. I like this shot a lot!

lenscape: It's leaning a bit to the left (assuming that at least the DEFRA building is straight). The shot is within the hard and soft theme (on
more than one layer) and also carries a message. I don't know much about pair fishing but that's not what I have to judge anyway. The fish in the ice container seems a good subject for a photo but we don't see too much of it (but I appreciate that the net and the DEFRA building carry
part of the message).

Tyr: You hit the nail on the head (pun intended) on the theme. Soft texture hit by the hard steel. I would have liked to see the hand rather than the glove as I think the glove part is too dominant (and a hand would have shown more structure, provided that you would have been
able to balance the light from the flash on the hand; the black glove certainly was the easier option here).
When viewing the shot I'm longing to see the impact area in focus. I guess that is speaking for the shot rather than against it as it is creating a bit of tension in the viewer (i.e. me).

Deecy: I find this a pleasing and somehow calming picture and I like it a lot, good composition and good colours. The dynamic range of the scene was a bit of a challenge for the Optio it seems.
However, although I can see a hard/soft contrast here it is not that striking for me.

dirk1000: This one is in AdobeRGB (but not much difference when viewed in sRGB). Plenty of hard and soft here, hardcover/softcover (though the Photoshop 6 bible seems to be a hardcover edition), software books, soft flowing books, hard book ends. Well within the them, I would say. Well lit scene and good handling of Photoshop post processing (seems that you have read at least some of the chapters in these books). It's a good entry but I have seen shots from you that I liked much more (I blame it on the theme this week round).

HowardJ: Yet another interpretation of the theme, the soft, delicate plant growing between rock and a hard place. Technically a good shot, well exposed, good colour and I like the chosen DOF here. I would have liked to see a bit more on the right (i.e. the chopped of bits of the plant).
It's a nice shot but it fails to grab my attention somehow.

amoringello: Thanks for introducing "wonderbread" to the forum. Being a German I didn't even enjoy the standard British bread, I certainly wouldn't be one for American wonderbread. So it's quite a pleasing thought to have it squeezed by a steel hammer. Certainly it is within
theme (can you go softer than wonderbread?). Quite striking colours, maybe a bit oversaturated (PS shows quite a bit of gamut
warning on this one). While I wasn't too pleased with the glove on Tyr's hammer grip, I think here the grip is a bit too dominant (although it does make a nice contrast with the red background). Well lit scene (I like the texture of the first non-crushed slice), good exposure.

Galoot: Excellent idea for the interpretation of the theme well executed! Your lighting setup really worked brilliant on this shot (and it seems you put in quite a bit of work) and you got the exposure spot on. Good colours and good visual impact. This weeks winner!

Daniel Bridge: Similar interpretation to HowardJ, but this one works better for me. It's quite striking visually. Very interesting colours of the rocks and the plant is so sharp, it's on the border of oversharpened (can't decide which side of that border, though). PS also throws a bit of gamut warning on the plants because of a clipped green channel. This actually makes the soft plant a bit harder than it should be I think.

Lilly: Fantastic visual impact! Certainly within theme, similar interpretation to Howard and Dan. Great post processing that turns this photograph to a work of art (was Corel PhotoPaint involved?). It is truly stunning and in a competition without theme it would have been my winner. Within this competition it's this week's second place! (I hope that you will show the original shot and give a short run-down on the post-processing you did.)

pschlute: Yet another interpretation of the theme! Great idea, well executed. Good composition and arrangement, technically flawless photograph.
I would have wished for a more exciting lighting setup, though (i.e. a bit more "uneven" or with a gradient from above).

jb: Good interpretation (and different again!). Now I know what they mean in Formula 1 when they are talking about soft and hard tyres
Good compositon, nice setting of the DOF and I like the low viewpoint. It could have done with a bit of brightening up in post processing (or at the time of shooting, but you mentioned the fading daylight).


This is the judgement and I hope that it is a fair one. If I tread any toes it certainly wasn't intentional.

Galoot, it's over to you again!

The competition is now closed. I will post my judgement later today.

Thanks for taking part in the competition, many different interpretations of the theme, good to see so much creativity in the forum.

Prieni

Now here's the result of my contemplation:

Hard and Soft

As always there's plenty of room for different interpretations.

Yeah, I know Tim. Left and right of the little turtle there were hundreds of people too!

Well, ok, that was a lie. But there could have been. We only were three or four people on the beach that morning.

But what a good job Dan did on sensing the people that were around your shot but not in the shot. Pure magic...

Good one, Dan. And I know how you got the idea, you pre-empted the feeling of judging this one

Thanks Dan for judging (and rating my shot as a winner)! Some good entries again, I thought I had a strong entry but there were quite a few that I felt could spoil the million dollar price for me. (There was a million dollar price, wasn't there? It's not as if I'm asking for a million pounds )
I'm learning a lot from the submitted shots on a photographic level and from the different interpretations of themes.

I shall retire to contemplation of the new competition topic in solitude for a moment...

Taken on the beach at Ascension Island 2005. Pentax *istD, Kiron 70-210, A4.5, 1/350 s, ISO 200.