Congratulations Kris!

Lovely shot and certainly deserving to be in the PPG.

I wasn't too lucky with the PPG this round, one in, seven declined.

Prieni

Steve, I feel with you. I packed my camera and sent it off yesterday. I hope I am more lucky than you and get it back in perfect working order.

Prieni

Yes, now that you mention it I remember. It's the same guy who put the glass dome on the Reichstag, isn't it?

Yeah, the Swiss RE building is a beauty as well. A very talented guy he is, Sir Norman.

Prieni

That Canyon certainly is stunning!

What leads you to believe that? For me the histogram of that pic in Photoshop looks pretty good...
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/screenshot.jpg[/IMG]

Prieni

Thanks Martin,

I do like it as well. This might be the signature shot from Kaua'i that ends up on the wall. Trouble is, there are so many competing for that spot...

Prieni

What an impressive series! I can see why #4 seems to be favoured by the majority, I think my favourite is #2, though.
And I do like the weird look of the horse in #5.

Well done, I'm looking forward to your entry...
Looks like Martin will have a hard time (again).

Prieni

Ehm, as far as I understand Gimp was developed especially to handle photos. That's probably also the reason why they called it the GNU Image Manipulation Program. On their WEB site it says "GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring."

The software that came with my K20 I haven't even unpacked. But I doubt that it is as good for image manipulation as GIMP (which I haven't used either).

Prieni

Excellent pictures of a very nice building. The first shot does remind me a bit of the HSBC tower in Hong Kong. (See here a shot in my Picasa WEB album, the following one is taken inside).

Prieni

Definitely #3 for me, though I do like #2 as well. It's a good idea that probably needs some more work on it.
#3 I do like as is, I think I prefer the first version you posted.

I used to do a sort of "water show" for school kids as a job when I studied, the ink drop in the water bowl was one of the experiments. It's a wonderful experiment, no two are the same and the kids were always fascinated in an instant.
We used that as the entry experiment and it never failed it's charm.

Prieni

As Aiki has suggested here to present some pics side by side with the "originals"* I had a look on my Photobucket account as I knew I have some pairs there. Here's one from Waimea Canyon.
Original:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP2816aswas.jpg[/IMG]

Post processed version:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP2816.jpg[/IMG]

This is not even heavy post processing, a bit of gamma/contrast/contrast centre and curves in SilkyPix. A bit of unsharp mask. I think that was about it. Makes a huge difference, though.

*)Strictly speaking there is no "original" with digital photos as the image always has undergone some processing, be it in camera or in computer. But I think we all know how to understand the term "original" (albeit that we all understand it slightly different).

Prieni