December Photo Challenge - Comments & "John West" Rejects

[Photo Challenge]

Post your comments on the December Photo Challenge Entries (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=69078)here.

Do you have any "rejects", post them here too !
Have fun !

:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Jeepers Humayun, that's staggering. I love the dissipation at the bottom.

I have nothing to compete.

Top effort. :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Thanks, my friend. : )

I was going to say let's go see if we can't capture something this Saturday, but, I've got a shoot on.

Hrm, could be persuaded for Sunday!

H

[Omaroo]

Hmm... now that's an offer :)

[firstlight]

Cracker of an image Humayun. I remember when you first posted it.

Here are a couple of rejects from this morning. The first was pretty close to what I wanted to achieve from the exercise. The beetle is a Brown Flower Beetle, Glycyphana stolata.

All images are crops to varying degrees ~50 - 60 %.

86136 86137 86138

[Nico13]

Good to see my theme is catching on and no it doesn't have to be frozen although that may make for some interesting shots.

One thing I'm not sure of is can I as last months winner and originator of this months theme be eligible to enter this month.

Ken.

[Octane]

Sure, why not, Ken.

David, that is a splendid image. I am in awe at the diffusion present in your image. That's just awesome. Gorgeous colour, too.

H

[sheeny]

Of course you can!:)

I've got a couple of ideas to have a go at, but I'll need a sunny day and a helper;):P... I had a look through my pictures last night and I think I have plenty of John West contenders:lol:. One of them might have to do if I can't get my idea to work...

Al.

[Nico13]

Thanks, :D
I've also got a couple of ideas that triggered this theme so I'll go away and have a play.
Don't need the sunny day though as a little high speed flash should do the trick nicely. ;)

Ken.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks H,

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it was taken with a "happy snapper" rather than a DSLR. The animals are repetitive in their behaviour after being captive for so many years (quite sad really), so it is easy to predict what they are going to do and compose the shot.

What do you mean by "diffusion" - haven't heard that term used to describe a photo??

DT

[Omaroo]

I agree with Humayun David, great diffusion!

[Nico13]

Nice work Baz.
I was hoping someone would do this and you have done literally a fine job.

Ken.

[hotspur]

Great one Barry!-love the colours!,you did very well!

How did you do the lighting?

Humayan-that's a fantastic waterfall image,it has a almost 3D feel about it.

great work!

Cheers Chris

[sheeny]

Here's a few of my John West shots from my first high speed flash session.:)

Al.

[supernova1965]

Hi all

I haven't made a final choice yet but I thought I would post some early rejects sofar I have taken about 1000 photo's and am down to a short list of 5 and I haven't finished taking shots yet boy am I having fun:thumbsup:

[supernova1965]

Another two I couldn't fit in the previous post

[supernova1965]

The last of my John West Rejects

[firstlight]

What was that weird coloured background Dave? Sort of rings a bell... seems I should know what it means, but it eludes me.

[supernova1965]

I believe that that is BLUE SKY I only know because it is in my area ATM and I looked it up on the net so I would know what it was.:rofl::rofl::rofl:I hope that the sky tonight is black with lots of little points of light I may even get to see some germanids tonight.

[rcheshire]

Rejects - I am learning a lot about birding and action shots and choosing the right settings for a particular set of conditions - problem is, you can't always be choosy. Early days yet.

The Cocky might have been a better choice for the comp, but the Wattlebird despite its faults has more appeal - may be some disagreement there?

[Octane]

Rowland,

That feather in flight is quite something. It even resembles a bird in flight.

I would be giving that the monochrome treatment.

Also, the composition could be better (with birds, you want dead space in the direction the bird is facing), but, with a background blown to black, it's quite easy to fix the composition up in post.

Well done.

H

[rcheshire]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement H. I'll work toward those suggestions.

I noticed after posting that the yellows were desaturated and this affected the vibrancy even to the red range of the image. I've fixed that - overly focused on the composition, I think.

[supernova1965]

I agree about the Cocky being better for the comp as it has the wings frozen better than the Wattlebird both are great photo's but the Cocky fits the theme better.

[rcheshire]

Thanks, Warren. The Cocky is a recovery from a badly timed shot that cut a wing off the frame - one eye is hidden behind the branch - so I cropped it closely, in your face style, and it 'happens' to be in focus. Hopefully the WB composition leads the viewer to the eye of the bird, which is in focus.

I think the Wattlebird fits the frozen in time theme with all the water activity, even though there is wing blur. Those wings were beating like a humming bird, it was in the shade, and I underestimated the effect of aperture on shutter speed - next time f/2.8. 'spose, I could have set the shutter speed in Tv mode and lightened things up during processing, and that might have avoided over exposing the white feathers - not sure. Still experimenting.

[supernova1965]

I think that the waterbird is a great photo don't get me wrong I was seriously impressed with it.:thumbsup:

[rcheshire]

Thanks Warren:) I might live to regret it yet::lol:

[firstlight]

Up with the outlaws on Boxing Day, and Rigil had a ball in the rain and mud... Toliman didn't mind it either.

Very nearly changed my selection for the comp, but Anne-Louise talked me out of it.

87097

[Photo Challenge]

If you hurry you can still enter.
I had left the thread open today in case there were any last minute entries.

I'll be locking it within the next hour or so.

PC