Black(bird) and Blue
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by rktdesign: LOVE the comp and DOF of this image...I also really like the super limited color pallette..that eye is perfect! ...really nicely done.

Thanks!

Originally posted by amber: I like the ggraphic quality of this image. With the bird sitting up above too it reminds me of Hitchcock's 'the birds' :)

Yeah, that's the idea, or maybe Poe's raven. I only got part of the bird partly because he was not very cooperative about sitting still, and I wanted to use one in-focus : )

Headed Home
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by LadeeM: I gave this a low score (higher than your average, tho), mainly because I didn't get it. I thought it was a child "headed home". I did get the feeling of poverty, which I connected to the darkness theme. I can imagine it's hard to get a photo of a homeless person. Alone, it's a good photo, but coupled with the other dark photos of this challenge, it didn't really stand out much. However, I think it deserved better than a 3.8. That's just silly! :)

Thanks. I thought that one patch of darkness, especially with that bright line leading straight to it, would be enough "physical darkness" to qualify.

The far more important connection to the topic is the metaphorical one, that in the richest and most powerful country in the world, able-bodied men are reduced to sleeping under freeways. The houses up the street, less than 100 feet away, are selling for over a half-million dollars.

Infill Through the Knothole
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by ddng: A different idea for a photo and yet I think it could have been executed better. Your photo seems a little too busy and more like a 'happy snap' rather than a well thought out and well composed photographic work of art.

Originally posted by Minstrel: fun idea. like spying. But what you're spying on could be a little more exciting...

Thanks for the comments (everyone!). This is definitely more journalistic than "artistic" in intent and execution.

I don't know about exciting -- modest residential construction probably shouldn't be exciting, since that usually means somethng is not going according to plan ...

It actually is quite "composed" for a capture of an actual scene, much better than the other shots from which I could have chosen. Specific elements I feel contribute to the effectiveness of this as a record of a construction scene are:

@ Worker in foreground concentrating on a task.
@ Worker in the background, possibly carrying something
@ Plans on the table in the center
@ Concrete forms on the right lined up with the edge of the hole
@ Wheelbarrow in profile in the BG
@ Dug out area in front of forms
@ Relatively good detail of forms construction

I'm trying to document the contruction of this house by shooting from the same position each day -- hopefully to eventually make a time-lapse movie of it.

Young Crow
by GeneralE

Comment:
Thanks for all the positive comments! I don't really know the bird's age, but I didn't want the title to sound like a bottle of whiskey.

There were a lot of crows that day -- this one "got in the way" as I tried to shoot the Golden Gate Bridge through a hole in the adjacent sculpture.

Turkey Shoot
by bcoble

Comment:
Just in time to miss the Bird challenge ... my son saw a bunch of wild turkeys this morning when golfing with a friend, but I missed out.

Squirrely
by channeled

Comment:
Nice use of a natural spotlight!

Four Hinges and a Frame
by bucket

Comment:
I just had to go shopping for a safe yesterday ... maybe one a little smaller and newer than this.

Oklahoma City under Mammatus
by postoakinversion

Comment:
Is that what those clouds are called? Gotta brush up on my meteorology! At least it shows that weather folks have a sense of humor ...

Sunday In Sydney
by megryan

Comment:
The curves of the palm fronds and the roofline complement each other nicely.

Beautiful Streamer
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by HAPPYphoto: I love it. Don't any of you see the irony in this picture? Americans, we who are in a constant search for beauty, are slowly destroying the world's greatest; Trading it in for natural resources which shall last us 10 small years. After that, these spots which have had so much life, energy, and above all, beauty, will become nothing more then a sarrowfull memory of what it once was. This picture, my friends, is the epitomy of beauty in our society of oblivion.

Thank you.

I thought it was a beautiful example of this type of pollution -- clearly-defined at maximum extension before dissipating in the wind, and not some wispy brown fog but really BLACK soot shooting out at high speed.

Plus, there is an element of sarcasm, as in the person who might be sitting at that vantage point saying "Now, isn't that just beautiful?"

Dave Ross once proposed a simple engineering change which could bring about improved emissions-controls almost overnight -- simply mount the exhaust pipes in the front of the truck.