Cardigan
by stephan

Comment by chariot:
ok this might have been tooo abstract. :)

Cardigan
by stephan

Comment by Jenguin:
I too did the clothing thing, but mine turned into outtakes.. this pic is cool, 6

Cardigan
by stephan

Comment by jmsetzler:
Hmmm... pourous, but not really transparent... the focus is also a little weak here... = 3 - jmsetzler

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by stephan:
I photographed something else when suddenly the heron appeared. I hadn't much time taking pictures because he walked away after some time. I did some closeups but my camera doesn't have such a good zoom and this one already was zoomed in quite a bit.

jmsetzler: Actually the building in the background was brightly orange. I decided to desaturate it and only leave the green to stress the contrast between the "oasis" and the city more.

myqyl: Yes it was taken handheld. I don't own a tripod.

I also had to sharpen it quite a lot using the "unsharp mask" in Gimp. The original looked very "washed out". I struggled a lot with the moiree effect of the building in the background. That's also why I chose "unsharp mask" instead of "sharpen". It had better results.

Many thanks for your comments. I didn't expect such a high score but now I'm very happy with it :-)

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by langdon:
Nicely captured, the title fits it perfectly.

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by ClubJuggle:
Good contrast of man against nature.

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by karmat:
To me, the most interesting part of your picture is at the bottom. While I think I understand that you were trying to put the tree in front of the tall building, a close up of the bird, if possible, would have been nice, also.

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by sjgleah:
Very interesting story story told by this image. 6 sjgleah

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by pauld:
Nice contrast!

Urban Oasis
by stephan

Comment by amandolin:
Great photo!