I did a lot of work in adjustment layers as per basic rule set to emphasise the ominous cloud and light up the statue. I wanted to portray the feeling of gloom and despair of war in this image. Let's see if any comments pick(ed) that up. I'd be happy with a few useful comments. I can't begin to guess what it might score.
I dedicate this image to all the people who died during the Second Boer War, 1899-1902, many wives and children of Boers captured by the English and placed into a new English prison system; the Concentration Camp, (long before Hitler and his henchmen) where they were starved or fed ground glass in their food to kill them off. The sanitation was appalling as was the overall lack of care of Prisoners of War to force the Boers (fathers and husbands) to surrender. The English also pursued a policy of "Scorched Earth", destroying every farm, house, store room and all livestock of the Boers. No reparations or apologies have ever been made to the Afrikaner nation for these war crimes and no one has ever been punished for them. History has always been written by the victors.
And now to the 3rd Boer War, that since a "democratic" South Africa in 1994 and ANC Government, over 1600 1700 farmers in South Africa have been systematically murdered (figure excludes their families, often also murdered at the same time).
NEF-JPG by camera
Copy, Copy Again, Adjustment Layers: Curves, USM, Black and White, Color Balance, Selective Color, Crop, Borders, SFW.
Post Challenge: Thank you all for voting, commenting and 2 faves! Much appreciated. I am surprised it got a top 10. The low-baller votes tell me something too...that I'm on the right track learning digital PP and they hate competition!
Statistics
Place: 9 out of 51 Avg (all users): 6.2283 Avg (commenters): 7.8000 Avg (participants): 5.5000 Avg (non-participants): 6.3375 Views since voting: 2033 Views during voting: 335 Votes: 184 Comments: 8 Favorites: 2 (view)
Good to see it from this point of view, as a casual observer (visiting in person) might not see in quite such splendor. The lines and angles and dramatic sky frame the statue nicely.
What an intense and foreboding sky. I really like how the angel is highlighted (there IS a positive side to pigeon droppings!!!), and how the complexity of the statue is underscored by the strong but simple lines of the monument.
Very nice angle and processing give a dramatic view of the angel on the Anglo-Boer War Memorial at the South African National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg.
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