Barbara, I love the way you work with light; it is exceptionally well done. Julio, this Halfdome is the only mountain I recognise immediately; Ansel Adams would have loved this image.
Jürgen, wonderful beach scene.
I am eagerly awaiting the rest of the images; I suppose there is more to come as Grant didnot post about it in the forum and some images I sent him are still to be published.
This showcase of our bundled powers should stay on this site and regularly be refreshed.
Grant, well done and keep up the good work.
Leen
Byron,
I blurred the whole image and then de-blurred (for lack of a better word .-)) the area of the bridge itself. Unsharp after that.
This is one of those images that looks better in Bl& W than in colour.
I looked at all the images displayed, and think this initiative is a splendid idea. If anything, it shows that we all see different things around us that we find interesting. Please sent more.
Robert
Byron,
I blurred the whole image and then de-blurred (for lack of a better word) the area of the bridge itself. Unsharp after that.
This is one of those images that looks better in Bl& W than in colour.
I looked at all the images displayed, and think this initiative is a splendid idea. If anything, it shows that we all see different things around us which we find interesting. Please sent more.
Robert
Thank you for posting my image. All of them are great and I also think that Robert, and Barbara have a special eye for images. Leen I especially thank you for saying the Ansel Adams would have liked my image because he is my life long hero. Your photography is also absolutely inspiring.
A special thanks again to Grant you continues to give and give to all of us.
Julio
Bob W: Were you visiting Berlin or were you stationed there?
Jodi: Liked you’re lighting in #1.
CR
Byron —
Yes, that’s the lower falls in Yellowstone from a trip we took this June — we happened to be there early enough to catch the rainbow in the mist at the foot of the falls. There’s another Yellowstone picture there, too — Canary Spring up at Mammoth Hot Springs, which has recently become very active and overrun a stand of small trees. Have to credit my son for that picture.
Bob Warren
Chris —
The picture is from a 1963 trip — I was spending a month in Heidelberg and took a weekend jaunt to West Berlin. I went through Checkpoint Charlie and spent an afternoon poking around in East Berlin. A very weird time and place that now seems like something from a dusty history book about distant civilizations.
Bob Warren
Leen, where’s your enchanted forest? You create beautiful environments for your subjects.
Julio: Wow. Ansel would be proud.
There are already too many wonderful pictures to comment on them all. Bring on more! (Guess I ought to get off my duff and submit my own.)
Lou, this enchanted forest is in a place with a name all you folks are unable to pronounce: "Schuddebeurs".
This is the only small piece of just only a few acres of woodland on our island. February 1953 about 2500 people perished when almost the whole southwestern part of the Netherlans was flooded by the sea in a terrible storm. Many of us are living below sea level -both my house and studio are about 10 feet below; in 1953 the water came up to the ceiling- and Schuddebeurs was one of the few parts that were just a little higher. That’s why this is the only place with decent trees, older than 50 years
The meaning of the name "Schuddebeurs" translates somewhat like "shake your purse" as this was the area where about 3 centuries ago the wealthy people from my home town Zierikzee -one of our cobbled streets is in another image- used to spend their time with hunting etc.
I don’t create beautiful environments, it is the light that makes everything beautiful. Even industrial areas can be beautiful this way.
Leen
Leen,
Thanks for your comment on my entry.
I don’t create beautiful environments, it is the light that makes
everything beautiful.
I really enjoy your #1. Did you wait for just the right moment to catch those sunrays? Or did you help out with PSE? Either way, a beautiful image!
Juergen
Leen,
The village in the image of the villageview(!?!)is that Zierikzee? I like the brightness of the various colours. It reminds me of dutch landscape painters of the 17th century.
Robert
wow, all of these images are really really beautiful. I can’t pick my favourite. Wish i had of put more effort into searching my files for better images now. Although I do like my #1…thanks for noticing Chris…it came directly from the camera (all of them )and the result was what i had hoped for. We were standing in the woods behind our home and the sun was amazingly yellowy orangy warm and ‘glowing’ that afternoon….especially the way it creeped between the branches…it was a delight. I was pleased with my new Fuji that day for sure ( also pleased my child was able to stand still for a second ).
Grant, the next time we do this i will need 6 weeks notice 😉 Thanks
Jürgen, I have to apolgise. This image is a lie.
I knew what these rays of light could do to the image, so I checked there could be a reason for these rays in the image. It was created with this effect in mind. Usually I try to avoid these bright spots as they distract from the real subject. The light in the other image however was real. 😉 Sometimes luck comes in.
When covering a wedding I don’t always have time enough to wait for the right light, so I with a "little help from my friends", called PE and "Mystical lighting" combined with "Mystical tint, tone and color" I can do things that else would have been impossible.
Robert, you are offending the citizens of Zierikzee! Zierikzee as been a town for a very long time, much longer than Amsterdam and Utrecht.
😉
It is the beautiful village of Dreischor, about 4 miles away from Zierikzee, the greenest village in Europe.
Leen
There is a website about Ansel Adams in case you’re interested. www.anseladams.com
Nice pictures but whot prices!!!
Robert
Robert
Thanks for the link on Ansel Adams. I have made a habit of going to Yosemite since the early 70’s and on each trip I would buy one picture from the Ansel Adams gallery. (They are origianl contact prints from his negatives) In the early days these were $35.00 each and now they are about $135.00 each. I have them all over my home and I love his work. I was lucky enough to have been at the Christmas dinner "Bracebridge" when he was there shortly before his passing and met him and got him to sign our dinner menu.
Julio
Juli, I envy you for having met the master and owning real prints. I was about to buy a 5×7 print in 1974, but the price of $600 was too much for me at the time.
Leen
Leen,
I don’t think any apologies are needed! You created a beautiful image, and that’s what counts. 🙂
Juergen
Leen, how do you like that Auto FX color toning thingy ? I know we can probably do this anyways but I’m still curious about it. I ended up printing that # 1 pic in our Nov gallery Grant posted but i didn’t print it as is. I reduced the saturation but filled in some overlay color for the eyes and lips. I then used the mystical Lighting to put a slight glow ( lighting brush ) on the edge of the tree and very slightly on the edge of the lit part of her face. The print is hanging on the wall in a frame…..super cool ( much help when having a super great photo printer )!
Jodi, I used the "antique" of Mystical TTC although I don’t remember exactly which preset. As far as I still know I removed some of the blacks in the menue, before applying the effect. Next I switched to Mystical lighting, applied one of the "etherial" presets, switched to DreamtFX to soften the image. That ‘s all.
About your image of this lovely child, very well done the way you did it. But, is it possible to have some light in her left eye? As far as I can see, there is still a little left of a catchlight in her eye. I think if you might be able to lighten this area, it will even be more impressive.
I suppose it’s your daughter?
I think it’s about time I will become a grandfather, but unfortunately my son seems to have other plans. Would love to close the studio for a while and instead go walking with a beautiful grandchild like that.
Leen
Leen, your work is exceptional of course and it shows you love it…i guess the money helps doesn’t it 😉
Yes that is my daughter. She is a ‘ poser’ so it’s difficult to take a ‘normal’ picture of her. I know what you are saying about the shaded eye but I’d rather leave it ‘as is’. Rather not ‘mess’ with that moment that was captured. They grow so darn quickly. When i look back at videos of my children when they were very very little I sometimes feel very sad….always hoping I’m raising them right…..wondering if i could have done things differently from that early point. My daughter tends to walk all over me at times and I feel like she just doesn’t understand that she isn’t queen of the world. I try to do the right thing but i wonder what’s right sometimes. These days the experts seem to think they know everything about raising a child…most of the expert don’t have any of their own but merely ‘study’ behaviour of other people’s children. So, I don’t have much faith in today’s theories. They say don’t bribe your kids…well, my daughter will read her books correctly if she knows she will be rewarded. What’s the problem with that ? Would you do your job if you weren’t going to get paid ?? Anyways, the experience of having children is a world all of it’s own and I hope the day comes when you can share the joys with me.
Jodi, don’t worry, I don’t know anything about raising a child either and despite that I have a wonderful son of 30 years old now. He only fails to understand why I need grandchildren.
The first book about the theory of raising children -if I remember well- has been written by Voltaire (Jean Jacques Arouet) and he didnot even raise his own children.
BTW, I would do my job without payment; I really love the things I ‘m doing too much. I would look for another job and still keep working on my photography.
Leen
Excuse me, maybe I am missing something, but where are the pictures that message #1 in this topic is referring to and all the comments are so enthusiatic about?
Basil
Leen and Julio,
I’ve spent the past weekend under the weather and haven’t gotten around to the forum until just now. Thanks for expressing your thoughts on my images, how very kind.
Barb
It’s a pleasure to see everyone’s perspective on the world around them and I think this is a terrific feature to continue. After all, the one thing that’s brought us all together on this forum is photography and all the editing possibilities of Elements.
Grant, my thanks to you always for all the time and effort you put into The Challenge. Here are two ideas you may want to consider for the future Challenge. Keep the same idea, but call it "My One Favorite Image this Month"….that’ll make it even harder to choose. The other is, assigning a theme of an item to shoot, ie. something round, and have the participants search for that item. This would get us away from the computers we spend too much time in front of and out on a scavenger hunt of sorts. Think this would be fun…hope you and others do also.
Barb
Barb, i like that idea ! Something round…hmmmmm, yes, to come up with something totally off the wall yes that would be my goal 😉
Barb,
This would get us away from the computers we spend too much time in
front of
What a keen observation :), very well put! 🙂
I really like your ideas. Only, Grant may wind up with a full time job maintaining the Challenge site.
Juergen
Barb, I did it ! i took a picture of something round ! It was a little difficult getting it out at first but i just kept trying and I finally got it. Now if I can only figure out how to get it back in !
here <
http://www.mybizz.net/l/w/lwsfrye/eyeball.jpg> it is.
Barb, what a great idea!
Hey, maybe the real Challenge is to keep Grant busy. He seems to really like a challenge. 😉
Jodi, I see, now that really caught my eye! 😉 Hope you get it back in…that’s a real Challenge.
Barb
I didn’t mean to dump more ideas on Grant, but maybe for a little diversion from creating with others images, to creating our own images. A little change once in a while is good… 🙂
Barb
Barb
My first reaction is that I like your ideas well … idea that is as I am not sure what you mean but the first one. By "My One Favourite Image this Month" Do you mean Grant’s favourite image or the image that Grant’ likes the best or "My" collectively as a group effort, everyone’s favourite image?
While from my point of view there are some pitfalls I do like the idea and will give it very serious consideration. The reason this reply is a bit late is because I am thinking of the idea.
Grant
Grant, I meant one favorite image shot by each artist from that month and posted as a group. It’s too similar to the current November feature. I was very tired when I wrote that, hadn’t slept well in a few days, that’s why it made no sense. 😉 So…never mind on that one but…
the second one I mentioned, about a theme for each participant to shoot, is the one I’d think would be very interesting. Just thought it would be an adventure in photography for all, get us away from the computer and out with our cameras. Each participant would submit the image or images they found that fits the subject.
Barb
Grant,
With the second idea I believe Barb is saying that each month a subject would be chosen like for instance "dog in snow" or "rain in street" or "winter sunshine" etc. and that we then go out and try and make a picture to fit that subject. We then all submit one image with this subject and these all get posted in this forum. That way you get a series of images about one subject but taken by different people. It would show the variety in creativity we have all in us.
Barb’s first suggestion is that each of us sents the one picture we like and these get posted in this forum. That way you get a variety of images from different subjects by different people. Which like this months Artist’s picks are agreeable to look at.
Robert
Robert,
Perfect interpretation, that’s exactly what I was trying to convey. Although the subject on the second idea could be even less specific, that way we’d all find something to shoot. Perhaps just a shape, color, texture, etc. It’s really surprising how many things fit the subject of ’round’. Sitting here at my computer I see many, just look at your surroundings. I could always give this theme a go at my PBase galleries, just thought it would be interesting to see everyone’s point of view.
Barb
Yeah, I like the vague topics too. Who knows what we’ll come up with. 🙂
Please (re)visit the artist’s page as Grant has put up more pictures. There are now more thatn 50!!! images up. Should we be able to get to a 100? I envy all that can enjoy the much talked about indian summer.
Barbara and Lou, vague subjects is fine by me too as there is more scope to bring your own imagination into play.
Robert
It is still early in November, so I suppose there will be at least a 100 images. It is a pity for the ones that haven’t submitted yet; they are to miss quite some exposure of their best images.
I’m quite impressed by the images of Barbara Waye; stunning compositions, especially the pebbles in the water. I love it! This one should be printed at at least 16×20, properly framed with a nice overlay and hung on the wall. This one is, until now, my absolute favourite!
Robert, I love the wonderful light on your choir. It really sets them apart from the background.
Chris Rankin, this is a wonderful shot of a child. B&W is exactly the right choice; colour wouldnot have added anything at all.
Leen
Leen,
Thanks for the compliment The shot is my youngest son waiting patiently while his brother adjusts his snow boots. It was a cold, dreary day and the B&W seem to fit although, in color, his cheeks are really rosy from the cold.
CR
Thanks, Leen. That really means a lot to me coming from a talented professional such as yourself.
Think I’d need to borrow your fabulous new printer for an image of those proportions. 😉 My pebbles image was discovered while filling a small fountain in the backyard which birds often drink from. There are interesting compositions lurking in just about everything which surrounds us; my eye is always seeking them out.
Barb
Barb, just send me a CD with your image at 300 ppi and you will find it in your "snail mail box".
Leen
