Challenge 123: Trees

[Doglet]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Time for reflection.


Captains Poind by M1RVW, on Flickr

[Chris J]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Avenue of Poplars. For the French look, but actually in Warwickshire.



7D + 24-105L.

Cheers, Chris.

[ax2010@eircom.net]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

The beeches at Drumonaghan Bridge



EOS 450D; f22; 2sec; focal length 50mm; ISO 100.

[Wayne Els]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Sorry getting confused with another place where you enter 2!

[Bikeman]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

New Forest.jpg
(New Forest - Canon 70D in HDR mode)

[lunarbo]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Solitary Walk.


[IMG]Solitary Walk by Barbara Bett, on Flickr[/IMG]

[TonyT]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Woodland walk by Tony Taylor, on Flickr

Woodland walk

[TonyT]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Bikeman what software did you use, is there no. Rotate facility, the site you posted on might have it too, I wouldn't worry though, I doubt it will matter, the judge will simply ignore the fact it is side on :)

[digiman]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Leafless

[ColytonJohn]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Supermoon Silhouette

2K9A4522 by John Leah, on Flickr

Cheers,
John

[AlexR!]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Wow, 19 entries; thanks for each and every one of them. The competition is now closed.
It will take me a few days to write up comments and come up with a winner, but should be out by the end of the week.
Cheers.

[Bikeman]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

S/W is FastStone Image Viewer for Windows V5.1
Its a fullscreen editor that I've used for years ... it opens CR2 and JPG files, and I used it in this case to make a minor crop, otherwise the picture was as per the in-camera HDR function.

I tried attaching the Original file (unmodified), and it still came out sideways!

[AlexR!]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Sorry it has taken a few days to judge the challenge but life has been a bit full-on lately. I have finally found a spare hour or two so here we go. But before I start I would like to thank every single one of you for entering; it is very pleasing to see 19 entries, the most we have had since all the way back to Challenge 74, and the 5th highest number of entries since the Challenges started. Well done, a magnificent effort.

Wayne Els: Autumn Sweeps In
As an abstract it works magnificently, with really strong colours and a genuine sense of movement. My only reservation in terms of the competition is whether I would have realised that it was leaves and a tree if the title hadn’t given me a clue. But it is lovely.

Dave61: Times a changing
Lovely image of a manicured landscape. I do like how the lines of trees zig zag and take you through the image, and the variety of green, brown and silver foliage.

brianvickers: Emerging Autumn
This is gorgeous; I love the sharpness and brightness of the colours, how the strong structure of the branches leads you within the image, and even how the density of leaves varies across the image to provide extra interest.

rcarca: When you go down to the woods tonight…
I have loved your recent experiments with this style, and this one works beautifully for me. The blur is sufficiently controlled so that the scene is still fully recognisable, but you have achieved a lovely painterly effect with gorgeous autumn colours.

markyreds: A different view
Sharp and stark against a beautiful deep blue sky. Lovely textures up the trunk. I can’t make up my mind whether the leaves in the top left add or detract, but those near the bottom middle definitely add as the branches finally change to winter, so well done for catching it at this time.

ctrollen: Long legs, long way to go
Great depth of field, focusing the viewer onto the ivy as it just starts to creep its way skyward. I do like the background canopy with its bokeh and dots of light piercing through. Well positioned in the frame with the green of the trunk leading you in from the corner.

ST-EOS: Thorp Perrow Acer
Wow, that’s a burst of colour! I like the mistiness in the background, and that you have controlled the lighting in the sky so well - it would have been easy to have blown some of that out. The only very minor thing that bothers me are the leaves just breaking into the border on the left.

Daisy M: Different shades of gold
Great vision to see this image; I do love a shot where a single element completely dominates, as you have done, and I particularly like how the gold graduates across the image. Autumn in a single scene.

Birdy: The Canopy
Great image, love how the branches almost look like the veins in a leaf, so for me it is an image within an image. And the strong black trunks injecting extra drama into the shot. Love how balanced your composition is.

Nathaniel: Autumn Colours
A beautiful subject, I love how there are two trees given almost the same space in the frame, yet one dominates through colour alone. And a really unusual point of view, great to be looking down on them. Slight shame that the edge and top are clipped, but a lovely image nonetheless.

John Liddle: Blenheim Orange apples
I was hoping that some people would focus on some other aspects of trees, and this is just what I wanted. And that is some seriously way-out processing that takes some getting used to. The black background, branches and leaves and the crackling on the apples give a great fantasy image. I love them but I’m not sure i’d want to eat them.

Doglet: Time for reflection
Lovely tranquil scene, excellent framing on both sides and great vertical symmetry. And trees in abundance and variety. Really makes me want to get out and walk that walkway. Perhaps for me just a teeny teeny bit bright on the sunny side, but I do like the differentiation with the shade, so maybe not.

Chris J: Avenue of Poplars
Great soaring image, your eye gets dragged right to the very top. I do like how the bare branches form soft brushes just seem to caress the sky, and the slight vertical tilt adds to the feeling of height. Normally the tiny white post at the end would bother me, but in this case it forms a kind of anchor in the scene.

ax2010: The beeches at Drumonaghan bridge
Great framing of the image and using the bridge arch too. The asymmetry really works, and the bridge peeping through the leaves provides good interest. And the variation in lighting across the scene carries your eye. The white thing on the bank in the middle slightly jars, but only slightly.

Bikeman: New Forest
Ignoring the sideways aspect, I like the drama of the image, and how the shadow acts as a leading line into the scene. The HDR has meant that the trunk is not simply a silhouette so I like how that has worked. I think the in camera HDR processing has struggled with the leaf movement which means you have lost some definition.

lunarbo: Solitary Walk
I always love some twisted trunks, and this path has a real Game of Thrones feel about it. Beautiful composition with the path and trees leading you into the scene in a gracious curve, and the walker placed in the perfect place so as not to break the tree line. Perhaps it could be darker, but that just may be to satisfy the image in my head, not yours.

TonyT: Woodland walk
What a lovely tranquil scene, an image of combined man-made and natural beauty. The main focus is on the ferns, but I still get a sense of the trees through the background and the shade. Nicely composed with both the wall and path leading me in.

digiman: Leafless
My first thought on seeing this was that you had gone way overboard with the vignette. But I kept coming back to it and I now love what you’ve done. Despite the bushes around and the buildings in the distance, there is absolutely no doubt about the subject, everything is focused on the tree, which is crisp and sharp and beautiful.

Colyton John: Supermoon Silhouette
Well done for getting the supermoon. What a spooky, eery image. I can almost hear the wolves howling in the distance. I like how the angle adds a sense of disorientation. I’m slightly bothered by the diagonal line, but it also intrigues me.

It was a real struggle to come up with my winners, with so many great images it could of been any of a large number, but in reverse order I have finally gone with:
3rd: rcarca - When you go down to the woods
2nd: digiman - Leafless
1st: brianvickers - Emerging Autumn

So well done to Brian, and over to you for the next one. And for everyone else who entered, sorry you didn’t win it this time, but please keep entering, it would be great to maintain the momentum of a truly vibrant competition in the forum.

[Dave61]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Well done to the top 3 places, great shots and well deserved. Thank you Alex for all the great feedback on each photo too, and well done on all the entries too. I look forward to the next one too

[John Liddle]

Re: Challenge 123: Trees

Well done Brian and the runners-up - and a great big thank you to Alex for setting and judging a great challenge - I certainly did not envy you the task of working through an entry of that size and you made a good job of it, with helpful and thoughtful analysis of each image.