weekly Elaine's 52 for 2015 - Christmas added - finished!

Dem55 said:
Hi Elaine

Entertain - some lovely shots f the building - I do like a bit of art deco :). I think the second is my favourite - they're lovely doors. It's a bit off a shame about the reflections, but as you said, the sun wasn't in the best place, so couldn't be helped.

Spiral - I remember that plate! But is t really as long ago as that? Anyway, I liked it way back and I still like it now (y)
Click to expand...
Thanks Lorraine. Haha, yes it only seems like yesterday that we were all starting this year's 52s and now we're nearly halfway through!
 
sturisoma said:
Entertain - spot on theme, shame about the light as you say, I like the final one best :)

spiral - I keep getting drawn back to this one, it's lovely, and a gorgeous plate too :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for looking and commenting Summer.
 
viv1969 said:
Hi Elaine

Broken 1.....Makes me feel a bit queasy! Also brings to mind that until recent surgery, Denzel Washington had a little finger that would pop sideways in that manner if he so much as shook his hand too energetically....seen footage of it...yuck. :LOL:

Broken 2.....although sad that the stem is broken, the flower head is still very pretty, and lovely colour.

Entertaining....Thankfully more and more of these art deco theatres and cinemas are being grade 2 listed and so will be preserved. You've got this one well, both inside and out.

Spiral.....I like this very much. The colours and the black space on the left make for a nice contradiction.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the comments Ruth. When my grandson was here I showed him the hand one, knowing that it would appeal to his 10-year-old-boy sense of humour and he demanded a step-by-step explanation of how I'd done it :)
 
Entertain: Nice storyboard set of images there.
Spiral: Is it that long since you last used the plate? How time flies. Good sharp image, nice black background and the swirls well in focus.
 
Hi Elaine - yes I remember this but well worth using for spiral as it's a great shot. Was in Corfu a few weeks back - enjoy!
 
Entertain .... liking those FG lights in #3 & #4

Old Plate ... really nicely photographed.
 
Hey Elaine :)

Quick catch up from me...

Broken - Ouch !!! not so sure on the colour, but liking the idea and the real good black background, of the two images I much prefer the second of the flower with broken stem :)

Spiral - Again nice blacks and the pastel colours of the subject are nicely handled, not over saturated, nice object for the theme :)
 
Hi Elaine!
Looks fab to me, love the soft pastel colours, really nicely set off against the black background. Nice sharp focus and gentle lighting. Its a very nice sharp contrasting shot, with good composition(y)
 
Time to start my big catch up! We spent the first two nights of our holiday in Corfu Town and then took the hydrofoil to its tiny, but perfectly formed, neighbouring island of Paxos for three weeks. After 20-odd years of visiting Paxos, it's almost like a second home to us and my photo-taking had inevitably become rather jaded - as in oh! yet another beautiful view, flower, cat, boat, etc - so doing the 52s for the last two years and having to look out for specific theme-related subjects has really given a new perspective and purpose to my photos :thinking:

The first one is the alternative idea that I had in mind all those weeks ago for Week 24 Spiral. I've been fascinated by this stairway for many years. It was built in the early 19th century to provide the British High Commissioner and his guests private access for bathing on the rocks below his residence and the entrance to it is barred nowadays because it's so old and unsafe, but I just love the intricate ironwork that's still very clearly intact.

Week 24 - Spiral #2
xfn6tz.jpg


Week 25 Silhouette. Three different shots for this one, all have a nautical theme - as do my submissions for Proverb when I get around to sorting and editing them later. The first one is another bit of ironwork, which is part of the railings around the terrace of the house we stayed in on Paxos. It took loads of attempts to get a few boats framed between the rails to add a bit of interest to the background - which sadly led to me having to lie on my lounger gazing out to sea far more than I would normally do :cool:

Silhouette #1
5kgkxt.jpg


Silhouette #2
9zuj5z.jpg


Silhouette #3
1feikn.jpg


Week 26 Animal. Plenty of cute cats, beautiful butterflies and creepy-crawly bugs around, but I decided on a specific subject for this theme and spent the last two weeks of the holiday on a quest hunting down lizards. They're shy little critters that seem quite happy to spend hours basking in the sunshine so long as you leave them alone, but as soon as you lift a camera they scurry off! These are three that stayed still long enough for me to get a reasonable focus on them. Here be dragons!

Animal #1
34zdsna.jpg


Animal #2
2r23ghf.jpg


Animal #3
w1dvvd.jpg
 
Welcome back Elaine (y)

That Spiral staircase ... wow what a find, although you found it years ago. I'm fascinated, thanks for sharing.

Silhouette #1 for me ... there seems to be a smidgen of light on those railing preventing them for be flat, or do I imagine it. o_O And what a BG! all blue.

Good animal/wildlife pics as always.
 
d00d said:
Welcome back Elaine (y)

That Spiral staircase ... wow what a find, although you found it years ago. I'm fascinated, thanks for sharing.

Silhouette #1 for me ... there seems to be a smidgen of light on those railing preventing them for be flat, or do I imagine it. o_O And what a BG! all blue.

Good animal/wildlife pics as always.
Click to expand...
Cheers d00d. No you're not imagining the light on the rails, especially the top one which had a kind of scalloped edge and lots of unwanted highlights :( I thought I'd managed to get rid of them, but after a midnight flight and only about 4 hours' sleep, I can see now that my eyes obviously weren't working quite as well as they should do on Tuesday o_O Well that's my excuse anyway :p
 
Week 27 Medicine. I was a bit stumped by this one at first and the meagre contents of my travel first aid kit provided no inspiration at all, so under the circumstances I did the only logical thing and turned to alcohol! I'm certain that brandy, wine and olive oil all have medical uses and as an added bonus I managed to find an aloe vera plant - well known for their healing and soothing properties - growing next to a nice flat wall that was just right for standing my bottles on :)

Greek Medicine!
mlqteo.jpg


Week 28 Proverb

Back to the nautical themes! I'm not too confident about the origins of the first two of these, but I know I have the third one spot on :D

#1 Old English proverb - Red sky at night, sailor's delight
28mkcif.jpg


#2 Old Chinese proverb - Give a man a fish

54jgvn.jpg


#3 Old French footballer's proverb - When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea
2zefosm.jpg


I'm not usually keen on using text on photos, but I quite liked the middle one and as there seems to be far too much sea at the bottom of the other two, I might try adding the proverbs into them tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
Here are the edited versions with added text. I'm not too sure about the sunset one, but I think it improves the trawler - and allows me to give credit where credit's due :LOL:

2qd8w10.jpg


opw7pd.jpg
 
Hey again :)

I think I best start at the bottom of the comments list rather than the top :D

Anyhooooo - Really like the spiral staircase, I think it's the different blue tones that make it so interesting :)

Silhouette #1 - Looks a tad on the wonk, nice lining up of the boats through the gaps though :thumbs:

Silhouette #2 - This is the one for me, I like the lining up of the rocks and boat... nice sparkly water too :)

Animal - It's the second one for me, I much prefer the composition and background

Greek Medicine! - Like your thinking here :D the background is a bit distracting though :nono:

Proverb - I'm with you on this one, the inclusion of the text seems pretty essential on this theme, I like your choice of image to go with it too - nice one :thumbs:
 
Hi Elaine - Well done on the catch-up :clap:

Spiral: What a marvelous structure - nice intricate design. Of course more than meets the theme.
Silhouette: #1 for me because it's bold and clearly a silhouette and besides offers has side interest in the form of the boats which are nicely spaced out.
Animal: Like all three. The last would be my clear winner if the tail wasn't .... well... um .... curtailed.;)
Medicine: One of the most attractive shots for this theme, colourful too.
Proverb: Yeah, I like #2 - the lone figure and the reflection do it for me.
 
posiview said:
Hi, medicine, on theme but the softer light and shallower DOF would improve.

Proverb, last on for me. Nice blues and nice connection.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
We see that fishing boat several times a week whenever we're on Paxos and one or other of us always say "The seagulls are following the trawler", so it was good to finally find an excuse for sharing it :)
 
Dark Knight said:
Hey again :)

I think I best start at the bottom of the comments list rather than the top :D

Anyhooooo - Really like the spiral staircase, I think it's the different blue tones that make it so interesting :)

Silhouette #1 - Looks a tad on the wonk, nice lining up of the boats through the gaps though (y)

Silhouette #2 - This is the one for me, I like the lining up of the rocks and boat... nice sparkly water too :)

Animal - It's the second one for me, I much prefer the composition and background

Greek Medicine! - Like your thinking here :D the background is a bit distracting though :nono:

Proverb - I'm with you on this one, the inclusion of the text seems pretty essential on this theme, I like your choice of image to go with it too - nice one (y)
Click to expand...
Yeah, it usually puts me in mind of greetings cards or those "inspirational" images that people post on Facebook, but I think it works for this theme. Cheers for all your comments.
 
Last edited:
Carl Ayling said:
Hi Elaine - Well done on the catch-up :clap:

Spiral: What a marvelous structure - nice intricate design. Of course more than meets the theme.
Silhouette: #1 for me because it's bold and clearly a silhouette and besides offers has side interest in the form of the boats which are nicely spaced out.
Animal: Like all three. The last would be my clear winner if the tail wasn't .... well... um .... curtailed.;)
Medicine: One of the most attractive shots for this theme, colourful too.
Proverb: Yeah, I like #2 - the lone figure and the reflection do it for me.
Click to expand...
Haha! Problem with the tail was it seemed to go on forever and to keep the 3x4 proportions with all of it included meant also including a lot of very boring stone wall, so I decided to chop it off :eek: Thanks for all your comments Carl.
 
Last edited:
Week 29 - Pale. Can't say I'm particularly happy with this one. I went to the local florist's shop to get a nice pale pink rose. They only had two left and I picked the one that looked best in the badly lit shop, but when I got home and inspected it a bit closer it had definitely seen better days and I reckon that at £1.50 I was well ripped off! So this shot involved far more pp and much softer focus than I'd intended, but hey ho, it's pale :p

qno09g.jpg
 
Hi Elaine, nice to see you back.

Spiral, a very strange structure amazing what you can achieve with enough money
Silhouette number 1 works for me, number two caught my eye but i feel the boat should have been on the right of the frame
Animal, number 3, if you had just included the tail
Proverb, inspired choice of the Cantona quote and the picture is perfect :clap:
Pale, £1.50 for a dodgy rose :mad: but never the less its pale a little more detail would be nice but given the rose you have done well and the square crop works well
 
Hi Elaine ...I've had a quick whizz down your page it looks as if you're catching up too.

Spiral staircase and Medicine are stand out shots for me, I love that staircase...what a gem to find that. Medicine looks so bright and cheery it makes me feel better just looking at it :)

I chose a rose for pale too :) luckily mine was a gloriously scented one from my garden, now adorning my windowsill. They do adapt very well to the topic, not sure about the leaves on this on this one, they distract a bit.
 
Last edited:
Hi Elaine, I think you have done a lovely job with this, and it's bang on theme. Unlike Suzie I like the leaves :)

Cheers,

B. :cow:
 
I agree with Brian about the levels, they add depth to the photograph.

It has a real nostalgic feel about it and the softness also adds to the nostalgia.

Cheers.
 
I think a rose that's seen better days in on theme, as in:

Pale - feeble, weak


(y)
 
Hi Elaine. Right on theme but oh my what a sad looking rose - bit of a cheek charging let alone £1.50 ! Nice image although a bit soft - quite like the leaves being there though.
 
Well I'm a little bit happier with this week's shots. There's a big renovation project going on at the hall in the park next door, so I thought I might find something to fit the idea I had in mind for Tear. Most of the major demolition work's finished now and they're starting to rebuild and renovate, but I found a little outbuilding tucked away in a corner that still has a lot of work to be done on it. The strong sunlight through the overhead leaves cast a rather sickly green light over it, so I converted it to b/w.
#1 Tear Down the Wall

zmjyti.jpg


On my way out of the park I had a lightbulb moment and decided to have a walk around the pond to see if my old acquaintance from Week 21 was still around and there he was sitting basking in the sunshine on his favourite log

#2 my bizarre friend - The Tear-tle :sorry:

15ecwlk.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi Elaine. I was thinking about a demolition job for Tearing down. I think probably the b&w treatment is appropriate for the subject anyway. As for Teartle - lovely colour and just cute enough to allow for the highly suspect link to the theme ha ha.
 
Hi Elaine,

It seems yours is a thread I have missed for some considerable time - sorry about that :(

Catching up with your catch up...
Spiral: What an amazing set of spiral stairs! Great find and a perfect fit to the theme.
Silhouette: Number two for me. I like the light on the sea and the foliage and rocks add FG interest.
Animal: They are all great photos but I think 3 just pips the other two because of the eye contact.
Medicine: Nice medicine in the foreground and well done for sneaking in the Aloe vera plant too (y)
Proverb: All good again but I think no 2 works best for me. The colours and grain really work for me.
Pale: Nice subtle colours that work well. Shame the rose was a little past it's best.
Tear: I like the mono conversion of the first but the "tear-tle" - pass the shoehorn :D
 
Thanks for all the comments, much appreciated. I'm slowly catching up with commenting on everyone else's threads a few at a time at the moment and I apologise if I haven't got around to everyone yet, but I'm trying!
 
posiview said:
"Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall"

Like it. Interesting take. Pity there are trees in the BG.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Have to admit that I was thinking more Pink Floyd than Ronald Reagan at the time, but that was certainly one of his more sensible quotes!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top