Critique required Kell's 52 in 22 - week 52. Showcase

I like the incorporation of the sign on the left. I'd probably have cropped it out but it works for the image.
 
Week 24 - Something beginning with P

Was at the Isle of Wight festival this weekend with friends. And Saturday night's theme was Pirates.

One's an iPhone shot, the other was on my little waterproof Fuji. Wasn't too sure about taking anything decent with me - or at least something that would get damaged if it got wet. Forecast was poor and on top of that, we were staying on a boat that required going back and forth on a dinghy every day.

So...

TP52: 2022 - P 03 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

And Selfie time...

TP52: 2022 - P 01 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr
 
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That works!
Always wary where water's about. Sounds like a good time…
 
Both good shots Kell. I like that you caught the jolly rogers in the background.
 
Fab slfoe Pirate Kell - Yaaaaaar!!!!
 
Week 26: Snapper's Choice

Was putting away a tent in the back garden and had an observer for a good 20 minutes or so. Brave too - as our cat also wanted to 'help' with the tent.

Went inside to get my camera (convinced the robin would have gone by the time I got back), But it was still there and still being nosy.

My favourite one probably isn't the sharpest image, but there was just something about it that appealed to me. Though I have to say, it was a toss up between 04 and 05.

TP52: 2022 - 25 Snapper's Choice 01 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

TP52: 2022 - 25 Snapper's Choice 02 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

TP52: 2022 - 25 Snapper's Choice 03 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

TP52: 2022 - 25 Snapper's Choice 04 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

TP52: 2022 - 25 Snapper's Choice 05 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr
 
You are right 4 or 5, hard to say, a bit more of a story in 5 I reacon.
BTW you need a new Fence :)

Pete
 
I like the shot, nice colour and composition with the robin in the garden on the metal bin, I agree you might need a new fence.
 
For me, it's shot 03 with the unusual pose. Had a baby robin monitoring my activities on the allotment this afternoon, such character.
 
All nice shots - love robins. I like the roof one. He looks a bit comical there.
 
Great shots... Love the colours in 01 and 04 might have been my fave apart from the small branch crossing behind the birds heads. So i like 05 best, strong colours and the bin lid helps the bird stand out in the picture.
 
Great shots Kell, #4 looks like he's/she's smiling but I think I'm partial to the action in #3...
 
You are right 4 or 5, hard to say, a bit more of a story in 5 I reacon.
BTW you need a new Fence :)

Pete

I like the shot, nice colour and composition with the robin in the garden on the metal bin, I agree you might need a new fence.

For me, it's shot 03 with the unusual pose. Had a baby robin monitoring my activities on the allotment this afternoon, such character.

All nice shots - love robins. I like the roof one. He looks a bit comical there.

Great shots... Love the colours in 01 and 04 might have been my fave apart from the small branch crossing behind the birds heads. So i like 05 best, strong colours and the bin lid helps the bird stand out in the picture.

Great shots Kell, #4 looks like he's/she's smiling but I think I'm partial to the action in #3...


Thanks all.
 
All nice images, I prefer 5 as it seems to have a 'cheeky chappy' feel to it.
 
IoW looks fabulous... I am assuming the weather wasn't as bad as forecast.
I love your robin on the dustbin... fantastic bird shot with a difference!
 
IoW looks fabulous... I am assuming the weather wasn't as bad as forecast.
I love your robin on the dustbin... fantastic bird shot with a difference!

It was a good weekend thanks.

Forecast changed constantly. We left the main stage early one night as there was a storm forecast and we didn't want to get drenched, and then it kind of just blew away. Saturday and Sunday were down to be wash outs, and actually we had very little rain.
 
I like them all. Well done Kell. It's difficult to choose it could be between 3, 4 and 5. Maybe 3 or 5 as they're a bit different :D
 
Week 26 - One Half.

Bit of a story behind these first two. My Friend's partner thought she was doing us a huge favour and booked tickets for us to go see The Smiths. But if you look closely at the drum kit, you can see where she went wrong. We all knew that it wouldn't be the Smiths - Morrissey and Johnny Marr really don't like each other any more.

Still... The SmYths were pretty good. Took these (iPhone) after ONE HALF of their show was done.

TP52 - Week 26: One Half B&W by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

TP52 - Week 26: One Half colour by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

Then I thought: without the explanation would anyone get it? It could be pre-show.

So then I thought of half of something, ONE HALF of a Euro is 50 Cents.

Taken with a new lens I was testing and a combination of 13mm and 21mm extension tubes, Had to be manual focus as it was sending my AF a little doolally.

Studio Session-046 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

Studio Session-047 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

However, last Thursday was also my ONE HALF century birthday. So while it's not my favourite pic of the week, it's bang on theme,

Thanks for looking.

TP522022 - Week 26 - One Half (century) by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr
 
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Good set there :)
 
There goes my stack of 50ps idea!!!

Blackbeard? Many years ago for me now! Closer to Santa these days but I'm not - I just help him write the list so, norty girls be nice to me... :):P
 
Happy Birthday Kell, all good shots, and all good for the theme, I like the colour coin shot the best.
 
Cracking set as usual Kell with good backstories. I like the coloured coin ones too, although your chosen one rightly has a more personal focus.
 
They're all very good Kell but I think No.1 is my favourite. Well done for them all! :D
 
I like the incorporation of the sign on the left. I'd probably have cropped it out but it works for the image.

I tried - but I really wanted the street name to be bang in the middle. Cropping the chiropodists sign out meant losing the left hand bit of ribbon as well as the corresponding bit on the right if I then re-centred it.

I then tried retouching it out, but I couldn't get the colour correct when cloning bits of wall. There's a surprising amount of tonal variety there. It could definitely be done, but was a little beyond me.
 
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Week 27 - A post and Dappled Light technique

Turns out that new fence that I need is just the job for a post with a bit of character.

So, in the early(ish) morning, the sun filters through the trees at the back of our house and I thought it would be nice to capture one of the fence posts with a robin or a blue tit on it.

Normally they're very active in our garden in the morning - and I even put some nuts and seeds out to attract them to where I wanted them to land.

But after an hour of waiting, I actually had to be somewhere. So I only ended up with literally a post. (I can almost guarantee, they arrived in flocks as soon as I left.)

Not entirely sure, but I suspect that my photographer's assistant might have had something to do with the absence of birds that morning.

5D3_0163 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

Also, I left my SD card in the computer, but thought 'It's OK, the camera's got two' forgetting that last time I set them up, I did so that it would write JPEGS to the XD card and the Raws to the SD. So I only had JPEGS to do anything with in post - which means I tried (but failed) to recover the highlights,

Anyway, I quite liked this one for the theme and the technique...

5D3_0113 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

But these were contenders.

5D3_0108 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

5D3_0107 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr


BUT...

The next day, we decided to head down to Windsor to go and watch some Polo.

Where I thought I might be able to catch some action next to a (goal) post.

5D3_0211 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

5D3_0251 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

5D3_0223 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

This was my favourite of those - but I'm sticking with the fence post because it also has the technique...

5D3_0214 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr
 
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Great pictures there with many choices of posts. I think you made the right choice with the picture you've selected but it was very much a toss-up between that one and the black and white post too. It looks like you had fun couple of days (y)
 
Nice set as usual Kell. I'm with you on your chosen shot, but quite like the last polo one too.
 
Great set Kell and great commentary. I think that you chose the right one although I am partial to the b&w post.
 
recover the highlights,


I wouldn't worry too much. My rule of thumb as far as highlights go is to look at a scene then close my eyes for a moment or 2. If there are (for me!) greeny ghosts where the highlights are, they were blown to my eyesight so shouldn't have too much detail in them anyway. Other people's opinions might differ!
 
Week 28 - Water.

Had my little camera with me in work yesterday, so was able to grab these on my way home.

My first thought was the fountain on the Broadwalk in The Regents Park. This the the 'Ready Money' Fountain in Regents Park. When I first looked it up, I thought 'how awful, some pay-day loan company has sponsored the fountain and now we have to call it that'.

Turns out it was the nickname of the Parsee gentleman who gifted it to the British for protecting his people:

The Ready Money Drinking Fountain is a four-sided granite and marble gothic drinking fountain that gets its unusual name from Sir Cowasjee Jehangir, whose nickname was Ready Money. It is located in the centre of the Broad Walk.

Ready Money was a wealthy Parsee industrialist from Bombay who donated it to The Regent's Park in 1869 as a thank-you for the protection that he and fellow Parsees received from British rule in India.

The sculpture contains 10 tonnes of Sicilian marble and four tonnes of red Aberdeen granite. It was unveiled by Princess Mary of Teck, later Queen Mary after whom Queen Mary's Gardens are named.

IMG_1497 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

However, the fountain is no longer operational. So no water comes out of it any more.

So I knew there's another fountain further down the Braodwalk in the Avenue Gardens. There doesn't seem to be a name for this fountain (which seems unusual) so I've just called it the Avenue Gardens Fountain.

IMG_1505 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

Shot into the sun to highlight the droplets a little more. Got a little bit lucky with the way the sun broke through the cloud so it appears to come from the top of the fountain.

IMG_1515 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr

But my favourite was the close-up study.

IMG_1521 by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr
 
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I think that I would have picked No. 3. I love the streaming rays of light. The way that the sunlight catches the water is lovely too.

No. 4 is great also.
 
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