Weekender Sat-Sun June 22 & 23, 2024

[Dave]

I had forgotten that I took a few photos of this small cactus blossom four days ago...

   

I wish us all a good weekend and hope that those in parts of the US stay safe in the heat.

[Luv2shoot]

DAVE, hurray.
This is so artistic looking. BRAVO.  Nicely composed with punch of RED with contrasting green.  YEP, it is winner.
The photo that I attached is one from this past Thursday's meeting that I shared with the club.  This was NOT the photo I shared, the one that the club saw was a landscape crop and they suggested that I remove the left side of the image and make it a portrait of  just the FARM TOOL SUBJECT.  They were right.

I am going to stick my neck out and suggest that you "LOOK AT" just the opposite for your image, Dave.  On your computer scroll the page down to stop just a little above the half way point of the mid point of  the vertical side of your image.  For me, using that crop,  the red and green cactus flower is not getting lost in a lot of background, but pops off the page.  DO no other cropping than this so that the cactus remains off center but still  with some gray background and white streeks above it.  
I felt that the flower got minimized too much in your composition and the negative gray space did not add anything to enhance the flower's powerful punch. 

Just a suggestion.  
LORELL

[Rich]

Dave, I like the color contrast and the sharpness, pun intended, I think Lorell has a good suggestion! Background works well with this image but might be too much of it.

Lorell, wonderful capture and crop! Mono tone works well.

Here is the city drainage ditch that runs adjacent to our condo property. We received a10 inches of rain this week. This shot is after 7.5 inches. All good now since the city came and unplugged the drain tunnels.

Drove to a small town about 15 miles away today for a classic car show. I got some more ammunition for the forum now!

[Dave]

Hi Lorell and Rich.

Lorell, I love photos of old farm equipment, ad yours is a good one. I remember seeing sepia photos of the wheat harvester that my maternal grandparents used on their farm in Alberta. I wish I had copies of it - hope someone in the family still has the pics.

Rich, I'm looking forward to seeing the photos of the classic care show; they're always a treat.

Thank you for your feedback on my red cactus flower shot.

In setting up the shot, I placed a piece of sturdy white poster board behind the small cactus. I really liked the dapples of sunlight that found their way through overhead leaves, and chose to show as much of it as the camera captured. But I had done another crop from the original capture, similar to what you suggested, and processed it yesterday.

Is this more like what you had in mind?

   

On a late morning walk yesterday, I paused in front of a shaggy palm (a couple of homes in the neighborhood have them;e common (and much larger) in the local deserts. Anyway, I was struck by how gray it was - the light of the intense sun seemed seemed to have bleached all the color away. So I took a few photos. Here is one, and it is NOT grayscale; in fact I intensified the colors about 10% - 15%.

   

[Dreamin]

Dave, what an interesting cactus.....love the color! Your second crop I like much better!!Your palm does look like you shot in B&W. Interesting textures.
Lorell, I like your crop of the vintage hand plow? I'd like to see it in color. I think it gets lost in the monotones....?
Rich, lucky you. We are in a drought....burn bans are in effect.....your lawn looks so green and lush.

[Luv2shoot]

Hi Natalie.
You are probably right about the hand plow. I only made it SEPIA because MONOCHROME was one of the categories that we had to fulfill.
I will see about uploading the colored version.

Dave, Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind.

Rich, we got a lot of puddles around here and a bunch of fallen trees. Some people still do not have power after FIVE days.

[Rich]

Natalie, lawns in town are really nice.

Lorell wrote ,"Rich, we got a lot of puddles around here and a bunch of fallen trees. Some people still do not have power after FIVE days."

Five days without power is a LOOOOONG time. Yikes!

[Dave]

Hi Natalie, and thanks.