Rural Letter BoxNikkor 18-200 @ 200mm
F/8
1/125s
Spring in England. I framed the little letter box with daffodils and trees, using reduced depth of field to avoid the bright yellow flowers from distracting too much from the main subject.
A piece of VictorianaNikkor 18-200 @ 62mm
F/5
1/180s
One of the remaining Victorian post boxes. Also note the Ordnance Survey benchmark on the brickwork below the box itself. This is located on a quiet corner in Plympton, just down the road from where I went to school all those aeons ago. The picture is tightly cropped to eliminate distracting plastic bag rubbish and hideous garden gnomes in the garden to the left.
Baby on boardNikkor 18-200 @ 26mm
F/4
1/20s
I borrowed the scenery from some good friends. Photographers with young families will find this scene all too familiar. Hand-held at 1/20s to exploit natural light (aren't VR lenses great?) and a low child's-eye-view.
War CryNikkor 18-200 @ 120mm
F/5.6
1/125s
Lots of letters here. There's the print in the paramilitary publication, and also the hoarding advertising the computer games shop where the soldier is standing.
It can be difficult to get long shots like these in a busy pedestrian precinct. Enormous numbers of shoppers conspire to walk in front of the camera at the very moment the shutter button is pressed. This is the only one where I was able to crop out all pedestrian clutter.
BookshopNikkor 18-200 @ 112mm
F/5.6
1/125s
Lots of books, which of course contain millions of letters, in Waterstone's bookshop. I should have liked to true-up the vertical on the left-hand side as it's an architectural detail, but unfortunately I'm away from home and without Photoshop. A slightly wider version caught the sky that was a boring flat grey rather than glorious blue. Hence this close-cropped image.
Posts
WOW, everybody is coming in with some cracking shots this month.
ReplyDeleteRural Letterbox.
This one is my favorite of the bunch.
Love the composition, the framing and positioning of elements. Nice technical control on picking your aperture.
On the C&C don't think it's 100.0% square. The box (and the corner of the wall) look a fraction off, but that said it's most likely that you are square and the box and wall is off !
The range of colors is nice, but a little bit more saturation in the RAW conversation might have helped the green and red just pop a bit brighter.
A piece of Victoriana.
Not sure the lamp post is Victorian ;-)
A bit snap shot for me, would have loved to see some of the details on the box. The casting of the crest, or some wear / patina on the slot.
But for that you might have needed a macro or faster lens and an oblique angle.
Baby on Board.
Another nicely composed shot. Love the look of the letters in the crash mat and the half falling out look. You did well to resist spelling a rude word, I know I'd have.
Would have been a real cracking shot if there was a baby in the car seat or climbing around but NEVER work with Children or Animals is a very good motto.
The burst of color from the mat is nice but again I'd check your RAW conversion, or if shooting JPEG maybe check the in camera setting ad give it a notch more on the color saturation.
War Cry.
Bulls-eye (sorry), a bit of a snap. But still a nice spot on the sign in the back ground but just doesn't work well to me, particularly compared to the "Rural Letterbox" and "Baby on Board".
Also not sure the War Cry / Salvation army can be described as "Paramilitary" organization ;-)
"Bookshop"
Nice patterns and the clock. Couldn't see the off vertical on the left until read your text, now it screams at me, amazing how the eye / brain works.
Cheers,
Richard B.
Paul
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I am (as usual) failing to be in agreement with Mr Bailey on which is my favorite. I like War Cry a lot and Rural Letter Box doesn't really do it for me.
But first comments on the others:
A Piece of Victoriana - I'd agree with Richard, snap rather than a thought out shot. A close up might have done it, but not a shot from across the street.
The Bookshop - Award for the most spurious limnk to the title has to go to this shot!! Shot is nicely lined up but a bit unexcitting, but worth it for the random link.
Baby on Board - Love the letters etc but the radiator and door frame distract me bit too much. I would crop/photoshop these out. Otherwise a nice shot and a good use of letters.
Rural Letter Box - Can see what you are trying to do, and can see what Richard is saying and why it liked it but it doesn't work for me. I think the letter box is perhaps too small to grab muy attention, all I can really see is the mass of green of the three in the frame on the left. Even tough its blurred it's too dominating and steals the show.
War Cry - I don't mind being a little harsh about the other shots because I can honestly say I love this one. I can see the link to Letters and so full marks there. And yes this is a bulls-eye shot but to be honest in this case it adds to the story. I see it more as a social commentary type shot, you have the modern aggressive graffiti style sign writing encouraging us (quite gregariously) to go out and splurge our money on cheap and meaningless entertainment juxtaposition with the rather older and more timid looking Sally Army guy encouraging us (less successfully/encouragingly) to donate our money to a good cause where it can be used sensibly and also his whole demeanor makes him look completely lost and dominated by poster; the old values dominated by the new. Love it.
As this is C&C forum I have to balance this with some negative, and for that I would crop tighter so that it matches the shape of the poster frame, I'd clone out the bush and if you want to get REALLY techie use the Topas Detail plug in to photoshop to bring out the detail in the Sally Army fella......but that is getting techy.
Love this one Mr C.