Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

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John
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Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by John »

As usual, images up to 800 pixels wide can be posted in this thread, and the subject is Within The Folds of Winter. This could be anything within winter's grasp, from a snow covered sheep in a field to a scene of warmth shot from outside into your living room. Or anything that your imagination can come up with.

Now we're coming up to Christmas (did you notice?) so an extended deadline this time and you have until:

Midnight, Wednesday 29th December 2010

So, let's have those cold, wintery images, and have a Shivering Good Time getting them!
Best regards

John
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by stelee »

Winter Wonderland
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by GERRYG »

MICE ARE EASIER TO SEE IN THE SNOW
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by Wayne Boardman »

Frosty post at first light
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by Ianuk50 »

Wrap up warm and go for a lovely walk in the frosty air.....
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by pammie »

frosty dead heads
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by Stu B »

Atherton to Tyldesley in the snow
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by STEEWOOD »

A Robin will lift any scene
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by bazzasmeg »

My entry for Within The Folds of Winter[/i}
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by Des »

The Walk to Work.
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by Myra »

Belmont Reservoir Patterns in the Ice.
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by kevinlowe »

Winter's Web
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by Tracey McGovern »

Here is my entry.....
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by John »

Many thanks for all the entries. I'll be judging the competition today, so stay tuned!
Best regards

John
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Re: Competition #64 - Within The Folds of Winter

Post by John »

Here we go then. There are two main judging considerations with set subjects. Firstly, how well does the image fit the brief? Secondly, how good is the image as an image. Anything that doesn't fit the competition theme obviously has a disadvantage from the start! Here we have a very nice selection of images and although as with all competitions we need winners (and hence have those who don't win) there are no bad pictures. Many thanks to all for a set of splendid entries, and at a time of year when we all are pretty busy as well.

Stelee starts us off brilliantly with an image that makes me think of Christmas - water, wildlife, snow, vignette and low winter light all combine to make a very powerful statement.

GERRY G knows a thing or three about making images and never disappoints. The owl is brilliant and the focus point on the eyes is very direct and confidently placed. The slight downside is that without knowing what kind of owl it is and anything about its environment or behaviour we have to assume that this is "within the folds of winter" - the image on its own does not tell us that.

Wayne Boardman has gone for simplicity and calm. The placement of the post is good and the cap of snow tells us that this is winter. I can imagine a crisp, cold winter's day. Maybe the horizontal line in the background, at the top of the image, could be avoided by moving position slightly. It is a slight distraction to an otherwise very well composed shot.

Ianuk50 is one of out newer photographers and he's getting to be very good. Technically spot on, this image draws us in along with the figures. The competition theme is 100% adhered to and the image itself is a very fine interpretation.

pammie is also an excellent photographer and brings us here a soft, ethereal view of winter. I really want to like this image as it has so much of the right ingredients, but am held back by the way the soft focus effect varies over the frame. It seems to pull my eye to the left when I want to view the area on the right, with its superb counterpoint of steel blue in the background.

Stu B makes Tyldesley look like Switzerland, no mean feat in itself...in terms of composition I feel that I would like to walk to the snow horizon and look over the hill, restricting the image to the tones of the absolutely brilliant background.

STEEWOOD tells us that a robin will lift any scene, and I ain't arguing. That little splash of red catches our eye and leads us into a wonderful winter scene. On a technical point, please make the image 800 pixels wide and then we can fully enjoy it. As it is, it is rather too small.

bazzasmeg is also an excellent photographer, as his fine images on ePHOTOzine testify. I like this image very much. The trees are interesting, the snow retains its whiteness without being over exposed. I would look at the out of focus foreground though and find a way to get rid of it. Maybe by cropping, ideally by shooting over the hedge/fence rather than including it. Other than that, knowing where to crop this sort of view is critical and Bazzasmeg has selected that extremely well.

Des has been out in the cold again, and that's the way to get the images that count! Brave man....good tones in this image and a classic lead in, unfortunately with slightly weak lighting that is diffused rather than crisp. I'm wondering how it will look reversed left-to-right.

Myra has seen and taken advantage of some wonderful patterns in the ice. This swirls and carries us into the image. It does IMHO need to be shot at a different time of day. Here we have the main subject in shadow and all the light on the distant background. If it could be that the light instead hit the ice, my goodness how it might sparkle!

beeblebear selects for us a very nice subject. Two things here - first the light needs to hit the ice to give some scintillation and second the background does need to be darker if at all possible. At the moment light background details are competing with the main subject to some degree. This may not be easy, but to lift the image into the extraordinary shooting some alternative viewpoints will pay dividends.

Tracey McGovern is another of our rapidly rising photographic stars. The idea of this shot is excellent and the vignette would work, but in this instance the white outer areas have really highlighted that the tone of most of the snow is a dull grey. This needs exposure compensation of maybe +1 stop in camera, to keep the whites white. That apart, the composition is exactly right.

Len McNally has taken some simple ingredients and made a tidy composition out of them. Snow tones are good, lighting is attractive and we have foreground interest and a lead-in. Maybe we are lead towards nothing in particular, and this I think is where the picture slightly lacks a real centre of interest. The expoosure is well controlled here as the highlights on the snow are kept white without being blown out.

So some powerful images and the winning order is a tough one, but here it is:

3rd Place: stelee
2nd Place: bazzasmeg
Winner: Ianuk50

Honourable mention to GERRY G.

And there we have our fine winner - technically superb, lovely composition, delightful lighting and absolutely Within The Folds of Winter! I hand the baton to Ianuk50.....
Best regards

John
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