* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #802 / Revived #022 on 2023 08 30 *

A classic abstract. Well done.
Did you paint it or...?

Great story and brings back memories from when I was there in 2003. I went there because it was rumoured to have some surf (which is visible in your photo). After a day or so I met an expat who lived up the coast and he lent me an old surfboard. And I managed to get a day or two in the water when the swell came up. Then I became the tourist attraction for some of the pilgrims. I also remember on occasion feeling quite warm pockets of water passing me in the current from the south. Then I realised there is a nuclear facility down the coast and I am fairly positive it was the source (as a long term surfer you may feel that a little bit sometimes but not to that extent). I was a touch worried about radiation exposure but I think it was ok - and I haven't seen any strange ghosting in any of my photos... 😁

I was attempting to make a composite image, but I was so excited when I was shooting I used the wrong lens/focal length and didn't get enough images to make a complete view. Despite that, I think it came out pretty interesting, if not just a novelty.

A few obligatory shots from the oculus

Suggested Edits

Love the cat. Could we lose the toes on the right?

Tim

Beautiful abstract painting of which the colors fit together very harmoniously.
Lou

Excellent series and a joy to watch. Thank you.
Lou

For your reflection on Mike's staircase image I put aside our affairs, because your image is mercilessly beautiful and artistic and the prosaic character of the exhibition space enhances these qualities. Even without the paintings, the space is great.
Lou

Fantastic images - I love the first one with the stiched shots. Looks perfect as it is. If I remember correctly @JimKasson has done quite a number of great composites like that as well. Can be really effective if well done!

The B&W oculus shot is excellent with its symmetry and brightness and the edit from last time as well. Fantastic work throughout! 👍

Beautiful beach seascape Chris, which comes into its own at maximum magnification. The photo lends itself to a person walking out of the sea onto the beach towards the wooden bench. The photo has a fine nice balance.
Lou

100% in camera digital image. Only modification was the colors.

With these, we are looking straight into the mouth of powerful water coming right at us. The water itself becomes the leading line and the subject. They are all different, each one strong in its own way, each one emphasizing the strength of the water rather than taming it with slow exposures. I like the first best because it's an unusual image, with an unusual angle, but mostly because of the drama of the ominous sky and the beauty of the mountain peaks almost hidden in the background. In this one the vanishing point is marked with a visual X and all the power spreads out from there: the water, the textured rocks, the dark trees, the distant mountains. Lovely.

And thus you became a part of the culture, and of this young lady's story. The story told in the background of the photo is of the culture and the people enjoying their fellowship and their celebration, dressed in traditional garb in a traditional location, but the foreground story is the determined and serious young lady who wanted to incorporate a foreign stranger into her story. Who knows what story she has told herself and her friends about you, or what role you play in her ongoing story, or whether others she's met share the stage with you. To me, the image embodies the intriguing way we weave our human stories together across culture and geography.

This does not look like a stairway to heaven and in fact if it is most distressingly walled off. Perhaps the visitants to Heaven #8 are those who have been found lacking at the last minute and are stuck in the stairwell. It appears ancient, well used, and more recently made inaccessible. The stairs are a magnetic leading line that winds upward, forcing us to look for something wonderful at the end, but instead, barring us from proceeding. An artistic metaphor for frustration.

Well done, another meticulous creation that is visually puzzling and pleasing at the same time. I get the feeling that the art pencil is sketching the bokeh cubes and brining them to life to drift away as they are produced, which is kind of how art works anyway once we have an idea - the sketch or under painting, the final created product, the launch out into the world. That perhaps isn't what you intended, but I claim my own prerogative to see these offerings through the distortion of my own interpretation, and hope others see my offerings that way as well.

What a winsome kitty! I can think of only two cats I have met who were walking on leads like this, and I was duly impressed, since every cat I have ever had would have wound itself up in the lead and shredded me for even suggesting such a thing. The kitty is a tad soft (maybe she moved her head a bit) but it doesn't detract for me since cats are soft things anyway, and it adds to her overall impression, which is such softness that I want to pick her up. I don't mind the toes, which prove there is a human that she owns and cares for attached to the other end of her lead, and we know she was thoughtful enough to take him for a walk.

Was this taken during the hurricane (Idalia)?

I straightened the horizon.

😉

Rich