* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #828 / Revived #048 on 2024 02 28 *

What an interesting abstract! The icy blue frost-feathers creep like living creatures through the screen and move against the bokeh balls of warm light on the other side, as if they are trying to get through to the other, warmer side. A really appealing image.

Thank you for your thoughts.

A word on fisheye street photography (because that is basically what this is).

I should probably mention that I am not a relative nor friend of that young girl in the image.
There is no posing.
Her expression of apprehension is probably due to the fact that she is thinking "what is that strange mister doing here so close to me and pointing his camera not straight at me but somewhere above and beyond me?".

With a fisheye (or any extreme wide angle lens) you do get awfully close to your subject if you want to make it a main feature and connect it with the surroundings that are going to be distorted. In order to get the ferris wheel nicely under the roller coaster track, I had to get really close and quite low (and that is why I am looking up towards that child, whose head is probably just one meter above the ground). Fisheye work often includes getting on my knees in the dirt.
Thankfully, I seem to be a person who does not come across as threatening or creepy, so I tend to get away with getting really really close to people.
Also : there is no sneakiness at all (quite the contrary from sniping images of a person far away with a telephoto lens).
I am very open about what I am doing. No spy camera tricks.

But I do confess that sometimes I make fisheye images of people who are blissfully unaware that they are going to be in the frame.
Standing really close and pointing not directly in their direction, has most people assuming that I am photographing some UFO in the far distance, while in fact they will be integral part of my extremely wide composition, and it relaxes them. I can get candid shots even while standing almost on somebody's toes.
It works best with people who have personal experience with cameras and can imagine (quite wrongly) what my field-of-view appears to be.
Not with this girl.
Hence the expression of "huh?".
But it was worth it for the image, and no harm was done.
She just walked over to her parents, who had watched the whole event from a few metres away.
And I walked back to my own family.

"Takeoff"

It is hard to catch a photo that illustrates what a shower looks like but this one does. You even have a variation in the lighting, presumably from the varying thickness of the raincloud above the scene. The sun is beginning to win out in the left side of the image. I really like the feeling that transition invokes. Nicely done. Where is the dragon, though?

What a wonderful image! Every duck in the vicinity has taken note of the sign and its invitation, they have even consulted Merriam Webster to confirm the definition, and have formed a promenade far more pleasing than anything the sign proposes as they process through the thick spring flowers towards the promised canal. I love it.

Impactful photo of a fellow down on his luck sitting in an area that is down on its luck too. Mr. Morecambe, whoever he may be, does not seem to be there to welcome anyone, and the advertisements are so neglected they have fallen apart. The lone man looks disconsolate. Oh what we see from trains that we don't see in the places we walk and drive.

Terrific detail in the "big wheel" gear, which I suppose is really tiny in real life. The colors are captivating (metallic golds and blues make for great color contrast). Were it not for those interesting little sparkly grinding along the right border, I might be tempted to crop in from the right, but they are interesting enough to compensate for the light OOF area that kind of tugs at my eye. Maybe darken that corner a bit? If editing doesn't appeal to you, it isn't a big deal of course, just an idea from someone who is inept at the genre you are expert in!

A fine, top quality casual urban portrait, whose authenticity is not in doubt. Great tonality, sharpness, and expression. It does not bother me that the fountain is blooming out of his head since I know it's not, but for some reason the sidewalk line does bother me. I first thought it was some kind of stick he was holding, then a film anomaly, and now see that it is simply a line in the concrete. I am reconciling to it.

Like this one a lot. I'm a big fan of shadows as subjects and you've worked it in well with the geometric architectural features of lines and angles. A reminder that there are fine photographs hiding right in front of us every day.

I am trying to puzzle out what I am looking at, while also trying to appreciate the unexplained artistic abstraction.

If I had to guess, I'd say it was shoes: people walking on a glass-block floor, shot from below (where the poor children are trapped).

Lovely use of shadow and light, gentle pastel colors and form set into the blocked grid of the surface. An intriguing image.

I have so many questions. The giant alien form seems to share some concepts with aboriginal art but I'm no expert so not sure.
Is the man painting it or taking a picture of it? Or just interacting with it?
Is it painted or projected? Some of its design shows on his clothing and skin so I'm wondering if both?
Is that an angled shadow across the top or a creative crop?
Is this place at a rightward tilt or only the photo of it?
Is this a formal art installation that offers bedding for visitors? Or are they a homeless couple and this is where they live? The lady's puffy blue blanket is at odds with the shorts and short sleeves. And I'm baffled by her expression. Yawning? Singing? Screaming?

With so many mysteries this has to be a very good image. Thank you for itl.

A nice image of a beautiful creature. Powerful, we know, but gentle in his sleep. I like the softened, slightly glowing processing which fits the mood of the image. I want to touch his mane. Lovely.

What an interesting progression! The building is nice enough, but when you start taking it through reductions/abstractions you end up with art of an entirely different kind, and discover shapes/colors you didn't know were hiding inside. This is why some of us get hooked on using the various editing tools we find in our software.

You've grown a dreamsicle garden! And a man has come for a visit. This week's sub-theme, if there is one, is the lone male visitor in a city, lost in the crowd.

Holocaust memorial in Miami Beach, FL.

This was taken at a huge immersive art presentation built around Australian indigenous art.
fortemag.com.au/the-lumes-connection-is-a-breathtaking-and-immersive-first-nations-artist-led-exhibition-coming-in-june/
There are different shaped and sized panels and angles everywhere where images were projected. Some displays used mirrors and other devices. Some had actual works of art. It was perspective defying.
Australian indigenous art takes many forms with styles, symbols and materials varying between localities. Then we have modern indigenous art that draws on traditional elements and jumps into new directions. This presentation incorporated styles from different regions and periods, photographs of the landscape of the region from which that art came, historical and contemporary photographs of indigenous life. It is always fascinating to lsee landscape and then cut to images of the art from the region. Much indigenous art looks like it was created by someone who had an aerial view of that region, maybe 10000 years ago.
I don't know the piece being projected here but I'm sure it came from "top end" Australia and possibly from the Kimberly region.
The angle at the top is the edge of a screen and the black is looking up into the roof structure. Bean bag couches were scattered around or you could lie on the floor or you could dance or you could explore alcoves where different presentation techniques were used.
I'll post another next week.

Never forget. Never again.

Rich

Until the victims become the perpetrators...