* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #883 / Revived #103 on 2025 03 19*

Fabulous captures. First one has great shapes and colors.
Thanks for sharing,
barondla

This is one of those images that just screams "this has meaning!!!" It's my fault I've not quite got it. Nice one!

Lonely, but also looks cosy. Can't help but notice it reminds me of a headboard poking out from a duvet.

In addition, I like the colour of the amphora and plants emphasising the foreground, which fades to grey and white in the rest of the scene and all without PP intervention, as far as I can tell.
The elevated angle shows how the trulli are scattered liberally throughout the town, making a point that a "portrait" of a single trulli never could.

That's exactly what I thought! Bizarrely, it looks warm and comfortable, despite knowing it is the opposite.

I like the warm light around the more ornate, older buildings, whilst the newer ones are in cool, business-grey shadows. It draws the eye to the centre of interest, literally.
Yes, I really enjoy revisiting old discards and letting the upgraded software work its magic. Luckily I kept (keep) some technically imperfect photos out of sentimentality, and to remind myself what could have been and to do better next time, so that gives me a good source of candidates. It would be interesting to see the original and be able to compare the two.

I really enjoy this one! It reminds me a lot of Austrian fotographer Stefan Draschan, who is known for waiting in museum to find people who match the artwork they stand infront of. Yours would fit right in with his amazing catalogue.
I love pictures like this. I feel like they perfectly incapsulate how art both reflects and affects life. I wonder if this little boy knew, that for a few moments he was an art piece, if he felt the connection to the painting, that we see.
I also have to applaud your composition here. The way the striking red paint feels like a natural extension of its little viewer is quite miraculous!

I totally agree! So thanks to Fireplace33 for saving me work and to streamdream for such a good collection of abstracts.

Minnie makes a very interesting point here, that the imperfections in the geometry cause our over zealous quest for perfection to keep our interest and return again to this photo! Even without that, it is an excellent example of a relatively simple, but very engaging subject. The texture of the snow. The way the density of the snow fades towards the top and the left. The bright blue sky in an otherwise pale and limited palette. The sharp lines of the window against the snow, which follows the basic shape, but in its own chaotic way. The bright patch of light and the shadow on the cream wall, which forms a sort of visual funnel towaeds the main subject.
Great image.

I like this foggy collection.
The first is beautifully minimalistic, and even if you have raised the contrast, it is subtle enough not to destroy the ethereal feel. It is very easy to verdo it and totally destroy the foggy feeling. I think the footprints in the foreground distract, so I would suggest cloning them, cropping them or lowering the contrast.
I have already commented on the second elsewhere.
The third makes me think of Robert Scott arriving at the South Pole! It has an old world adventurous feel to it.
The fourth is not as good as the other three in my opinion. I am not sure why. I think it is because there is no clear subject, with too many contrasty half-covered trees in the foreground spread evenly across the frame, which also dominate the larger trees in the fog.

Yes, and it could even be a boy looking at his reflection in a very artistic mirror.

This was a very worthwhile find!
There are lots of things I like
- there are plenty of things to look at and keep interest, but the composition is clean and not overcrowded
- the yellow arrow pointing to the main subjects, with repetition of yellow in the shirt of the main character
- the natural frames of the windows around the walkers and the musician, and the wrought ironwork decorating the top edge of the image
- the little man with the green hat, Mr. Fire Hydrant
- the cool cat peeping out of the front of his wheelchair limousine
- the very appropriate captions of "Sale" above the street musician and "Keep calm and drink champagne" above the cool cat

There's an interesting conflict here. Very neat and orderly collection of rectangular shapes, all nicely balanced. And then the colours. A light, but powerful, blue, a dark wine red, and a poisonous green folding chair, which looks as though it was made with the radioactive stuff Homer Simpson neglects in the opening credits. As you imply, if the inside has a similar colour scheme, it could be a place to wear sun-glasses and keep your eyes closed. It reminds me of a Bead & Breakfast I stayed in, where the carpet, the bedspread, the armchairs and the wallpaper all had bright floral patterns, but all of them different.....

It would have been nice if the furthest passer by had been a fraction more to the left. Them's the breaks with street shooting. The iron work framing of the background gives plenty of local colour. The grate and hydrant give a touch more presence to the performer.
It's the kind of feeling I'd hope to find in New Orleans.

Several thoughts race through my mind.

I take your word that this is New Orleans. I could have placed good money on a bet of this being in Havana, Cuba (but the street curb would probably have been a bit more messy and broken).

The passersby's gazes direct us to the musician, and the hydrant forms an effective exclamation mark to that sentence.

Focusing on people and their interaction, the cat (who could not care less about the music) becomes a later discovery, and it is a bit of an hilarious one.
I've seen people transporting small lap dogs in bicycle baskets and even in this kind of stroller, and while I already think that such an idea is preposterous, it gets even more laughable with a cat.

Shot two steals the show. A photo that shows how prior knowledge influences how we respond to an image. That has to be the loneliest lonely bench I've ever seen. It has all the poignancy of the LB genre. The clarity of the wooden panels assists in realizing what we are looking at and counterpoints the mistiness of the rest of the scene. Although we barely see any bench, we connect the dots. This bench has become a signpost as well- pointing even deeper into the snow and heavily misted woods.

Squeeze your eyes up a little while looking at this and - hey presto- a Piet Mondrian painting.
It satisfies in the same way. An abstract of blocks of colour.

And my thanks to Fireplace 33 and Pete for making the points.
I think tomorrow a new weekly thread will be starting up for Abstract and Experimental shots. This week we have several here that would be right at home in the new thread. Posting the same shots in two different threads is fine.