Critique Group Challenge from week 38

Critique Group Challenge: 

Week 38, Wabi Sabi 

Photo by Deb Endres 

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Deb says:

I looked all over for beauty in imperfection but couldnt find it on my walks. Thats because it was sitting on a fiddle leaf fig plant on my patio

52-Week Photo Challenge Class
Week 38 - Text Overlay

Week 52 Photo Challenge:

Week 38, Text Overlay

Photo by Mary Kay Fosnacht

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Mary says:

I took a trip out to the arboretum and found this beautiful Monarch butterfly. I tried text with a bold font which may have been more what Ricky was asking for, but I didn't think it went with the subject as well.

Smart Phone Photo Challenges
Week 38 - Made Me Laugh

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 38, Made Me Laugh

Photo by Chuck Honeycutt

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Chuck says:

Visiting downtown Ouray, Colorado and this female manniquin with very provacative placed glooves ... Made Me Laugh! ....... Post Processed in the Prisma phone app .... using the Daryl Feril filter.

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 38, Made Me Laugh

Photo by Ricky Tims

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Ricky says:

Well - this is Cordelia. The diva, the princess, and the comic relief in my somewhat otherwise intense life. This is a selfie, but she manage to pose like this for well over 2 minutes. It remindes me of ..."Hey mom, she's touching me!"

Critique Group Challenge:

Week 38, Wabi Sabi 

Photo by Ricky Tims
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky says:

Wabi sabi is a Japanese term that refers to beauty in the imperfections. Sometimes that might come from patina, cracks, age, etc. I have this old handmade Spanish galleon and it's truly falling apart. But I love it and enjoy the shape of it. There's a lot about this that is fading-going-rusting, cracking-chipping. The more you look - the more you see.

                         Critique Group Challenge from week 37

Critique Group Challenge: 

Week 37, Abandoned 

Photo by Brian Savon

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Brian says:

Children's toys abandoned to the elements - some covered in rust, others broken. They are being watched over by a fairy mural, which has also seen better days.

52-Week Photo Challenge Class
Week 37 - Do Over

Week 52 Photo Challenge:

Week 37, Do Over

Photo by Julie Robinson

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Julie says:

This is a buoy I passed while on a birding boat cruise. I liked the simple colors and the pattern of lines that I think complilement the buoy. I made general LR edits.

Smart Phone Photo Challenges
Week 37 - Hands

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 37, Hands

Photo by Gigi Kandler

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Gigi says:

This is the only one of my old clocks that has fancy hands. The others are quite plain by comparison. Taken with the Samsung, 1/13 sec at f/2.4, ISO 320.

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 37, Hands

Photo by Ricky Tims

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Ricky says:

My mom arrived today and at 92 she’s doing great. I love that she tries to keep up with technology. She uses her laptop and iPhone to stay connected. She recently got an Apple watch.

Critique Group Challenge:

Week 37, Abandoned

Photo by Ricky Tims
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky says:

Over the past 19 years I have enjoyed driving by this old church made of logs. They were once covered in adobe mud and most likely, the logs were not seen - but over time, the adobe mud eroded away. During the Spring Fire, the winds took the steeple down. Now, the structure is listing badly. The alter and the confessional are still inside - but I have no doubt that not many moons distant this iconic landmark will give way and fully tumble to the ground. This time I chose to shoot tight and allow the flow of the lines be the compositional element. The window helps to tell the story.

Challenge Photos from Week 36

52-Week Photo Challenge Week 36, Selective Color

Photo by Ada Levins

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Ada says : 

After trying a variety of subjects, I headed to the produce department and found this chard leaf. I left in both the red and magenta to fill in the veins better. I brought down the exposure and increased the texture. I love this lesson and look forward to using it again.

52-Week Photo Challenge Class
Week 36 - Wonderland 

Critique Group Challenge: 

Week 36, Wonderland 

Photo by Jo Ann Banks

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Jo Ann says:

I recently watched a tutorial with a "heads in the clouds" surreal composite and knew then I wanted to try this technique. My lovely model is my DIL Heather. How lucky am I to have two Heathers in my family? I took the photo of Heather in front of the siding on the house thinking it would be easy enough to extract her from the background. Then I placed her on the sky photo that I took from my front yard last night. I had to take out some distractions like trees and a house. In PS I added a cloud brush to the center. Then I extracted the hat and put it on its own layer and masked out Heather's face to reveal the clouds below. I moved the hat just over top. I used a bird brush that I made from a bird photo I took last year and duplicated and flipped the birds to make more of them.

Smart Phone Photo Challenges
Week 36 - Repetition

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 36, Repetition

Photo by Maureen O’Neill

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Construction site billboards.

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 36, Repetition

Photo by Ricky Tims

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Ricky says:

Since repetition creates harmony and visual rhythm, I decided to go literally with the musical theme and shoot this 120 year old pump organ keyboard Edited in Prisma app with Wild.

Critique Group Challenge:

Week 36, Wonderland 

Photo by Ricky Tims
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky says:

I love the little forest next to my house (affectionally named Mirkwood, a nod to The Hobbit), and I always think that it is filled with magic. I was fortunate to have Brian Lyon and Cory Annis here for the holiday weekend. We stewed on various ideas and I thought about creating a wizard. I dug into my fabric stash and found the yardage left over from making the Lizzy Albright cape. Don't be deceived, there is no back to the robe you see here, it's just draped over. My model is my neighbor, Steve, whose wife rolled with laughter when she saw the not-yet-edited version of her hubby. This image is a composite of four images and only one of them was taken at dusk (the trees and lights in the back), the others were taken in daylight. I added the photos of poppies from a couple weeks ago. The staff here is not really a staff, it's a dead oak that I painted red earlier this summer as a meditation stick in the forest. The main orb is all "created". The mid-sized lights are from my solar lights in the trees, and the tiny lights are also created. It was fun, and this red wizard is still currently nameless, but he might just show up as a chapter in the Lizzy Albright sequel - we shall see.