Weekly Photo Contest 25 July to 31 July - Keep it Cool

[JDDavis]

Weekly Photo Contest - 25-31 July, 2015

Welcome to this weeks photo contest thread!

It's hot here. Triple digit type hot and I hate it. So, this weeks theme is going to be "Keep it Cool". Please interpret that as widely as possible. Cooling off on hot summer days...cool temperatures...cool people in cool climates...Cool Hand Luke...whatever. I should feel cooler for viewing your images.

Rules:

Be creative and have fun.

You may only submit one photo per contest.

Please do not comment on photos until after the judging has taken place.

The contest runs for exactly one week, starting NOW! (see time/date stamp at the start of this thread.)

At the end of the week, The Judge (last week's Winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible. (Judge has 24 hours to make decision.)

The 1st place Winner will start a new thread with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the Judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme, after that it defers to 2nd place).

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

One of my faves (& a rarity as it has people in it!) taken way back in the first week of January 2013, when we had been having some lovely sweltering heat for a few weeks already. It's a tradition to at least just stand in the water whilst having a drink with friends. Not sure what that says about us Aussies?!

 

[Joewilliamsca]

. Wish I was there now

 

[tomnavratil]

Lagoon in a cave.

 

[HantaYo]

Lake Irwin, Colorado

 

[AlexH]

water by Alex X, on Flickr

 

[stillcrazyman]

 

[Dekema2]

I took this over the weekend, no editing

Lower Falls by Buffaboy, on Flickr

 

[henrymls]

Maybe someone can help me. Running the new El Capitan and when i want to upload a picture it says plugin failure. Can I fix this or should I just live with it for now

 

[Hughmac]

Maybe someone can help me. Running the new El Capitan and when i want to upload a picture it says plugin failure. Can I fix this or should I just live with it for now

If you have a Flickr account you can upload direct from there.

Otherwise I would recommend an image hosting service such as http://postimage.org/ which can do it for you.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Hugh

 

[someoldguy]

Nothing cool here , 95F and a bunch of contractors in the house so the A/C isn't working well . Wish I was a snowman in a snow pile...

 

[Miltz]

 

[henrymls]

If you have a Flickr account you can upload direct from there.

Otherwise I would recommend an image hosting service such as http://postimage.org/ which can do it for you.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Hugh

Thanks

 

[JDDavis]

Keep em coming! One more day. Heat index is 103 today

 

[boch82]

 

[filmbufs]

Knee Deep and Still Sweet

 

[Apple fanboy]

Keep em coming! One more day. Heat index is 103 today

Maybe where you are!

_DSC1851 by apple fanboy1, on Flickr

 

[Hughmac]

Fancy a dip?



Pond In IR by Hugh Russell, on Flickr

Cheers

Hugh

 

[JDDavis]

Alright. Shuttin' her down. I'll be back soon with the Grand Prize Winner!

 

[JDDavis]

Alexander of Oz - I like the tones and the colors. The pilings in the water add a lot of interest as well. I think it’s nicely composed. If the folks had been walking with their backs to you or something other than snapping a pic I’d like it even more. Doesn’t give me an ice cold feeling but certainly feels much cooler than it probably was earlier in the day.

Joewilliamsca - The water looks nice. I’m guessing you took this with a telephoto lens because of the light fall off around the edges or did you add vignetting? Some more clouds in the sky would have been more interesting but you can’t control that. I’m afraid it gives me more of a hot day at the beach feeling.

tomnavratil - Nicely done. I like the cool blue tones. Now, is that mist coming off the water or is that reflections in the water? Kind of hard to tell. It does give me a feeling of finding a cool refuge from a hot climate.

HantaYo - Certainly looks damp and cool. I like the layers that are present here and the bit of ridge poking out in the distance adds some mystery. Nicely composed. It certainly gives me that spring time mountain coolness feeling.

AlexH - Interesting composure. The red button in the back ground kind of makes the pic. Makes me wonder what will happen if it’s pushed. I like the use of depth of field. I have a bit more of a I’m hot and I can’t get any relief feeling.

Stillcrazyman - The water looks refreshing. I like the angle on the water but something is a bit off with the composure. Kind of like it’s in between being a close in crop or a wide angle shot. Not sure if that makes any sense. In the end I have more of a feeling like I’m hot and I can’t quite get to the cool water.

Dekema2 - Looks like a fun weekend. Where is this? I like the composure but of course the sky is blown out and there’s some flaring. Not much could’ve prevented that in this shot with the darker canyon except maybe a gradiated ND filter or a polarizer. It’s usually cooler in the canyons so I get a bit of a cooling off feeling here.

someoldguy - Ouch, I feel you. The dirty snow and the poor little fellow in the foot print are represent your predicament well. I like the idea…I think I’d have really liked it as maybe a macro or tight shot down on the level of the little snow man. This gives me a cool feeling for now that’s just not going to last.

Miltz - Nice composure and sharpness all around. I like the black and white treatment but in this case I would’ve liked to have seen it in color. The fresh white snow and the blue sky probably would add to the coolness factor. It does leave me feeling cool and refreshed though.

boch82 - Great angle and quite daring. Was this with a GoPro or some kind of waterproof camera? I hope your equipment came out fine. I like that you went for something different with the composure. I do get the feeling of cooling off underneath this waterfall.

filmbufs - How much does she really like the cold? I’m guessing not too much. Good job getting some definition in the mostly white out conditions. Taking pictures in the snow can be a lot harder then one thinks. I’m certainly getting a cold vibe in this image though she looks pretty toasty under those layers.

Apple fanboy - I’ve spent a good bit of time north of London and it’s certainly nothing like the southeastern U.S. I’m thinking that your are still digging your D750 since it looks like you shot this at f/14 and ISO 100 on a cloudy day. That camera gives you so much extra latitude in low light. I like where you were going with blurring the water. If this is lit up at night I’d go give it a whirl then as well. England always makes me feel cool so this works as well.

Hughmac - Icy. I like the IR treatment (or perhaps you have a camera?) The tones certainly keep it cool. Is this water really frozen or is it an effect of the post processing? Maybe it’s algae? Either way it’s works well with theme. My critique would be with composure. If there was a way to isolate the tree I think it would be more powerful. Overall it does have a very good cooling effect.

Alright folks, thanks for all the entries. I was a bit surprised that we didn’t have more but it is holiday / vacation / urlaub season. Without further ado…



3rd Place - boch82

2nd Place - Alexander Of Oz

1st Place - Hughmac



I wanted to judge this one on the level of coolness feeling that I got from the images and Hughmac’s shot worked for me. It made me feel cool and I thought the treatment was cool as well. Great job everyone and on to the next one!

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Congratulations @Hughmac It's interesting that I had the same questions as @JDDavis about the frozen and other attributes to your image!

@boch82 I too hope that was a GoPro!

@JDDavis Thanks for the nod of the head and the effort to everyones feedback. It was indeed a dramatic drop in temperature and the kids (early teens) absolutely loved risking life and limb body surfing through the broken piers.

 

[filmbufs]

It was a little refreshing seeing some cool pictures this time of the year. I couldn't resist entering my pic, not because it's great but because it just cracks me up every time I see it. We had a blizzard in Oklahoma, naturally during the week my back decided to get tweaked. My wife rose to the occasion, bless her heart and, bundled up like an Ewok, jumped into the knee-deep snow and dug us out. Woohoo!

Congrats to the winners and nice judging, JDDavis.

 

[kenoh]

Congratulations guys!

Well done Hugh!

 

[Hughmac]

Oh wow, not again !!

Thanks for the critique and the win - I had a D70 converted recently and I'm still learning IR photography.
The surface of the pond is covered in green slime, and in IR organic material comes out white.
Post processing just brings out the colours that are there more strongly.

I do have another shot which isolates the tree more and I'll put it up on August's POTD later.

Well done everyone, a load of cool shots here

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Congrats to the worthy winners.

I must say that I really liked @Hughmac's excellent shot - great subject matter and lovely composition - and also thought that of @boch82 excellent.

Personally, I was also very taken with @AlexH's shot; this was an interesting shot, which demanded concentration and asked you to think about what was going on.

However, I was rather struck by the fact that everyone interpreted the brief, or theme, as one whereby a 'water' shot best represented this theme. 'Keep It Cool' seemed to call up images of water, and the physical need to stay cool at what is probably (elsewhere, but not in the British Isles, where it is actually quite cool enough!) the height of a sticky summer, with humid heat hammering down.

Nevertheless, I was intrigued that no-one offered, say, a metaphorical interpretation of this theme, something along the lines of a mature and accomplished jazz quartet in a cellar bar, in a hazy blue light, as an interpretation of the theme 'Keep It Cool'.

A little over a decade ago, I was privileged to see the legendary Brazilian trio, Azymuth, play live, in a pub. This was a group (they had helped pioneer Brazilian fusion funk jazz) who had made it very big in the 1960s, and the guys I saw were actually in their sixties as they played. But they were the epitome of cool…….