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Weekly Photo Contest (May 18-25 2011) Topic - Urban
- Thread starter Nuks
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Love to see another Calgarian on here! I would love to get some shots from the East instead of the West - get a better view of the beautiful Bow tower!
I took that one from crescent heights and it's a great view of it from there. Another angle is looking down the center street hill. Find a friend and have him drive while you hang out the sunroof and snap photos top to bottom of the tower
East is a harder picture to get cause any nearby vantage point is lower and in the river valley, but if you find one let me know! Such a stunning downtown skyline we have.
I took that one from crescent heights and it's a great view of it from there. Another angle is looking down the center street hill. Find a friend and have him drive while you hang out the sunroof and snap photos top to bottom of the tower
East is a harder picture to get cause any nearby vantage point is lower and in the river valley, but if you find one let me know! Such a stunning downtown skyline we have.
Hey guys, no offence, but we try and keep this thread comment free until after the judging so that it is unbiased and there is a single stream of photos as stated in rule 2:
Feel free to comment after judging though!
This took way longer than I anticipated! Anyway, great job to everyone who entered, there were some fantastic shots in here!
Keleko - Great juxtaposition of architectural styles. exposure is spot on too. Love the way the angle of the shot almost flattens the perspective and makes it look like the buildings are collaged on top of each other. I would consider opening up a bit to maybe get in the street, or at least not have everything "crammed" in so much. However, it's one of those things that I'm not sure if it would look any better until I saw the actual picture… I could be wrong!
Educ8r - The sun peeking through the towers lights the building in a nice way. These contrasts between skyline and grass are always great. One suggestion would be to either wait for some people to walk by on the trail, or move to another location nearby to get something more happening in the foreground
dbales - Really great shot. Tones and exposure are great, so are the leading lines and foreground. One suggestion would be to to try and get something (most likely a car driving away from you) at the end of the bridge so that your successful leading line leads somewhere interesting. other than that, well done
xMClass - the fog creeping in from above is very nice. The structural system of the bridge is perfectly lit. I would maybe cool down the white balance a bit. I know the fog probably played a role in this, but maybe another angle with stronger light on the horizon would balance this photo a bit better. The eye is naturally drawn along the bridge to what's on the horizon, and if it was a more visible cityscape, it would be perfect. Loving that fog though!
macrumormonger - Great fore / mid / background transition… it's a timeline of architecture styles. The texture of the stone is really nice as well. I would maybe pull back a bit so that one can see that the foreground is a building (I only knew it from your description). It would also help to frame the background better I think. That being said, this is a wonderful photo.
gasworks - beautiful portrait! colours, setting, and expressions are perfect. Only thing I would recommend would be to raise the camera slightly. Their heads need a little more room to breathe, plus you would then get the handrails to really pull the eye. Nice one
jodelli - nice contrast in the scene. I love it when stadiums are right in the middle of the city.. especially open air stadiums. Makes for a wonderful backdrop. I would pull back a little and allow for more field.. maybe shoot again during the middle of the game
dbales - nice abstract composition and colours. an interesting way of seeing and interpreting how you experience the city. you've turned it into a canvas
cupcakes2000 - the tonal fade from right to left is great. well done keeping her in the light. setting is good too. Shooting in the middle of the day can produce harsh shadows, but you've made it work here.
JDDavis- shitttttt son. really great. composition, tones, sky, everything's perfect. no faults here. sky is amazing actually
Indydenny - lighting is perfect and dreamy. would love to see this with no tour bus (and crane too i guess) in the frame. then i could imagine this being from hundreds of years ago. This is was the ideal time of day for the photo i think. Good work
Love - Haven't seen many skylines of Calgary (i think? looks like the Encana building in the background). nice front to back contrast. Use photoshop or aperture to straighten those buildings up.. and maybe reshoot on a day with not so much direct light and more interesting clouds. Keep posting photos though… I imagine the skyline will produce some very dramatic photos for you
dbales - busted! one photo per contest… took me a while to recognize your name kept popping up… i won't comment on this one (but it's great) I'm also only going to allow one to be judged.. this one I think.. it's the best for me
HalfOnWhole - crazy perspective.. really original (to me at least). post processing is a bit too much and i wish your hand was in focus, but this is awesome. I would reprocess and tone it down a bit. The colours are distracting from what is a great photo.
Waybo - screams new york to me (construction, skyscrapers and people). You've capture a lot in this, well done
todd200 - nice night shot (there weren't enough in this competition) I wish the foreground was a little brighter (and sharper) but nice shot nonetheless
acearchie - sky is amazing. Too good. I would cool the temperature down a bit and get the left side of the building correctly exposed (maybe reshoot the same angle with a shorter exposure and shop it in after the fact.) Incredible sky though.. colour, movement, mood… perfect
stradale33 - great street scene. This really allows the eye to travel around the picture and I can easily imagine myself walking around here.. This is the kind of shot I've always wanted to be to take and haven't gotten yet… a busy street scene that doesn't feel cluttered or messy. Well done with a difficult shot
Chappers - You're right.. nice contrast. It's amazing how ugly bad signage can make a place… so this is successful in doing what you wanted it to do. On another note I think if you cropped it up above the shops (maybe even above the building on the left) it would be a great photo as well. There are some beautiful colours happening up there.
johnnj - nice shot.. great action scene and sense of movement. I would try and get somebody (maybe partially cut off) in the front of the scene to activate the photo from front to back.. maybe open up a bit to allow more of the arch in. This is still successful though.
someoldguy - beautiful architecture.. would love to live here! you've captured a very peaceful scene. I would reshoot earlier / later in the day when the light isn't as harsh, and maybe move out on the street more to allow for less tree and more of those beautiful houses.
El Cabong - signage is a huge (and often disorienting) part of the urban environment. You've captured a nice abstract scene here.. well done. Wish it was sharp and that the second set of signs wasn't cut off, but this is still good. nice find!
tmagman - this is the shot i wanted from Calgary! perfect contrast… nice pano.. great tones. A clean shot.. well done.. (maybe open up a little to allow more sky in.. buildings feel a tiny bit cramped at their peaks)
Wyro - this is awesome. What is it shot with? Great mood, composition, sense of energy.. everything is perfect for me. The guy in the suit is perfectly lit and even though there's so much else happening, the eye is drawn right away to him. great shot
deep diver - love the distortion of the skyline. any way to newly see the same city is great to me. well done
One really effective thing that I don't do nearly enough is to shoot an urban scene in black and white. As there's often so many different colours in an urban environment screaming for attention, B+W is a great way to simplify a scene down to its composition, subject matter, and mood. My pick for top 3 mayyyyy reflect that, but I don't know yet!
Here are my choices:
Honorable mention to gasworks for a great portrait
3rd Place: dbales (Downtown Albuquerque)
2nd Place: JDDavis
1st Place: Wyro
I never really shoot black and white but these ones jumped out the most to me… well done to everyone! There was some great work here. I am definitely not a professional photographer, and haven't had any training, but hopefully I made at least a couple useful points!
Congrats to Wyro.. your turn to pick!
-A.
Keleko - Great juxtaposition of architectural styles. exposure is spot on too. Love the way the angle of the shot almost flattens the perspective and makes it look like the buildings are collaged on top of each other. I would consider opening up a bit to maybe get in the street, or at least not have everything "crammed" in so much. However, it's one of those things that I'm not sure if it would look any better until I saw the actual picture… I could be wrong!
Educ8r - The sun peeking through the towers lights the building in a nice way. These contrasts between skyline and grass are always great. One suggestion would be to either wait for some people to walk by on the trail, or move to another location nearby to get something more happening in the foreground
dbales - Really great shot. Tones and exposure are great, so are the leading lines and foreground. One suggestion would be to to try and get something (most likely a car driving away from you) at the end of the bridge so that your successful leading line leads somewhere interesting. other than that, well done
xMClass - the fog creeping in from above is very nice. The structural system of the bridge is perfectly lit. I would maybe cool down the white balance a bit. I know the fog probably played a role in this, but maybe another angle with stronger light on the horizon would balance this photo a bit better. The eye is naturally drawn along the bridge to what's on the horizon, and if it was a more visible cityscape, it would be perfect. Loving that fog though!
macrumormonger - Great fore / mid / background transition… it's a timeline of architecture styles. The texture of the stone is really nice as well. I would maybe pull back a bit so that one can see that the foreground is a building (I only knew it from your description). It would also help to frame the background better I think. That being said, this is a wonderful photo.
gasworks - beautiful portrait! colours, setting, and expressions are perfect. Only thing I would recommend would be to raise the camera slightly. Their heads need a little more room to breathe, plus you would then get the handrails to really pull the eye. Nice one
jodelli - nice contrast in the scene. I love it when stadiums are right in the middle of the city.. especially open air stadiums. Makes for a wonderful backdrop. I would pull back a little and allow for more field.. maybe shoot again during the middle of the game
dbales - nice abstract composition and colours. an interesting way of seeing and interpreting how you experience the city. you've turned it into a canvas
cupcakes2000 - the tonal fade from right to left is great. well done keeping her in the light. setting is good too. Shooting in the middle of the day can produce harsh shadows, but you've made it work here.
JDDavis- shitttttt son. really great. composition, tones, sky, everything's perfect. no faults here. sky is amazing actually
Indydenny - lighting is perfect and dreamy. would love to see this with no tour bus (and crane too i guess) in the frame. then i could imagine this being from hundreds of years ago. This is was the ideal time of day for the photo i think. Good work
Love - Haven't seen many skylines of Calgary (i think? looks like the Encana building in the background). nice front to back contrast. Use photoshop or aperture to straighten those buildings up.. and maybe reshoot on a day with not so much direct light and more interesting clouds. Keep posting photos though… I imagine the skyline will produce some very dramatic photos for you
dbales - busted! one photo per contest… took me a while to recognize your name kept popping up… i won't comment on this one (but it's great) I'm also only going to allow one to be judged.. this one I think.. it's the best for me
HalfOnWhole - crazy perspective.. really original (to me at least). post processing is a bit too much and i wish your hand was in focus, but this is awesome. I would reprocess and tone it down a bit. The colours are distracting from what is a great photo.
Waybo - screams new york to me (construction, skyscrapers and people). You've capture a lot in this, well done
todd200 - nice night shot (there weren't enough in this competition) I wish the foreground was a little brighter (and sharper) but nice shot nonetheless
acearchie - sky is amazing. Too good. I would cool the temperature down a bit and get the left side of the building correctly exposed (maybe reshoot the same angle with a shorter exposure and shop it in after the fact.) Incredible sky though.. colour, movement, mood… perfect
stradale33 - great street scene. This really allows the eye to travel around the picture and I can easily imagine myself walking around here.. This is the kind of shot I've always wanted to be to take and haven't gotten yet… a busy street scene that doesn't feel cluttered or messy. Well done with a difficult shot
Chappers - You're right.. nice contrast. It's amazing how ugly bad signage can make a place… so this is successful in doing what you wanted it to do. On another note I think if you cropped it up above the shops (maybe even above the building on the left) it would be a great photo as well. There are some beautiful colours happening up there.
johnnj - nice shot.. great action scene and sense of movement. I would try and get somebody (maybe partially cut off) in the front of the scene to activate the photo from front to back.. maybe open up a bit to allow more of the arch in. This is still successful though.
someoldguy - beautiful architecture.. would love to live here! you've captured a very peaceful scene. I would reshoot earlier / later in the day when the light isn't as harsh, and maybe move out on the street more to allow for less tree and more of those beautiful houses.
El Cabong - signage is a huge (and often disorienting) part of the urban environment. You've captured a nice abstract scene here.. well done. Wish it was sharp and that the second set of signs wasn't cut off, but this is still good. nice find!
tmagman - this is the shot i wanted from Calgary! perfect contrast… nice pano.. great tones. A clean shot.. well done.. (maybe open up a little to allow more sky in.. buildings feel a tiny bit cramped at their peaks)
Wyro - this is awesome. What is it shot with? Great mood, composition, sense of energy.. everything is perfect for me. The guy in the suit is perfectly lit and even though there's so much else happening, the eye is drawn right away to him. great shot
deep diver - love the distortion of the skyline. any way to newly see the same city is great to me. well done
One really effective thing that I don't do nearly enough is to shoot an urban scene in black and white. As there's often so many different colours in an urban environment screaming for attention, B+W is a great way to simplify a scene down to its composition, subject matter, and mood. My pick for top 3 mayyyyy reflect that, but I don't know yet!
Here are my choices:
Honorable mention to gasworks for a great portrait
3rd Place: dbales (Downtown Albuquerque)
2nd Place: JDDavis
1st Place: Wyro
I never really shoot black and white but these ones jumped out the most to me… well done to everyone! There was some great work here. I am definitely not a professional photographer, and haven't had any training, but hopefully I made at least a couple useful points!
Congrats to Wyro.. your turn to pick!
-A.
Thanks Nuks,
I took that photo at Washington DC's China Town on a Holga using Kodak TMAX 400 BW. The Holga is awesome to mess around with for street photography. It's cheap, lightweight, and the results are always a surprise. I recommend it for anyone.
I took that photo at Washington DC's China Town on a Holga using Kodak TMAX 400 BW. The Holga is awesome to mess around with for street photography. It's cheap, lightweight, and the results are always a surprise. I recommend it for anyone.
Congrats Wyro, I wish I had taken more pictures in Chinatown in D.C. when I was there last summer. Can't believe you got that on a little Holga!
Awesome judging Nuks. Again, MR photo forum always wins for having guys like you with fantastic constructive criticism. Definitely some amazing pictures for you to pick from.
Awesome judging Nuks. Again, MR photo forum always wins for having guys like you with fantastic constructive criticism. Definitely some amazing pictures for you to pick from.
I never knew our city had so many fine photographers, I absolutely loved your photo!
I recognize that stairwell now! Epic. Great color you were able to get in that picture.
Calgary indeed does have some great photographers. Safe to say we've all passed through The Camera Store at some point or another? haha
I absolutely love this picture. The expressions on their faces are just perfect. Not too overly happy, and not too sad. Just perfect. I would set this as my computer background, except they aren't my kids (if they were my kids, that would be a problem. I'm only 15) and it would be a little odd.