Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Weekly Photo Contest | November 5 - November 12 | The Letter "L"

C0ncreteBl0nde

C0ncreteBl0nde

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 25, 2023
1,593
16,350
Rural America
If there's one thing I hate to be it's PREDICTABLE, but I've had so much fun with these letter themes and they really open up the contest to a lot of varied photographs. I searched the Internet for theme ideas and then went over our master list and most of what I'd found had already been used, so I'm going with the letter theme again.

This weeks theme: The Letter "L"
Your subject can be something that begins with L or it can be a mood or emotion that begins with L such as "Love", "Loneliness", "Laughing", etc.

As always, standard rules apply:
  • The photographs must be your own work. No AI generated images.
  • You may only submit one photo per contest.
  • No commenting or liking photos until after the judging has taken place.
  • This contest runs for about a week, starting now.
  • At the end of the competition, the judge (last week’s winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible.
  • The 1st place winner will start a new thread here 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.)
  • Be sure to update the Contest Master List as soon as you post a new theme.
  • Contest will end November 12, 2025 at 12:00 pm PST
  • Have fun!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect
IMG_6618.jpeg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Janichsan
One more day to get your entries in! There are some wonderful photographs here...I know more of you have other great pictures to add to these! :D
 
Okay, I took notes earlier and I'm glad I did.

Before I continue with the judging, I want to say that all your entries are wonderful but I think if I have the honor of leading the contest again, I will give my theme more thought. TBH, I expected more diverse subject matter as we've had in the past with the letter themes and perhaps that is my fault. At any rate you all delivered and I appreciate every entry. You should all be proud of where you are in your talent.

Okay, here we go:

  1. @goldmac2006 : Is this LOVE in a Luxury Lounge? ;) It reminds me of a lounge of a luxury hotel I stayed at in the midwest years ago. I’m not sure what I’m looking at besides the LOVE, but you have framed it very well. The back light in the rear top is somewhat distracting but it’s not as if you could do anything with it. I think you chose an excellent photo for this week’s theme.
  2. @oblomow : I have noticed over the years here that you seem to have a theme going with these hiking photos with someone in the shot. You must do a lot of hiking! I like the Landscape in this photo; it’s interesting to me to see country that reminds me of where I live in other countries. One issue I have with this entry is that if you hadn’t titled it and I just saw the photo alone, I wouldn’t know how it fit in the L theme.
  3. @Jonk1183 : A Lighthouse. Very well-composed photograph. I’ve been trying to figure out what is covering the mound of land the lighthouse is sitting on. They almost look like stones, but are too symmetrical. Nice shot.
  4. @dwrufus53 : Another nice shot, but again, one that without the title, I wouldn’t know it’s an “L” photograph. I see a fence, birds (which I assume are Seagulls) and boats. I like the way you’ve composed all the elements, unfortunately, none of them start with “L”.
  5. @kendallm : London. Definitely begins with L and I don’t know where you’re POV is from, but I think I would definitely know this was London even without your title from all you were able to encompass with this POV. I’ve never been to London, but I’ve seen many photos of it and I like that this was captured on a gray-ish day since that is how I envision the city. Great work, nice entry.
  6. @cjsuk : An unmistakable Landscape photo and something different as it’s done in black & white. I like the way a lot of you have added titles to tie the theme in even more than the photo itself when the theme is already obviously an "L" photo. I like the contrast in this shot and the great clouds (something I’m always looking out for) in this really interesting mountainous view.
  7. @Janichsan : Even though you added a title, this photo didn’t need one to fit into this week’s theme. You could have even gone farther and said “a Lizard on a Limb”! Love the photo, love how it fits the theme, great photography.
  8. @StrollerEd : This photo also needs no introduction: a Ladybug on a Leaf. Love it! Nice macro shot, though I wish it were just a Little sharper (the ladybug). I live in an apartment without a garden like I had in my younger years, so I don’t see ladybugs much anymore. Nice choice for an entry. The light is interesting as well. Did you light it yourself, or is it natural (mid-day) sunlight?
  9. @OldMacs4Me : Without the title, I would've guessed Landscape for “L” but I’m really interested in how you blended two images to get this. It’s REALLY well done and I like the image a lot. I hope you will tell me more about how you came to create this artwork.
  10. @iPhone-Guy : Beautiful Light. The Light definitely fits the theme and I really like how you’ve framed it with the trees and leaves. Are those palm trees in the lower lefthand corner? We don’t have palm trees here, so when I went to southern California in college, I was fascinated with the palm trees. I’m always reminded of something spiritual when I see light breaking through the clouds like this. Very nice.
  11. @BrightQuest22 : Welcome to the Weekly Contest! This is a really nice Landscape photo that does remind me of the area where I live. Were you on a bridge to get this POV? The colors are very apropos for the season and I like all the elements you were able to include with this shot. Nice L entry.
Again, thank you all for your entries and thank you @arkitect for trusting me with your win.

Third Place: @iPhone-Guy

Second Place: @kendallm

First Place: @Janichsan

Great work, all of you. I turn this over to you, @Janichsan !
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: cjsuk, iPhone-Guy, Janichsan and 5 others
C0ncreteBl0nde said:
  1. @OldMacs4Me : Without the title, I would've guessed Landscape for “L” but I’m really interested in how you blended two images to get this. It’s REALLY well done and I like the image a lot. I hope you will tell me more about how you came to create this artwork.
Click to expand...
The technique started in Camera. I had bracketing set to record 5 frames with ebvs of -1.66, -1, -.33, +.33, & +1. There were no 'correct' exposures. Either the falls were washed out or details in the shadows were going almost black.

Most of the image looked close to perfect with one of the over exposures, but the falls were completely washed out. I did my normal post image tinkering in PS Elements completely ignoring the falls themselves concentrating entirely on the rest of the image.

Then I took one of the underexposures and concentrated on just the whitewater. I copied the modified overexposure and pasted it in its own layer over the whitewater image. Reduced the opacity of the top main layer and nudged it slightly until the two layers were perfectly aligned. Then returned the top layer to 100% opacity. From here it was just a question of selecting the blown highlights, feathering the edges and deleting the blown highlights from the top layer allowing the correctly exposed falls to peak through. This step probably took two or three tries to get right, but that's the beauty of the undo command. All this takes longer to describe than it does to do.

I might have been able to get there by shooting RAW, but I have 20 years experience working with JPEG images, whereas my experience with RAW is very limited and I usually avoid it, finding RAW to be more time consuming and requiring a lot more storage space when I'm working with the 99+% of my images that do not need that additional power.

NOTE; I was using a fence rail to steady the camera. Otherwise I would probably have had to apply a bit of swing to the top layer. A tripod would probably had the images perfectly aligned but wherever possible I try to avoid tripods.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
  • Wow
Reactions: goldmac2006, polyphenol, arkitect and 3 others
C0ncreteBl0nde said:
@kendallm : London. Definitely begins with L and I don’t know where you’re POV is from, but I think I would definitely know this was London even without your title from all you were able to encompass with this POV. I’ve never been to London, but I’ve seen many photos of it and I like that this was captured on a gray-ish day since that is how I envision the city. Great work, nice entry.
Click to expand...

Thank you! This was taken from the London Eye. Its not as in focus as I would like since it was taken through glass, but I think it works!
 
  • Like
Reactions: goldmac2006, Janichsan, C0ncreteBl0nde and 2 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back