PPF UK, Putting Photography First. A Practising Photographers´ Forum.

My first time picking a POTW and the enormity of the task really hit me when I sat down to choose my favourite five. I've been making notes over the past week about shots that I like for possible inclusion in this and my not so shortlist of around a dozen images was extremely difficult to whittle down. 

Seaside palette by Alan Brown was a picture I kept coming back to look at.  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1267169092.html  The vibrant colours across the whole scene, with the green of the grass mixing well with the blue of the sky kept drawing me back as did the well composed look of this shot. This is certainly a shot I'd be happy to hang on my wall.

. . . . . . . . ., again by Alan Brown came a close second for POTW.  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1266999940.html  The look of the snow falling in front of the trees gives it an almost oil painting look to it and the simple composition is engaging. The building just visible in the background gives a sense of depth to the image. Another excellent shot from an excellent set, Berlin is a city I wish to visit again at some point and Alan's postings only make me wish I was there all the more. 

Change by Scott Robertson was something a little bit different that made me stop and think. http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1267182532.html  I'm a big fan of the iPhoneography and the low angle and candid feel to this image draw me into it. A great picture and all the more so considering it was taken on an iPhone, I can't hold one still at all! 

Shhh, Baby's sleeping by Mick Stones caught my eye this week even though I'm no animal lover. http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1267053957.html  The interesting texture of the sand in the forground, good depth of field really help me feel like I'm standing in the sand and the seal looking directly at the camera really captivates me. 

POTW - My Perch by Shane Worton http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1266914350.html

I really liked this image as the depth of field is perfect, the image is sharp and the colour on the birds wings really adds to the vibrancy. The open space around the bird focuses the picture on the bird. I admire anyone with the patience to wait for the perfect picture and this is certainly a great payoff and is my choice as Picture of the Week. 

I would like to say well done to everyone who posted in the past week, it has been really difficult to choose my pictures to be mentioned above. 

Craig Masson

Thanks Craig and we hope your journeys home for the rest of the week are trouble free.

Next week we have Longtallsally (Claire) selecting followed by Alan Brown on 15th March.

My Home Under Snow by Allen Price gets the top slot from me this week. http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1266198660.html Our snow falls in England are only a light dusting in comparison but how come the country comes to a standstill? Took me ages to get to work this morning. Well less of my rambling and more about this beautiful image. A superb mono with a wide range of lovely tones. Those shadows really take my eye right up to the house. The exposure has been handled extremely well which is never easy to get right with snow. The piles of snow at the side of the road help the framing of the shadows and what a gorgeous house. Well done Allen.

This weeks selector is David Stout. Here is what David had to say about this weeks postings.

Analogue Engine by Alan Brown  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1265702650.html is an excellent mono image with great tonal range, the views through the "portholes" adds much to the presentation.

Smoke Trails 3 by Stuart Reid  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1265904905.html is a nice crisp, sharp, and creative image, the "diagonal" of shape works really well in this square composition.

Watching Out by Shane Worton http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1265975977.html   knowing how elusive these birds are - this is a very commendable effort, colours / exposure are very well handled.

Butterfly by Chris Williams  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1266089946.html is a good composition in the square format, the "white rim" on the wings really add impact to this photograph.

Spares#2 by Dave Henderson  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1265801194.html is the best of the "Tanfield" set - in my opinion! Nice lead in compositionally with a good combination of monochrome and muted colours, this scene reminds me of the recent movie "Australia"

Old Mill by Twiz  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1265881034.html is another very good mono image, well seen - and the high standard of tonal range, technique, and presentation really comes through to provide my POTW.

"An excellent range of photographic styles - with monochrome becoming very popular again. This gave me quite a task, as it did the last time I selected POTW - well done to all PPFers who submitted."

                          David Stout, EFIAP, DPAGB.

Thank you to David for being this weeks selector, if you are new to PPF and haven't seen Davids work before then take a look at his website http://www.davidjstout.net/

This week we have Emma Duffield, a professional photographer from South Yorkshire, picking the shots that stood out. It's great to have a fresh pair of eyes give such a comprehensive review of the week's postings.

It is a great honour for me to be chosen to judge your Photograph of the Week, there’s some fantastic work on this site. It’s great to see some interesting ideas being explored, your passion for photography is evident and that’s what it’s all about folks.

Remember that photography is a subjective thing, and everybody will have different tastes and their own ideas about what makes a photograph a pleasing image.  The images I’ve chosen this week may be very different to everybody else’s “shortlists”. I’ve always been interested in photography, from being very small.  I find it very easy to get immersed in images, not just photographs, but art too, can provoke feelings in me of happiness, sadness, nostalgia, confusion or longing.  As a child, I’d know whether a photograph was a ‘good’ or not when I had these feelings of being immersed in the image. What I didn’t realise then is what made the image like that. 

Exploring photography has given me my own ideas about what exactly makes for a good photograph, but this is a dynamic process and there’s always something new to be learned. Often an image can be improved by zooming in to create a tightly cropped perspective, throwing the lens wide open to create shallow depth of field with a nice blurry background, or simply removing all the clutter from the background that the viewer won’t be interested in such as old crisp packets, Auntie Mabel’s handbag or yesterday’s newspaper. Landscapes pose their own challenges (some of which I haven’t properly got to grips with!) but often just shifting your position by even only a few inches will drastically change the point of view of the image, ensuring the viewer is drawn into the subject of the photo. The constant refining of techniques and the learning process that never ends is what keeps photography fresh and makes the whole thing so exciting.

Keep it up, and great work everyone!

Some shots this week worthy of note, in no particular order:

Tyre tracks in the Snow – Steve Smith http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264970490.html

Steve you’ve captured this beautifully, the way the tyre tracks lead in the eye is perfect, and it almost looks as if it is a moonlight scene. Converting to mono has helped emphasise the curve. Very pleasing shot.

Arthur Trumpet – Scott Robertson http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264974117.html

This caught my eye because I have a secret soft spot for road signs and London Transport branding (yes, strange I know) I love the boldness of the type used.  This has obviously captured your imagination Scott, I like the fact that the background is out of focus.  What would be great to see is a photoshopped in Pelican actually crossing the road to the right of the frame!

Two (more) Faces – Alan Brown http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264492033.html

This one made me stop and think – at first I noticed the restrictive use of colour makes the image more striking, drawing me in and inviting me to look a little while longer.  Then I saw that the faces on the wall look like they could be death masks, a particularly gruesome subject – is the girl shocked? appalled? fascinated perhaps. We don’t know because we can’t see her face.  She looks as though she may be in motion from one exhibit to the next – maybe she’s walking past the death masks quickly and they turn her head as she realises what they are.

I didn’t realise the girl was added on at first, it was only because you mentioned it Alan.  The photoshopping works in this case because the light is right, there is a diffuse light source above both the subjects.  The mask could possibly be improved round the top of the girl’s head, but, hey, I’m nitpicking a bit really, very good use of photoshop.

Avatar #1 – Emma Lamb http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264794824.html

Good character portrait here Emma, I like the use of colour, and the fact that the girl is looking into the lens while the man is looking off shot, it draws the viewer to the girl’s face. I like the high contrast also, but be careful with this Emma, as we are just losing the edge of the boy’s face into the background a little. You’ve lit this very well also, well done.

Baby it’s cold outside – Anita Nicholson http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264751818.html

Selective colour can often look corny, but in this case it’s worked wonders.  The mono works of the scene outside, but in colour it would look overexposed, where as now, we have a nice high key scene.  The red in the scene complements the red pattern of the window and draws us in.  Very good overall composition, with the circle to one side of the image gives it more impact. What would make this even better is to set a long exposure and get some blurred cars or pedestrians going past on the road outside for some foreground interest.

Bubble Planet – Geoff Marshall http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264587327.html

I love to see the detail that can be opened up to us by using macro lenses, this is a very good example of what can be achieved if you have the patience.  For those of you on this site who have never done any macro photography before, I urge you to try it, it will open up a whole new world to you and your photography – and you will also appreciate how difficult it can be to take images such as this one.  I noted the comment on the image about the bubble not being a perfect sphere, although this doesn’t bother me, you can always try using tools in photoshop such as distort, perspective and warp to transform it into a perfect circle.  I’d like to see some more bubble photos if you have any. Well done Geoff.

Luke’s Farm #3 – Karen Palmer http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264501709.html

Good composition here Karen. I would like to see this as a mono conversion as sometimes colour can be a distraction from the forms. I think you will be able to focus the viewer’s attention on the posts to a greater effect by eliminating the strong colours of the sky and the grass. The red channel would possibly work best for this.  Nice work.

Old Water Wheel – Longtallsally http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264872615.html

Excellent use of compositional techniques Sally - Fantastic light and nice warm colours, a very good photo.

Do not loiter – Mark Bradshaw http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264863034.html

What a fantastic atmosphere you’ve managed to capture here Mark, so simple but so effective. I like the colour effect you’ve applied here, it has worked in a similar way to a mono photograph in that we are more drawn to the forms in the image rather than being distracted by any colour elements. Very dreamlike.

The Decider – Alan Brown http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264926851.html

Wow, amazing – Looks as though its been set up but of course that’s impossible.  Very strong framing, shows fantastic confidence - such a difficult shot to take and still perfect in every way.

***

Lots of excellent photos this week, I would have liked to have commented on more and it was difficult to choose an overall winner.  However, I am a sucker for a good landscape, probably because I’m hopeless at them myself so this week’s winner I’ve decided is:

Waited – Dave Henderson http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264654206.html

Simply stunning light Dave, what more can I say – transports me there in an instant.  Spot on exposure and nice foreground interest too. A good example of why we all need to get up at 4am! Please can I come with you next time? :)

Emma

When invited to choose POTW I was delighted.  My initial delight, however, was swiftly followed by a sense of trepidation – what would I say and, given how new I am to photography, how on earth would I judge your pictures!  But then I figured that there are many ways to judge a picture and we all know that how each of us sees and responds to a picture can be a very personal thing.  But still, I needed a method to help me choose so I selected four questions to ask myself as I reviewed this week’s photographs.

 1.       Does the picture challenge the way I think about things?     The pictures that fitted the bill for this question for me were ‘It’s so funny’ by David D http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1263950863.html and ‘TexteR’ by Mark Bradshaw  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1263845511.html Both pictures are far more than just satisfying images – I enjoyed looking at them AND thinking about them.  While the images are very different the subject matter in both clearly makes a comment on one of the  dichotomies of modern mobile communication technologies - mobile phones provide a wonderful means to keep in touch but David and Mark’s pictures both suggest that there is a price to pay if we allow remote communications to get in the way of communicating in a meaningful and rewarding way (even through eye contact!) with those we are closest to.

2.       Is the picture inventive and does it spark my imagination?    This week I very much enjoyed hearing from Dave Henderson about his new photograph taking technique, which he first demonstrated to us in ‘New Heights’  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1263819795.html   I think many of us will be very interested to see how he puts his new toy to use over the months ahead.  Brilliant! 

3.       Does the picture provoke my emotions?    A number of this week’s pictures do, but two leap off the page for me.  The first is Aimee Holtom’s ‘Charge!’ http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264181957.html This picture is jam packed full of energy and life – I really like this mid-flight action shot, it’s just my cup of tea and looking at it really makes me smile.

An image that has had the complete opposite effect on me and which I really struggled with is ‘Just do it’  by David Joy  http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1263845728.html  In the thread comments someone noted how many people had viewed this image within days of it’s being posted – I actually couldn’t bring myself to look at it, but eventually did because I’m judging.  And I’m glad I did – for one thing I think it’s very well composed, thought out and labelled.  The lighting is really excellent too.  But mostly the reason I’m glad I looked is because it really made me think about the emotions it has provoked in me – the darker side of peer pressure and suicide are such taboo subjects.  I think this is a very brave image and I think that the subject demands respect and careful consideration.  Part of me would like to pick this as POTW, but, I’ll be honest, I’m not quite emotionally mature enough to do that yet.  Thank you David, though, for provoking me to think about how I feel about the issues you raise in your picture.

 4.       Does the picture transport me?     It’s been a pretty grotty January this year, and the last week especially has been grey and dreary and much as I’ve enjoyed everyone’s snow pictures, I don’t know about you but I long for warmer days.  So, you won’t be surprised to hear that I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing Karen Palmer’s ‘Luke’s Farm’ http://www.ppfuk.com/gallery_image_1264298599.html  ;- a very welcome addition to this week’s gallery.  And actually, this photograph is my POTW!  I keep coming back to look at it – it really does transport me.  There’s lots that pleases the eye in this for me – all the different layers of interest, the positioning of the farm building snuggled into and at one with the landscape, those fantastic blue mountains on the horizon – I could go on and on!  Karen, I love it – thank you for sharing this with us this week.

And thank you again for inviting me to judge, I’ve enjoyed looking at and thinking about everyone’s pictures very much indeed.   Very best wishes,  Anita