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April Challenge - Time to Pick


Stu

April Challenge - In the Air. Please vote.  

67 members have voted

  1. 1. Please vote for your choice.

    • B4TTY0 Cocky in mid flight
      10
    • C826HE Maple Seed
      7
    • C2PNW0 Top of the Rock
      4
    • BX1061 Rooftop Construction
      3
    • AFGGB2 Loop the Loop
      3
    • A2JH6G Waikiki Beach
      18
    • D4EYH0 Lenticular Clouds
      7
    • D6D0FG Polar Bear
      15


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Here it is folks, my shortlist. Thanks all for entering and needless to say it was not easy to pick out the eight I did. I suspect there will be less votes this time around due to some deciding to discontinue forum participation so please do vote. Runs until May 7th.

 

Stu.

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I don't recall ever seeing so many photographs in any sort of challenge that look like winners.

What a great vote to kick off Alamy's new forum.

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When I voted I didn't check out who was in the lead. Glad to see I voted for the most popular. Waikiki beach looks like toys placed on sand - like one of the new art approaches. 

 

Love to know how the maple seed (looks like sycamore seed to my British eye) shot was taken. 

 

Anyhow I agree, some great shots. 

 

I am impressed by the Alamy front page pictures too. Love to be able to produce just one of those and of course the pictures in this month's challenge. Though, I think I would wimp out of a Polar bear in the wild challenge. London zoo perhaps. Me with camera, bars, Polar bear. Though would have to ask keeper if the Polar bear was ready to jump. Keeper would know of course. Then Coffee and cake afterwards at Primrose Hill. Perfect. No freezing cold tent on some ice flow in the arctic and the possibility of being eaten alive. Now I'm thinking I should have voted for the Polar bear shot - not easy. 

 

 

Regards, 

 

Adrian. 

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When I voted I didn't check out who was in the lead. Glad to see I voted for the most popular. Waikiki beach looks like toys placed on sand - like one of the new art approaches. 

 

Love to know how the maple seed (looks like sycamore seed to my British eye) shot was taken. 

 

Anyhow I agree, some great shots. 

 

I am impressed by the Alamy front page pictures too. Love to be able to produce just one of those and of course the pictures in this month's challenge. Though, I think I would wimp out of a Polar bear in the wild challenge. London zoo perhaps. Me with camera, bars, Polar bear. Though would have to ask keeper if the Polar bear was ready to jump. Keeper would know of course. Then Coffee and cake afterwards at Primrose Hill. Perfect. No freezing cold tent on some ice flow in the arctic and the possibility of being eaten alive. Now I'm thinking I should have voted for the Polar bear shot - not easy. 

 

 

Regards, 

 

Adrian. 

Waikiki Beach got my vote too. The composition, colour, crispness and interest just made it stand out for me.

 

Acer Pseudoplatanus = Sycamore (in Britain) = European Maple = Sycamore Maple = Great Maple = Plane Tree (in Scotland).

I do have sycamore in the main keywords, but maple is more universally known.

 

It may be imprudent to divulge all the details at this stage, but the clue's in the caption "Maple Seed Static against spinning background".

The only other thing I'll say is that the motion blur is genuine, not photoshopped.

The aim was to create a Maple Seed's Eye View, rather than a view of a maple seed.

To be honest, I personally find the motion blur a little disorientating and uncomfortable to look at, but I suppose that's what it would feel like to ride a maple seed.

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Hi Mark, 

 

I was out earlier today moving turfs. Must try turf spinning under a static object. Sounds fun. 

 

Not sure how to emulate Sheila's bird. Taxidermist perhaps might be my limit. I once hung off a cliff face down at Seaford in Sussex to take pictures of Kittwakes. The place smelt of rotting fish. 

 

Regards, 

 

Adrian. 

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Hi Mark, 

 

I was out earlier today moving turfs. Must try turf spinning under a static object. Sounds fun. 

 

Not sure how to emulate Sheila's bird. Taxidermist perhaps might be my limit. I once hung off a cliff face down at Seaford in Sussex to take pictures of Kittwakes. The place smelt of rotting fish. 

 

Regards, 

 

Adrian. 

 

I sometimes wish that the cockies which visit our garden were stuffed!  They cause an enormous amount of damage to timber, plants and houses!  I snapped this one late afternoon as it was about to land and had to do a bit of cut and paste as I had cut off (not physcally!) the end of its wing.  

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Hi Sheila,

 

Amazed that this was not a studio shot with the black background and underlit wings. We get parakeets in Surrey England where I live. 

 

Anyhow, a great shot. 

 

Regards, 

 

Adrian. 

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Thought I would push this back to the top to maybe encourage a few more votes. It's very tight at the moment - only one vote between Waikiki and Polar Bear both of which are excellent. my favourite by a narrow margin is the polar bear - fantastic colour combo and perfectly timed.

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I voted for the Polar Bear, for its composition and timing, but I also liked the Cocky as it is a technically difficult shot to pull off!  Well done to Stu for picking such a great  group of images!

 

Slightly off topic, but I don't understand why people would choose to leave a forum that has been considerably improved?

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(I was puzzled why configuration of the 8 images kept changing. The 2nd would consistantly show under first, but the rest would, or wouldn't, be on own line or two abreast.

Today, seeing 4 images down & 2 across, I finally realized that, since there isn't a space between images, the width of my window determines how they show up.

 

..Did I just start using a computer last week?)

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Well that just about wraps it up for April. Well done to all the finalists. The images looked great as a group. And well done to Michael, this months winner. Its always nice to see a photo that gives a point of view you would not normally get. A deserved winner, and now the baton passes over.

 

Thanks to all who participated.

 

Stu.

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Well that was exciting!!! I love your photo, Michael, and congratulations. Now that it is over I can reveal my dirty little secret. I was not freezing in a tent on the ice but just a bit chilly on a ship built for polar research. Our wonderful Russian captain got us all the way into the ice near a denning area. We saw many beautiful bears. I had been afraid we wouldn't see any and when the first one was no longer "a dot" that I couldn't make out and was clearly coming to us I started crying (for joy, not fear). I am a city girl and our trips ashore (with armed guides) involved me falling down on an amazingly rocky island and sinking in a bog on soggy one. It took four people to pull me out. Of course, I had them save my camera first.

 

So now all I need is for Alamy to sell my flying bear to illustrate the precarious state of polar bears in global warming. I must add that they seem to be doing just fine at the top of the world in Svalbard.

 

Paulette

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Paulette, your polar bear shot is great and well deserving as a winner too!  I thought the whole field of Stu's picks were wonderful and wonderfully different in the photographer's approach to illustrate the contest phrase!  My Waikiki shot was taken from a high floor balcony of the Hilton Hotel on Waikiki Beach with a 200mm, so no ultra light airplane or any other flying device!  I believe I have had at least one sale of this image through Alamy.  

 

I will start a new thread with the new challenge word or phrase!

 

Michael Ventura 

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