For Sun 9 June

[Ganna]

We visited people living less than a mile from the highest point in Southern Africa, nearly 11000 feet above mean sea level, called the roof of Africa. Very cold and sort of moon landscape with absolutely no trees and interesting plants growing at that height in the "thin" air.

[Ganna]

From the top of Sani pass, looking from Lesotho back into KZN province (South Africa). Pano from 3 images and worked on to lessen the harsh shadow with Dan Margulis' heavy hammer treatment and of course our friend CM to finish it off
I'dd also played with ON1 Photo Raw, but I would need more time with it, as I battle a bit to get the colours as I want it. Also struggle to get sharpening the way I like it

[Ganna]

I need help with this one. Must do a judgement for the club and I do not know what to think of this one. Is under creative/abstract

[Tildy]

What are the club's criteria for judging?

[Ganna]

Tildy, I hope this put some light on it for you

[Tildy]

Martin, your photos are amazing as always. I would suggest only one thing: on the last one you posted, the shot of the pass, the white frame is really distracting -- partly because one side of the photo is light and one is dark, so the white frame looks larger on the dark side and disappears on the light side.

It looks like the light in some of these is very harsh, and almost (but not quite) too bright -- or probably it's just that my eyes have adjusted to the weak sunshine we get in the UK Sometimes the only sunshine I see is in your photos!

[Tildy]

Regarding the purple image, I read the guidelines and it doesn't actually say much about how to judge in the creative/abstract category, except for one clue: the image is viewed as 'an exercise in composition'. So, as a judge, I'd want to put aside my own taste (I kind of hate the colour ) and look at the image just in terms of whether it's well-composed. Personally I think it's a winner in that regard - it's composed to be very striking, and it is - and the colour is a big part of why. And I like how it has a lot of motion in it. I wish the heavier shapes were a little less strongly defined, but they don't get in the way of the overall fluidity.

What do others think??

[Ganna]

Thanks a lot for your reply Tildy. The white frame happened when I posted it here. When I do put a frame around its normally about 2 pixels.The reason we do it, is when you project it in the club on a screen, darker areas often blend in with surrounding area and its difficult to see where the image ends; just to define the image, normally not a problem when on computer screen.
The general thought of the pinkers was to crop, as the central part is the stronger part

[Tildy]

What is a pinker?

[Ganna]

Referring to the pink bubbly thing