Be Excellent To Each Other

Well, OK, but I'll remove it if you find it offensive. It's a thought cloud rather than a speech bubble.



It's gone ... but I don't seem to be able to delete this post.

Ouch. Um, yeah - bit strong, remove please!

(If only for the endearing mystery that will build in the Beex community as everyone wonders, 'wow, what did Warhead say?')

Actually, that's enough speechbubble pics. My mind hath changed. You're tampering with high art people. WITH HIGH ART!

It's not terribly offensive, and a chuckle was had - but I fear it lodging in my mind whenever I see the original!

It's as though it never was......

'Postcards from Fleetwood' I took over the weekend.

Car on a pole is excellent

The seaguls one is particularily nifty. Maybe try a 5x7 crop so just the three top gulls are in there, as they're rather awesomely placed. The slapdash posing by the other, lower, gulls leaves more to be desired - I hope you had strong words with them after the photoshoot.

That train tracks one I like too, I like those type of shots! Red beam and green lamp is interesting, good eye for a colour composition there, and yes, that car shot was begging to be taken. I like how you've balanced it out with the mangled cars and the metal arm too. Good stuff Zardoz!

Goodness, that could be the US rustbelt! Very nice pics.

What do you guys think about portraits where the main subject is out of focus in favour of something else? This was done in error, but I really like it.


MinPaz Saturday by MrDavPaz, on Flickr

It works well. Probably because the bird toy is closer, might not work as well if it was further back than Ms Paz.

Thanks for the comments folks.

Was nice to get out and about with the camera again, been meaning to get a shot of that car on the chimney stack for a while now but wasn't sure how to compose it until I walked round to the back of the scrap yard. The tramlines have been out of use for a while now too while they're being worked on, so it was an ideal time to get on the line itself without fear of being 'Alan Bradley-ied'.

Ideally I should have caught the flower in focus rather than her wrist but it works a bit like this one too:



Plus it's turned Mrs Z into an Alien.

I like that one a lot, Z. I'm really starting to like taking portraits now. Also, I thin people are getting used to me taking them

Where to begin, there are some great shots on this page.

I like the first one Zardoz posted as there is something about the dilapidated rusty bars against a natural sky, the great composition of the birds further accentuate this.

The baby photograph works because of the crispness of the focus on the Bird and the overall colours, again lovely composition there. For me it makes me think of what we can see vs what a baby can focus on - The Bird would be out of focus to baby but baby is out of focus to us.

The child picture is very dreamy but the person behind her is kind of creeping me out because she looks like an alien.

I just found this - I took it after going out for "Beexmas Drinks" in 2009.


Canary Wharf by Grim..., on Flickr

Also in the same folder were lots of pictures of women that Bobby took.

Here's some from the last week.

Sunset at the windfarm as we stoated up to build jumps in the dark.

The one picture out of 40 that I managed to get that fecking bat in, thought I'd totally failed until I stuck them into the computer.

During & after panoramas of the sunset from Windy Hill the day before the Solstice. Mountains way back in the background are Ben Lomond & The Cobbler among others. Somebody better like them, I was getting chewed to bits by midges as I stood there taking them
& here's the view from above Largs as I drove home around 11ish that night

Some rich colour on the bottom Largs one there, mate. Might be cool to see it in a tighter 16:9 widescreen crop though, so we get drawn in more as looking down on this bay community late night. Hope you take more pics round there, looks a lovely location!

Tire Swing

Prineville, Oregon




Glass

Well done for catching that bat, Wullie! Love the Largs pic, awesome colour in that sky.

Pete, really like those two pics. The glass one is a stunner. Beautiful colours.

Love the Canary Wharf pic, Grim...
Wullie - like the windfarm one, and the Largs one.
Pete - as ever, fantastic pics. Really like the glass one, especially.

Big argument going on about HDR, I'm wondering how many people actually read the title and description before commenting.


Using HDR to cover up for a bad exposure by Learnin' Curve, on Flickr

Decca, whose arguing?

Pete, that tyre swing shot has a really odd sense of scale. Really makes the bench look tiny / the tyre huge.

---

Best pic from a dull day in Preston - Sky rats

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums ... p?t=327835

It will make you cry though.

I went out today with my 55-200mm to try and get some birdy pics by the River Ribble but these stole the show (Six-Spot Burnet Moths). Glad I caught them but I wish I had my Tamron 90mm macro with me.





Think I'll go back with my macro lens next week now I know they're there.

Wow. The colours in that second shot are incredible.

It was quite an overcast day today too. Really striking these moths, the first one I saw literally flew at me, just a blur of red and black. I took as many shots as I could thinking it might be rare then I realised they were all over in this one spot. Quite a common variety from what I've read but I don't think I'd seen one before.

Some gorgeous colour there, cloudy days tend to make for that with the diffuse light, especially if there's a lot of moisture. I like the first one best with the curve of the antennae and the faint translucency of the wings. You get some real good insect life near where you live!

Been on a suburbia kick, all three from Prineville Oregon from three different income belts.





Something bad happened here.




Life




Susan's House

Nice theme for those shots, Pete. The last one looks so clean it has a render like quality. The subdued colour really adds to the atmosphere of them.

I'm lucky where I live and work as it covers Coastal areas, docks, disused railways and a river but bugs are everywhere, you just need to stop and take a closer look about in your garden and when out and about. Early morning is a good time to catch them as they're pretty docile before the sun gets them warmed up. I must admit to tailoring what plants I grow in my garden to attract more though.

Completely new subject matter.

Upside down butterfly*!



*Large Skipper

Brilliant. Awesome flutterby, gorgeous flower.

Wow, that's superb!

Christ, the flower looks superimposed onto that. Creepy. Ace.

Awesome!

Mist over Smith Rock

Superb. So much going on in that landscape.

Wow, what a beauty.

Do you live in a swamp?

Looks like a Common Hawker

It was quite a surprise! Really warm yesterday though. I honestly thought it was fake for a good five minutes, before it finally twitched its leg a bit. When it flew out it sounded like a Hercules Bomber. Or something.

A Hercules Bomber?

Edit: Some Hercules have been modded to perform bombing duties but you're still a

Fantastic insect to have in your house though!

Just stunning. I think that's my favourite ever shot of yours - but then I'm landscape biased.

Hey! I've always referred to them as Hercules Bombers. I'm not changing now. I'm sure they occasionally drop tanks by accident.

Not been out with the camera all that much lately, hence I've not got any pics that I'm all that thrilled with.

I don't care though, I'm going to show you them anyway.

Oh, those are ace! I especially like the seagulls though. Actually that's really good.

I love the broken mirror shot. I bet you didn't even break stride

Also the underdome is very striking. Bold and interesting, with a great sky. I've taken some good shots over the weekend, but the skies are all blown out. Need a filter I think

Your main problem is your camera Mark. D5000's are notoriously bad.



Some good stuff there, I like the Herring Gulls shot best out of the bunch. Overexposure working to your advantage, very airy and serene.

Nice textures on the Dome and 'Pill Box' shot.

I think the grass shot has great colour too, nice natural lighting.

I went back to the spot where I found the Six-Spot Burnet Moths with my Macro lens and caught this one displaying his wings nicely for me.



And found this fella on my walk too.



Seven-Spot Ladybird Larva.

Perfect larva. Honestly, I preferred the previous moth shot. I thought the colours were crisper.

Mark - the seagulls picture is fantastic. I liked the moss on rocks one as well.

You're right about the colour impact, but I like the wing positions better on this recent one and it shows the translucency of the wings more clearly.