Challenge #61:"Summer Sun-I walk with Sun on my shoulders.."- (Submissions) Ended

[aster]

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Hi everyone !

Welcome to our new challenge! Hopefully you'll enjoy the new topic:

"Summer Sun-I walk with Sun on my shoulders and take Summer-scene photos."

The topic is self-explanatory. It's Summer in the biggest part of the planet and you're the enthusiastic summer photographers! : )
You are walking under the Sun with the Sun's rays warming your shoulders (with a protective hat on your head) and shooting summer scenery or scenes that you fell in love with at first sight.

All you have to do is share them with us because we'll be happy to see your most favourite 2 summer shots.

Looking forward to seeing your summer shots, preferably taken this summer (2016) but if you find it impossible to shoot this summer, you may submit photos from your earlier summers.

Thanks,
Yildiz


Specifications:
1../ You can submit your photos until 02 August 2016.
2../ You can submit up to 2 photos. Exceptions: if you think you have exceptionally good shots that exceed this number, then please submit them as well. I'll love to take a look and the members will enjoy the beauty of them as usual. : )
3../ The photo dimensions better be kept under 1024*1024 pixels and the size around 250 KBs if you wish to use the forum attachment feature. If you wish to link from an external website/gallery, same dimensional restraints may apply.
4../ Creativity is encouraged; golden summer scenes; golden crop fields; summer enjoyments; festivities or festivals under the Sun; seaside scenes; summer silhouettes; etc. are some of the ideas that come to mind.
5../ Good luck and good summer shooting!

[dewarp]

It's winter here in the Southern Hemisphere of course, but not to worry. I have a couple of recent shots that look summery.

The first is a late afternoon shot of clouds over False Bay.

The second shot is of a skeletal tree in a dried up dam bed. Normally the remains of these trees are below water, but this year has been particularly dry and the trees are high and dry.

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regards - Peter

[aster]

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Hi Peter;

These are very lovely. Very prolific photo opportunities at the end of an adventurous walk, I presume. Great nature shots!

Thank you for these very encouraging starter shots for summer season.


Yildiz

[aster]

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Hi again Peter;

Just a few questions on the second shot:
The yellow colouring on the skeletal tree where the trunk meets the roots, is it from the setting Sun or discolouring due to aging/drying/decaying of moss or similar ?
Was the shot taken at sunset?
The bluish tint of the ground material, is it really like that, perhaps due to being under water most of the time?

It's a very good photo of a very unique scene, enhanced by the time chosen to shoot it, by the way. Very delightful to look at.

The first is also a delight but I'll keep my other views to my evaluations period.

Thank you,

Yildiz

[Birma]

Thank for the challenge Yildiz. Will make sure I participate this time!

Very nice pictures Peter - love the light and colours in the both of them.

[dewarp]

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Hi again Peter;

Just a few questions on the second shot:
The yellow colouring on the skeletal tree where the trunk meets the roots, is it from the setting Sun or discolouring due to aging/drying/decaying of moss or similar ?
Was the shot taken at sunset?
The bluish tint of the ground material, is it really like that, perhaps due to being under water most of the time?

It's a very good photo of a very unique scene, enhanced by the time chosen to shoot it, by the way. Very delightful to look at.

The first is also a delight but I'll keep my other views to my evaluations period.

Thank you,

Yildiz

Hi Yildiz - thanks for the positive comments.

There has recently been a discussion on this forum entitled "Is Retouching Acceptable?". You need to understand that my images are, in general, created with the objective of making an attractive picture and not necessarily reflecting reality. For me retouching is not only acceptable, it is virtually essential. Part of this retouching usually involves shifting the colours towards the end of the process. To do this I commonly use Topaz ReStyle (or Photoshop's Match Color) with a few colour presets I've created based on images from a few of my favourite photo-landscapers (e.g. Alain Briot and Guy Tal) and a favourite watercolour-landscaper (David Bellamy).

OK - on to the actual image in question. The image was captured just after the evening sun had dipped below the mountains on the left (the extent of which cannot be seen in this image). The light was soft due to light clouds, which were reddish due to the time of day. A very slight shadow was cast to the right of the trunk.

In reality the trees themselves have a very drab appearance, sort of a mixture of greys and browns. There is little in the way of moss, or fungus, or anything like that. The fading sunlight has lit the tree from the left and it is this together with the post-processing colour shift has resulted in the yellowish highlights.

On the edges of what is normally the shore the sand tends to be yellowish. However, in the middle of the now empty dam the sand is a greyish blue. This gets darker as one approaches the current water level where, although it looks fairly dry, the dark mud just below the surface can be very slippery and sticky. It doesn't look as if the blue-grey sand is caused by water, but is rather some sort of separation caused by years of time and waves that has separated the yellowish sands from the greyish sands.

So the image you see is generally similar to the original in content. A few minor objects have been removed, there has been some significant distortion applied, and the colours have been severely enhanced. In this image the foreground, the background, the main tree, and the sky were not given a "blanket" process, but were processed individually, which obviously involved a serious amount of masking.

I'd be happy to provide a "straight" copy of the raw file if required.

regards - Peter

[dewarp]

Very nice pictures Peter - love the light and colours in the both of them.

Thanks a lot - I look forward to your entries.

regards - Peter

[aster]

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Thank you for the profound quality of detailed explanations on the workflow, Peter. : )

The raw file, naturally, is not required at all for the intentions of this challenge. We've been fine with the processed final jpegs for the challenges. But thanks for proposing. It's very tempting though, to witness how and where you carried a raw file to: Commanding it into a spectacular display of tranquility and painting-like quality with an essence of ' sur-reality born of reality'. Later, maybe, not for the sake of the challenge but for educating us a little, if you would be kind to share with us, it would be a pleasure. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing your idol photographers and their photo-processing workflows and your interpretation of them. : ) I'll keep the written passage of descriptions you went to the trouble of presenting to us. Suddenly a new light flashed in my universe ! We never cease to learn, thank Goodness! : )

The masking process for individual elements in the photo must have been time-consuming but when the artistic goal is achieved, nothing like enjoying the final product. You're an artist.

Thanks once again. The time you took to write these lines are much appreciated.

Yildiz

[aster]

Thank for the challenge Yildiz. Will make sure I participate this time!

Very nice pictures Peter - love the light and colours in the both of them.

Thank you, Andy.

Looking forward to your participation, Your participation will only be like 'a home-coming' to the challenges. That's how good a history you have with the Photoclubalpha challenges. Something to look forward to always.

Looking forward to your favourite shots that you will pick to share with us.

Thanks,

Yildiz

[dewarp]

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Thank you for the profound quality of detailed explanations on the workflow, Peter. : )

Yildiz

No worries Yildiz - happy to assist where I can.

I just checked to see if I still had a copy of my working PSD file. I usually keep these for a few weeks after editing in case I want to tweak something as an afterthought. No luck - its deleted.

I suppose that its about time that I posted something in "Effects and Art Techniques" again. Maybe I'll cover one of these sorts of image this time. However, at the moment we are on a road trip - will only get back to my proper editing tools in August - so I doubt I'll get around to it for some weeks.

regards - Peter

[aster]

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Thank you, Peter!

That sounds great. Whenever and wherever you are ready and willing would be fine with us. : )

Best,
Yildiz

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Thank you for the profound quality of detailed explanations on the workflow, Peter. : )

Yildiz

No worries Yildiz - happy to assist where I can.

I just checked to see if I still had a copy of my working PSD file. I usually keep these for a few weeks after editing in case I want to tweak something as an afterthought. No luck - its deleted.

I suppose that its about time that I posted something in "Effects and Art Techniques" again. Maybe I'll cover one of these sorts of image this time. However, at the moment we are on a road trip - will only get back to my proper editing tools in August - so I doubt I'll get around to it for some weeks.

regards - Peter

[sury]

Great shots Peter. Great start to a very interesting (to come) challenge.

Sury

[aster]

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Looking forward to your entries as well, Sury. : )


Yildiz

[Ossie]

Peter, Love both images but the second one is my favourite.

Here is an image I took several years ago in France. I have always liked it but have been in two minds as to whether to crop out the young lady on the left or not but finally decided to leave her in. I hope that as this image was not taken in 2015/16 that it still qualifies for this challenge.

Backs to the sun with a warm front moving in.jpg

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Keith

[aster]

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Hi Ossie;

A typical summer day there! Many cities share scenes like this, Istanbul included. Good one actually getting everyone with their full backs to the Sun. : ) Somehow juxtaposes with the topic of the challenge except that they are not the ones taking photos.

I have noted in the brief of the challenge that photos from earlier summers were welcome. Therefore your photo is fine where it is.

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

Peter, Love both images but the second one is my favourite.

Here is an image I took several years ago in France. I have always liked it but have been in two minds as to whether to crop out the young lady on the left or not but finally decided to leave her in. I hope that as this image was not taken in 2015/16 that it still qualifies for this challenge.



Keith