Critique Group Challenge from week 37

Critique Group Challenge: 

Week 37, Abandoned 

Photo by Brian Savon

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Brian says:

Children's toys abandoned to the elements - some covered in rust, others broken. They are being watched over by a fairy mural, which has also seen better days.

 

 
 

52-Week Photo Challenge Class
Week 37 - Do Over

Week 52 Photo Challenge:

Week 37, Do Over

Photo by Julie Robinson

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Julie says:

This is a buoy I passed while on a birding boat cruise. I liked the simple colors and the pattern of lines that I think complilement the buoy. I made general LR edits.

 

Smart Phone Photo Challenges
Week 37 - Hands

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 37, Hands

Photo by Gigi Kandler

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Gigi says:

This is the only one of my old clocks that has fancy hands. The others are quite plain by comparison. Taken with the Samsung, 1/13 sec at f/2.4, ISO 320.

Ricky's Challenge Photos

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 37, Hands

Photo by Ricky Tims

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Ricky says:

My mom arrived today and at 92 she’s doing great. I love that she tries to keep up with technology. She uses her laptop and iPhone to stay connected. She recently got an Apple watch.

 

Critique Group Challenge:

Week 37, Abandoned

Photo by Ricky Tims
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky says:

Over the past 19 years I have enjoyed driving by this old church made of logs. They were once covered in adobe mud and most likely, the logs were not seen - but over time, the adobe mud eroded away. During the Spring Fire, the winds took the steeple down. Now, the structure is listing badly. The alter and the confessional are still inside - but I have no doubt that not many moons distant this iconic landmark will give way and fully tumble to the ground. This time I chose to shoot tight and allow the flow of the lines be the compositional element. The window helps to tell the story.

 

 

 

 

Sentinels at Sunset 
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 Ami Simms was very active in raising funds for Alzheimer’s research and maintained an ongoing quilt auction. Each year she would have a celebrity quilt auction and I was honored to participate. This is the quilt that I made for one of those celebrity auctions. My dad suffered from Alzheimer’s. He was a quilter. It was difficult to watch him fade away. This quilt is called Sentinels at Sunset. The trees are the “sentinels” watching as the sun sets. They are metaphors for the family watching over my dad in the sunset of his life.

The quilt went for a very fine sum, but I was surprised a few years later when the person who had won the quilt appeared at a lecture with the quilt and handed it back to me. I was stunned. Due to various circumstances that had transpired, she felt led to see to it that the quilt came back home to me. It hangs on the wall in my studio as a permanent reminder of my dad, and I’m very thankful for the journey this quilt has taken.

 

 

Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Challenge Photos from Week 36

52-Week Photo Challenge Week 36, Selective Color

Photo by Ada Levins

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Ada says : 

After trying a variety of subjects, I headed to the produce department and found this chard leaf. I left in both the red and magenta to fill in the veins better. I brought down the exposure and increased the texture. I love this lesson and look forward to using it again.

 

52-Week Photo Challenge Class
Week 36 - Wonderland 

Critique Group Challenge: 

Week 36, Wonderland 

Photo by Jo Ann Banks

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Jo Ann says:

I recently watched a tutorial with a "heads in the clouds" surreal composite and knew then I wanted to try this technique. My lovely model is my DIL Heather. How lucky am I to have two Heathers in my family? I took the photo of Heather in front of the siding on the house thinking it would be easy enough to extract her from the background. Then I placed her on the sky photo that I took from my front yard last night. I had to take out some distractions like trees and a house. In PS I added a cloud brush to the center. Then I extracted the hat and put it on its own layer and masked out Heather's face to reveal the clouds below. I moved the hat just over top. I used a bird brush that I made from a bird photo I took last year and duplicated and flipped the birds to make more of them.

 

Smart Phone Photo Challenges
Week 36 - Repetition

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 36, Repetition

Photo by Maureen O’Neill

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Construction site billboards.

Ricky's Challenge Photos

Smart Phone Challenge:

Week 36, Repetition

Photo by Ricky Tims

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Ricky says:

Since repetition creates harmony and visual rhythm, I decided to go literally with the musical theme and shoot this 120 year old pump organ keyboard Edited in Prisma app with Wild.

 

Critique Group Challenge:

Week 36, Wonderland 

Photo by Ricky Tims
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky says:

I love the little forest next to my house (affectionally named Mirkwood, a nod to The Hobbit), and I always think that it is filled with magic. I was fortunate to have Brian Lyon and Cory Annis here for the holiday weekend. We stewed on various ideas and I thought about creating a wizard. I dug into my fabric stash and found the yardage left over from making the Lizzy Albright cape. Don't be deceived, there is no back to the robe you see here, it's just draped over. My model is my neighbor, Steve, whose wife rolled with laughter when she saw the not-yet-edited version of her hubby. This image is a composite of four images and only one of them was taken at dusk (the trees and lights in the back), the others were taken in daylight. I added the photos of poppies from a couple weeks ago. The staff here is not really a staff, it's a dead oak that I painted red earlier this summer as a meditation stick in the forest. The main orb is all "created". The mid-sized lights are from my solar lights in the trees, and the tiny lights are also created. It was fun, and this red wizard is still currently nameless, but he might just show up as a chapter in the Lizzy Albright sequel - we shall see.

 

 

 

 

Sampler with Rings

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One of my absolute favorite things about vintage quilts is discovering something that begs the questions, “What was she thinking?”. In the case of this quilt, Sampler with Rings, the entire quilt made me ask that question. The scrappy, haphazard design makes me so happy. It inspired me so much that I purchased the quilt from the collector Julie Silber and then Alex Anderson and myself both used it as a jumping off point of inspiration for our own quilt challenge.
 
When I was working on designing fabrics for the Lizzy Albright vintage fabrics, I found inspiration in some of these fabrics. This quilt is likely a 1940’s quilt. I hope it will make you scratch you head, but also hope it makes you smile. It is a FUN jigsaw puzzle. Give it a try.

 

Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!

 

Smart Phone Photo Challenge - Week 35 

Smart Phone Photo Challenges
Week 35 : Song Title

Photo by Marleen Hoffman

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Marleen says:

What a week. Been super busy with everything except photoing. Guess time flies while you busy doing stuff. Took some photos on my iPhone today and dedicated the time to play. Ended up using the PIP camera app. Minor adjustments and edits in photos and ready to submit for this weeks homework. Hope you found some time to play & recharge your batteries. Did you guess it? Time in a Bottle!

52-Week Photo Critique Group
Week 35 - Movie Title

Critique Group Challenge: 

Week 35, Movie Title

Photo by Michael Novak

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Michael says:

Taken about 30 minutes before dawn--fyi. That info has nothing to do with the movie title. Basic Lr adjustments.

Did you guess it?

On the Waterfront

 

52-Week Photo Challenge Class: Week 35, White on White

Photo Challenge Class:

Week 35, White on White

Photo by Olivia Edwards

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Olivia says:

Sunday was laundry day so I was consumed with taking pictures of piles of sheets and other things. Later, when I opened the dryer door, I was mesmerized. I pulled up a chair and took lots of photos of the dry sheets tumbled together in the dryer. Using LR I got rid of the dryer light's yellow effect and whitened some of the shadows. I felt as if the sheets were swirling under water. Loved finding them!

Ricky's Challenge Photos

 

Critique Group Challenge:

Week 35, Movie Title

Photo by Ricky Tims
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky  says:

This will be easy peasy, but if you knew how much I'm hoping to just get a single reasonable ripe one - this was sacrificed for the cause.

Did you guess it? Fried Green Tomatoes.

 

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