Simon's 52 in 2021

Bloody hooligans! :ROFLMAO:

It's a great idea, and to my 9admittedly amateur0 eyes it looks well done too.. God knows how you managed to blend in the spray!
Thanks Nick - a bit hit and miss with the various brushes, but I reduced the opacity towards the back of the jet skier to try and blend it a little more.
 
The composite is very convincing hit the theme really well, The spray has been blended in really well too. Great picture.
 
Week 46 - Back (of)

Walking at a sunny Cardiff Bay barrage this morning and saw some anglers fishing off the barrage wall. A discreet shot from behind, and voila, the "back of" a fisherman. Did a B&W conversion, and I like both, but I'm going with the original colour version.

Also as a throwaway bonus, an iPhone shot I took on the golf course earlier this week of one of my playing partner's tee shot of the par 3 first at the Vale Resort sort of with this week's theme in mind. Ignore the swing technique :) but I like the light in this as the sun poked through on an otherwise dull, murky and misty morning.

Back (of) by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr

Back (of) 2 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr

Back (of) 3 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr
 
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The pair of rods adds balance & symmetry to the scene. Shame he wasn't about a foot over to the right to place him central in the fence(?)
 
All fit the bill and I like the one you chose for the main thread best. The colour works well.

Yep the colour one is the better one I think. I wonder if they caught much?

The pair of rods adds balance & symmetry to the scene. Shame he wasn't about a foot over to the right to place him central in the fence(?)
Thanks all for your comments. always appreciated.
@Simonbrown16 I've never seen anyone catch anything there, but I suppose they must
 
I'd go for the colour too.. it lifts the image. Well spotted and nicely framed.
 
Week 47 - (Cardiff) Culture

I found this week's theme a bit challenging - so much potential but in execution it ebbed away :banghead:. The thing that came into my head first was mould (cultured - geddit), but I didn't have any Petri dishes or gone over yoghurt to hand, so I ended up going for a wander to Cardiff Bay with my new Sony RX100VI - only had it a couple of days so still working it out!

So for your delight (!) this week, a selection of shots from "down the bay" as we say around here.

The Merchant Seafarer's Memorial by Brian Fell

Cardiff Bay 2 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr


People like us by John Clinch
Cardiff Bay 1 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr

Ivor Novello by Peter Nicholas
Full disclosure here - the sky is artificially added - it was so flat in this shot it looked horrible, so I had to do something, so I added in an AI sky using Luminar.
Cardiff Bay 3 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr
 
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Great minds think alike. I was down there this morning, must have just missed you? I almost took the Ivor Novello statue as well.
 
Great minds think alike. I was down there this morning, must have just missed you? I almost took the Ivor Novello statue as well.
Ah….
I saw a couple of other chaps with cameras, so one of them may well have been you. One was in Coffi Co when I was having a coffee, and another in a blue jacket taking photos near Gin & Bake
 
Ah….
I saw a couple of other chaps with cameras, so one of them may well have been you. One was in Coffi Co when I was having a coffee, and another in a blue jacket taking photos near Gin & Bake
Yes i went to coffi co, was on a bike.
 
All fit the bill, but I think the poppies on the Merchant Seafarer's Memorial and the circular cobbles make this a lovely composition.

Great minds think alike. I was down there this morning, must have just missed you? I almost took the Ivor Novello statue as well.

The first one for me what a great piece of art

Definitely the first one, you've got the theme with that one.
Thank you all as usual for your comments this week. (y)
 
Week 48 - Living

As soon as I saw this theme, I thought about the idea of bulbs shooting. Luckily I had a bowl or two of hyacinths on the go (my wife loves them), so I've tried to capture these as new life sprouting from the bulbs.

Lighting was a bit tricky (finding a decent background in this house is near impossible) and it took a few goes. I had to crop some stuff out and clone a chip on the dish too, but I hope it's ok.

Living by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr
 
Looks great to me, you've nailed the lighting IMHO, and the tight crop works well, plus I can't detect where the cloned chip is/was.
 
Works well that Simon.
 
Looks great to me, you've nailed the lighting IMHO, and the tight crop works well, plus I can't detect where the cloned chip is/was.
Thanks Jim. I did wonder whether I’d cropped it a bit too much, but I didn’t have much room for manoeuvre with the background which wasn’t much wider .
The cloned area was a tiny spot towards the left rear of the rim as you look at it.
 
It sums up the basic meaning of the theme very well.

I think you've gone a good job! It was worth your hard work.

Lovely clean image perfect for the theme

Looks great to me, you've nailed the lighting IMHO, and the tight crop works well, plus I can't detect where the cloned chip is/was.

Works well that Simon.

As always, appreciate everyone's comments and feedback on this week's effort. (y)
 
Week 49 - Still Life

We visited National Trust Tredegar Park and House near Newport, South Wales this morning. Inside the house they had many decorations on a Christmas theme, and there are a couple here that caught my eye that I thought fitted this week's theme, so I thought I'd get in early this week!
The light was challenging in all shots without using flash as the rooms were quite dark, consequently ISO was pushed up and they're noisier than I'd like - but the rooms are dark, so in a way they're illustrative of the real scene. It was also tricky to try and get the main object in the shot without other "non relevant clutter" which might distract from the main shot. I actually like the kettle/tray/toast shot from the Houskeeper's room the best but it's not the best IQ wise.

Still Life by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr

Still Life 2 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr

Still Life 3 by Simon Hiscocks, on Flickr
 
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They all work well and as you could not correct the wonky candle I will let that go. I like the kettle one and the IQ is not that bad and I think works with the period of the items.

Pete
 
I like all of them. The kettle one is my favourite too, but I bet the toast is cold though :)
 
All of them are on theme but I prefer the second shot of the table, the BG doesn't really matter as much in that one,
it could do without the info sign on the left and the modern glass cabinet to the right, I know there was nothing you could do though
 
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