August 2008 Votes

[Gruditch]

Congratulations to the winners in a tightly fought contest.

1st ColinC
2nd Gwenhwyfar
3rd Padfield
and an honourable mention for marcinklysewicz in 4th as his votes also got into double figures.

Gruditch

[Padfield]

Well done ColinC and Gwenhwyfar - I'm proud to be biting at your heels!

Guy

[Denise]

Congrats to Colin, Lisa and Guy.
Very well done to everyone who took part.

Denise

[Chris]

Congratulations to the winners!

I couldn't enter this month so I thought I'd contribute with a little critique... I hope you don't mind.

It's August and so I was looking for pictures that sum up high summer. For that reason, padfield was the clear winner for me. There were so many entries that could have been taken in April, May, June or July... I'd have loved to have seen more frolicking silver-spotted skippers, some more brown hairstreak, a scotch argus perhaps? Anyway, forgive me if I've been rude, it's quite difficult remaining enthusiastic when there are so many pictures to comment on!

Petergat

I desperately want to like this more. It's such a good idea. In fact, I do really like it, I changed my mind, again. Great pic... you've challenged the norm. I've little doubt that some of the stalwarts on here will hate it... and thats partly why I love it. But hang on, it just doesn't look right... aaaargh. But seriously, this is one of those pics that you have to look at again and again, and so it's because of the straight, centre of the frame composition, the unnatural lighting and the awkward flower angle (that should all be reasons to dismiss it) I really like it.

Geniculata

Very nice. Perhaps a little underexposed and it lacks the X-factor. I'm not sure of the straight framing of the butterfly, but at least you didn't centre it!

Paul Dyer

This is one of those between-y compositions. It's half-way between head on and side on, it's half way between diagonal and straight, etc... not a competition entry for me. Sorry!

Runningbk

Seen it before! Beautiful butterfly, mind. With the more common species (and even with some rarer ones) you really need to produce something new for it to stand out. (See petergat's speckled wood). Sorry!

Pauline

More like it, a common species in a 1-in-1000000 pose. What a shame it's over-exposed.

Polly

I nearly dismissed this as I dismissed runningbk's picture, but actually this is lovely. Gorgeous greens, a cheeky little proboscis and a good example of how a square crop makes centring the subject acceptable (sometimes). Nice one.

Eris

Very nice and well executed. Good shot. If it wasn't for the coveniently place small copper though, I'd be ranting on about 'centre of the frame' again.

Jackharr

Fantastic detail Jack, an accomplished study of the red Admiral underwing... compositions a bit boring though! I'd have gone in even tighter and cropped off some of the butterfly and flower to really focus on those beautiful markings.

birdy43

See comments for runningbk.

roundwood123

See comments for runningbk.

marcinklysewicz

Magnificent. You're clearly an accomplished photographer. The butterfly is positioned awkwardly in the frame otherwise I'm sure you'd have done better.

Darrel

See comments for runningbk.

Denise

A little over-sharpened and perhaps the background isn't smooth enough, but otherwise, well done, good shot.

Paul Kipling

Paul... you know better than to stick the bleeding thing in the middle of the frame!! Nice capture though; by backlighting you've really showed off that gorgeous yellow. Too much DOF - you're a GP, I'm sure you can justify a few £ and get an SLR!

Trev Sawyer

Nice effort. The lighting is very drab though and the flower is far too distracting. I think skippers are extremely difficult to photograph well because their proportions are so unconventional.

Rogerdodge

Excellent. The one nit I have is that the background is more interestingly lit than the subject... and I'm sick of common blues roosting

Gruditch

A common blue roosting - sigh... Excellently executed Gary as usual and extra marks for going in close and trying something different. Too different for these voters though.

ColinC

Another common blue roosting - yawn... Really cool composition, though, with the perch emerging from the green gloom. Technicaly sound, too.

Pete Eeles

Pete, I like it, and I like that you've tried to shake the foundations of this increasingly tedious competition by doing something different. More larvae pictures in the competition everyone, please.

Padfield

My favourite. Listen everyone - this pic sums up August, the title of the competition. 'Nuff said.

Charles Nicol

Too close! This pic would have worked better if you'd pulled back a bit and showed off the camouflage, making the viewer search for the butterfly. Otherwise, it's just a bog-standard record shot.

Paul Brock

Technically good, compositionally bad. This is an entry in a scientific journal, not a photo competition.

eccles

See comments for runningbk.

Deano

See comments for runningbk. I'm going to say it... "middle of the frame"

Gwenhwyfar

ANOTHER common blue roosting. This one is captured perfectly though. Nice shot.

mouse

See comments for runningbk.

Antonym

Good work! Well captured and a good balance of colours. I maintain though that it is difficult to get pleasing shots of skippers. I'd perhaps have placed the butterfly more into one of the corners.

Susie

Very nice. Nearly a cracker, but in achieving such a pleasing background, you've sacrificed top to bottom sharpness in the subject. I think you could have taken this at f/8.0 or f/11 and used a bit of flash to give you the extra speed and illuminate the shaded head.

Keith Woonton

Blue sky... I'd forgotten what that looked like! Sorry Keith, but you've centred the subject too much. I'd have left room in the frame on the left. Technically it's a bit too soft and the flowerhead is burnt out. In harsh light like this it pays to use flash to fill in and even out the levels and reduce shadow.

Shirley Roulston

I like the light through the wing... but that's about it sorry. I'd like to see a smoother background, more space above the butterfly, a little more sharpness and no burnt out flowers. At least there's a couple more months to get a better shot of Painted Lady!

David Tipping

Technically neat, compositionally untidy. Not much to say on this one... pesky grass stems and dead flower heads... yuk. At least you didn't cheat and photoshop them out!! Oh, and it's in the middle of the frame... I've seen you take much better pics, DT.

Ian Pratt

Very Good, Ian. Love the colours, the lighting and it's technically well-executed... however, you've fallen for "in-the-centre-of-the-frame-itis"... and I'd have rotated it a bit too. Easy to say, I know, I've chased Wall up and down the local railway all summer and have failed to even get a snap.

Markulous

I love the straight lines, they really work to show off the commas irregular outline. I voted for this because the composition is very simple and neat and the colours are great. The pic is quite noisy and you may have over-sharpened, but I'll take composition and colour over such small technical nits.

Dave McCormick

Well done and thank you Dave for trying something original and different. Really nice and sharp in the narrow DOF. What is the background and how did you illuminate thie subject? It looks artificial for some reason... I'd be interested to know what you did.

Nick B

Love it. Spectacular colours, gorgeous detail in the perch... really, really well composed. However, it's not sharp. Such a shame or I might have bought this from you for my front room.

ACZ

Not in focus and not sharp; not really an inspiring or original composition either. This is akin to the pictures I took when I first set out... delighted just to capture the butterfly, but not a competition entry. Sorry, no eyes in the frame, no prize in the frame.

web4160

A perfectly exposed DGF. However, I think the picture looks unbalanced. You need to decide whether the butterfly is going to be straight in the frame, or at a diagonal; you've settled for something in-between. You've also put the butterfly in the centre of the frame; I'd like to see more of the space it's looking into. A nice pic, though not a comp winner for me.

[Shirley Roulston]

Congratulations to the winners. This is not sour grapes, but I think this monthly competitions is for SLR cameras and not for a Compact because backgrounds don't seems to be the thing. Paul Kiplings entry I thought was beautiful, the butterfly was in the light showing up its stunning green with the surroundings where it is to be found which was a lovely garden or countryside. Maybe I should remove my entry for September.

[Padfield]

Thank you for the kind coments, Chris. It's worth pointing out, though, that over 40 people voted and none of the winning pictures reached 20 votes - so for each individual one of the winners it is true that most people did not rank it in their top 3!! In other words, there is a considerable amount of subjectivity involved here. I value Chris's analysis and it is marvellous that he devoted so much time and effort to the critiques - but don't lose heart, Shirley! Yours was a beautiful picture and all of us enjoyed looking at it. Hard-hitting and honest commentary from someone who is devoted to the subject can only be a good thing. The reason I placed the butterfly where I did in my frame was at least partly because of previous critiques of the pictures in these competitions - I've tried to learn from them.

Oh, and my picture was taken with a compact! I use a Canon Powershot A710 IS.

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Well done all - and I mean "all"

I agree with Guy - I use this competition to learn and, if I happen to get a vote, am simply pleased that someone thinks my shot is worthy of it!

My notables were:

Padfield - wish I could have been there! Lovely colours, showing the subject in its surroundings.
ColinC - looked more like a watercolour painting. Lovely
Gwenhwyfer - I really liked the symmetry of the hairs on the subject, and the hairs on the plant! Not sure why - since I'm "follically-challenged", perhaps I'm compensating for something
Pauline - the best Brimstone upperwing shot I've ever seen.
Ian Pratt - getting a shot of a Wall is always difficult, but getting one on a flower even more so!

And thanks for the detailed feedback Chris, I agree with your observations. I, too, was overwhelmed with the number of roosting Common Blue shots which probably biased me against them "en block"

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Congratulations to the three worthy winners. I agreed with the top three choices, but had them in reverse order. I reckon Lisa shaded it over Colin, but I think Guy's is outstanding. As always some other 'goodies' in there.
Neil

[Markulous]

Congrats to the winners and thanks to Chris for voting for me (and the critiques!)

[Charles Nicol]

well done to everyone who joined in, especially the winners.

thanks to chris for his entertaining comments on the pics... i think he will like my latest effort more

charles

must dash ...those urties are waiting

[Jack Harrison]

Shirley wrote

This is not sour grapes, but I think this monthly competitions is for SLR cameras

I might have thought just that in the past. However, the critique of my entry:

Fantastic detail Jack, an accomplished study of the red Admiral underwing... composition's a bit boring though!

It was taken with a Canon AS650 compact, so at least some people think that compacts give adequate detail/resolution. It has been intimated in the past that I'm "a boring old sod!"

Suggestion for October's comp. Butterfly photographed in the wild in Malta. Some will have seen other threads and appreciate my boring sense of humour.

Jack

[Dave McCormick]

I voted for Charls Nicol, I liked hs shot but it was a bit close, ColinC and Trev, I meant to put a vote for Guy as his shot was very well done, like a pic that should be in a butterfly book or something, but accidently did not. A few great shots this month.

I liked NickBs shot, nice colour contrasts, but the butterfly itself seemd a little overexposed just a bit and not sharp enough.

Paul kipling, I liked your shot, although I did find the head of the brimistone was a bit underexposed and the wings were a little bright and your eyes are taken away by the purple flowers in the background too, but its good though.

My pic, yeah I was trying to be different. Here are its details:

Canon 400D
Sigma 105mm Macro
F/8
1/60sec
ISO-200
Expousre Bias = -2 Step
Metering Pattern
Built in Flash
Handheld

I used the -2 step to get a bit more detail when I used flash and not make the white appear as a white bright object when I took pic. It was sleeping or something as it was getting dark and it was not moving when I took pic. I am trying to get good at taking detailed close ups of these creatures, first one I did, but I should have set the Apeture on f/11 or something as it was not big enough.

The background of that shot was just the area around it as it was resting on a flower head of the buddliah in my garden and the grey in background might be the house nearyby, not quite sure, but I get that when I flash any butterfly on buddleih, maybe because its beside a big enough open space (a road turning point)

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Congrats to the winners!

I also think that Guy's was amazing! for the same reasons as everyone else, beautifully composed.

And thanks Chris for the detailed comments on peoples photos

Mouse

[Gwenhwyfar]

Well done all and a huge thanks for my votes, even if I was over taken at the last minute!

Guy, Eris and Marcin got my votes, and I'll mention Eris particualry, because it was just so creative and different.
Cheers Chris for my Critique, at least you liked my boring roosting Common Blue!!

[Gruditch]

Shirley please do not become one of those disgruntled compact/bridge owners with a chip on their shoulder about anyone with a DSLR. As you can see from Guy's pic if he used a DSLR the magic of the shot would of been lost.

Thanks for the comments Chris, I swapped and changed my entry about this month, and in the end tried something different.
I'm a bit sick that Lisa got second, as I got the exact same pics of that Common Blue, but better of course.


Gruditch

[NickB]

Yes - congratulations to all! (2 out of my top 3 got there) Comments well considered - I know - if only it had not been blowing a gale that evening it would have been sharper - but it isn't! Always next time
N

[Gruditch]

Oh come on Fishiee

Gruditch

[Gwenhwyfar]

Gwenhwyfer - I really liked the symmetry of the hairs on the subject, and the hairs on the plant! Not sure why - since I'm "follically-challenged", perhaps I'm compensating for something

Nothing wrong with being Follically challenged! There's nothing worse with a guy who has to spend more time on his hair than I do!
I'm a bit of a sucker for baldies

[Pete Eeles]

Gwenhwyfer - I really liked the symmetry of the hairs on the subject, and the hairs on the plant! Not sure why - since I'm "follically-challenged", perhaps I'm compensating for something

Nothing wrong with being Follically challenged! There's nothing worse with a guy who has to spend more time on his hair than I do!
I'm a bit of a sucker for baldies

I think you've just lifted the spirits of all mankind. Well, the baldies, anyway.

So shines a good deed in a weary world

Cheers,

- Pete

[Denise]

Lisa wrote
I'm a bit of a sucker for baldies

I too find them quite sexy

Denise