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***Mini Challenge #254: Distorted Perspective***

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Two final ones from me. These are the opposite of a bird's eye view. Maybe a mouse eye view?







 
Got tied up last night, but I'm working on final selections now. Trying to prune down HMs to less that nearly everything and select final winners. I have more appreciation for what past mini challenge hosts have had to do. Hopefully done in the next hour.

--
Dan
 
Honorable Mentions coming in a separate post. Too many great photos not to give some recognition to contributors. On another day, in another mood, many of these shots could have been finalists!

First the runners up. Difficult choices here, any of these three could have been winners.

Runners Up

Jim Cassat - Abstract

Love the Autumn colors and Impressionistic qualities of this image.



p.s. the cat was cute!

greg1701 - Blue

The near monochromatic blue hues and composition are great! The radial symmetry (both shapes and colors/brightness) emphasis the composition too.



greg1701 - Mexican Condo

I know I picked greg twice, but really all three of your submissions were excellent! I kept coming back to this one. It has geometric simplicity and abstraction. The color contrast between blue sky and red/brown sand is very pleasing. You owe us an explanation as to what it actually is.



Congratulations to the you all!

The Winners

Congrats to you three, final choice was not easy!
  • Third Place *
kevindars 3 - #1 (I call it "little bigfoot")



Second Place
Jim Cassatt - Air Force Memorial

I love the compositional simplicity of the single object, the soaring arcing curve and the perspective distortion of the large bright base and distant dark tip disappearing into infinity.



First Place ... And the Winner...
on2art - framed

This one requires some explanation! Its also an awesome variant on rule of thirds. The tension between the rigid vertical/horizontal lines and warped, distorted reflections is wonderful. And the almost indecipherable nature of the reflections keeps me looking at it again and again trying to understand what they are...



Congratulation on2art, the next challenge is yours!

Thanks again to all entrants. Some great photos and nice effort from everyone. I learned a few new tricks on the theme of distorted perspective thanks to you all.

Judging is pretty arbitrary (its your privilege and your curse as host) so don't feel discouraged if your favorite did not make it into the finals. It has been an interesting challenge for me to have to make the choices.

--
Dan
 
Drat! my HM post from several hours ago never showed up! I'll try to duplicate as best as I can...

HMs in no particular order. These are photographs that caught my eye and deserve to be noted even if they did not make it into the final cut. Many of them could have been winners in their own right.

First, the indecipherables. You guys will have to explain yourselves:

Can't figure this one out. Is that the reflection of a person in the upper left?
H_James - Water Balloon



WilbaW - Daisy Door

Another difficult one to exclude from finalists. Is that a car door latch and lock in upper right? I really like this one.



Stillwater67 - Just 1 of Me
Great distortion and impressionistic painterly effect. Now what is it?



s56g - Ljubljana's Marshes

This one wins the judges' special award for singularly most distorted. It looks like a VR panorama. What is it really?



Now the rest of the HMs:

kevindars 3 - Las Vegas City Center

Nice contrast of gritty urban construction and crisp clean modern glass. I like the desaturated, nearly black and white look.



imqqmi

A typically excellent shot from imqqmi. Not quite as distorted a perspective as I'm looking for, but an exceptional shot that deserves recognition. It will be a winner somewhere!



Peter13 - #1
I just like it. Nice juxtaposition and colors.



leroyvanhee - Street Music
I see you! Nice one.



greg1701 - What an Ant sees ...
I really like this one, but I like Air Force Memorial more...



CityLights: Vertigo

As I mentioned earlier, this shot still makes me laugh. CL will have to provide the back story on how he made this shot. I tried a similar shot at Toroweep in the Grand Canyon. As I carefully shuffled my feet to the edge and raised the camera to my eye, a sudden wind gust hit me and I had to abruptly drop to my ass to avoid loosing my balance. Never did get the shot, it was too freaky. CLs shot reminds me of that moment every time I see it. He found a way to pull it off...



leroyvanhee - in the absence of perspective

Nice reversal on the topic. Certainly found the decisive moment. I suspect this was a hurried shot because of the timing. Shallower DOF would have helped isolate the far shore from the boats, but like I said, probably not much time to set up.



BookaShade - Reflection

I just liked this one. Definite possibilities.



DragosNM - reflection

I really like the fractured perspectives between the upper and lower halves of the photo. One has to stop and think a bit about what it is.



WilbaW - Slides

I like the concept. Strains my eyes to look at it in stereo, but it works for me. Takes a moment to understand what it is, which scores bonus points!



dibs2010 - #2
Great perspective, colors and composition. A nice take on a classic subject.



Roger - Horse
Funny! Looks like a camel.



Had to mention this one too. Not really perspective distortion, but I've tried this shot myself and never gotten the blurred foreground and tack-sharp background too. Nicely executed. Familiar looking country, where was it taken?



jpmalohesr - Pirate Boat Reflection
Excellent distortion, Impressionistic. It hurts to not include in finalists!



CPNock - Dried Fish
Strange photo. Takes a while to comprehend. And I can just smell the fish!



Lewynn - Guitar
Nice. Did not see the reflection at first.



HSC4711 - Stazione Centrale

Just plain like this composition. Nice geometry. Not distorted enough for finalist, but worthy of mention on its own merits.



HSC4711 - Via Appia Antica

Another one that was tough to eliminate from finalists. I really like the sky/cloud reflections justaposed with "normal" rock walls.



Jacek Dolata - Reflection
Great subject(s) and composition. Just not distorted enough.



Well, that about wraps it up. Thanks everyone for participating. Several people mentioned that this was a hard topic. Sorry if I overdid it. It is not an easy topic for me either, which is why I was interested in trying it. I learned a few tricks from you all!

--
Dan
 
Dan Finnerty said:
WilbaW - Daisy Door

Another difficult one to exclude from finalists. Is that a car door latch and lock in upper right? I really like this one.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much Dan, and congrats on running a great challenge.

Yes, that's the door handle and lock in the upper right. The swage line has red stripe on it and that ended up on the horizon of the reflected scene.
Dan Finnerty said:
WilbaW - Slides

I like the concept. Strains my eyes to look at it in stereo, but it works for me. Takes a moment to understand what it is, which scores bonus points!
Click to expand...
Thanks, that tells me the image succeeds in its intent. :-)

Well done everyone.
 
Hey Dan - Thanks for the HM. For the mountain shot, I purposely used a very slow shutter and rested my camera on the moving car window (wasn't driving). Used a very small aperture and cpl to get good exposure.
--
-dibs2010
http://flickr.com/dbjunction
 
Okay, wow; thanks Dan for an exceptionally well run challenge; although i am feeling more than a little caught off guard at the honour of being chosen the winner ! Yours will be a hard act to follow, not only in coming up with the next challenge but also seeing if i can somehow carry forward with the informed way you assessed all the offerings; as much as that will very likely be another bit of a challenge for me !

Anyhow so far as the winning image goes, there is no real in depth explanation i can offer as to how it became of interest as such. It is pretty much a bit of "found art". The picture was taken from the fifth story window of a movie theater lobby across the street from an office building. From what i can gather there was an art installation on the roof of the building that houses the theater. The sculpture like installation would have been above where i was but on a level equal to the office across the street; as such a reflection was manifest in that office window without fully obscuring the interior, which is with it's own range of colors creating an unusual harmonic convergence. Yes, that's just about it; anyhow congratulations to all the other participants who helped to make this mini challenge a success !

best regards Ron

p.s. i am thinking "still life" would be an interesting subject for the next mini challenge.
 
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