Wind-blown poplars, Beale Park, Pangbourne, Oct 2008

15 Nov 2008 22:53:24 RodBird:

Please feel free to comment on this pic. I honestly have no idea what people will think of it.

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15 Nov 2008 23:41:19 JackRuss:

Rod as you said in another post "Actually it takes very little to set off the viewer's imagination. "Only connect".

Only I have not connected with this picture, sorry but I can not say any more.

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16 Nov 2008 12:43:04 RodBird:

Fair enough! What do others think?

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17 Nov 2008 08:27:07 GlynnGrylls:

I love the idea Rod. They b+w treatment suits a grey autumn feel and the composition etc works. The only issue is that its not obvious to me that wind is causing the blur (rather than camera shake)- perhaps a few more leaves in in the sky or some unblurred areas might help.

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17 Nov 2008 13:50:58 MashaErshova:

... or both? (I mean the wind and camera shake - it looks quite intentional, by the way). Interestingly enough it looks a bit like a reflection: I mean, the tiniest scratches across the sky - they look like ripples, although I know it's impossible. What are they?

I like it.

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19 Nov 2008 18:27:27 ChrisYeatman:

In my (very) humble opinion the fact that everything is blurred makes it look as though the movement is due to more than just the wind and detracts from the photo.

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04 Dec 2008 12:20:18 RodBird:

Before closing this page for comments I thought I'd provide a bit of background.

I was covering a charity walk in Beale Park. The day was the worst that the organisers dreaded - constant driving rain and a howling wind. After taking pics of bedraggled walkers arriving back at the control desk I was heading to the car to dry out my camera gear, when the wind got up to hurricane force, and leaves and small branches started flying past. I took off the lenscap, pointed up, pressed the shutter, and dived for cover.

Surprisingly, as it's always set to centre-spot focus, the camera delivered reasonably sharp leaves. Naturally the sky was rendered grey - often not what we want, but it suited the circumstances.

Trouble was, the pic didn't really show what it was like. It was too sharp. I removed a few leaves I didn't like, applied the Motion Blur filter and then plenty of Gaussian Blur, until it looked like I remember it.

Finally I resized it and added a narrow black outline to "hold it in".

I'm happy with it. A judge might not be. There are probably things I worry about less, but I can't think of one offhand.

-- RodBird - 14 Nov 2008