Well, it's a Saturday afternoon, I've just vacuumed the house top to bottom, the Mrs. has buggered off to the shops and the lad has a friend to play and they're outside terrorising the neighbours (hilk hilk). Must be time to settle down with a good Brownian Motion producer - say a really nice hot cup of tea - and look at the PUG for April: 'Still Life'
As usual, I go through every one using the 'next' button, and those that I stop longer on get some comments. They are ALL good: the standard is always very high and as usual it's a great way of making one feel inadequate ;-) Off we go... Orange Thibault Grouas Thibault's first PUG submission and he's come up trumps. What a smashing abstract, beautifully composed. Very interesting image to look at. Well done! Juicy Harold Rust Works for me! Nice composition and the peel on that orange looks like it would cut through steel. Excellent. Pepper Wendy Beard A joy to look at. What a stunning composition and a terrific image. You say it's a pepper but like an inkblot, I see all sorts of things. Real class shot. Superb. Peachy II Steve Larson I took a minute but decided I like this shot, if only for it reminding me of bottoms (!) and the human form. I also see steep hills and a valley going on forever. Oh yeah, and peaches ;-) Nice one. Captive Cactus Kathy Leickly Another beautiful image from Kath. Lovely composition and colours. Don't be afraid to stop the lens down until it's almost capped up - depth of field at these magnifications are always tricky. I really like this. Lone Crusader Satish Kumar S.K. Always happy to oblige with comments for a novice PUGster, this shot has a nice serene feel to it. The softness of the plant doesn't detract from the overall feeling, and considering the light was going, and you had no tripod, it's a good effort. Well done. Tulip Aconquija Backlit tulips with a dark background and the photographer has produced a fantastic shot. The deep colour and 'focal gradation' make this pic a real stunner. It grew on me the more I looked at it. Brilliant! Summer Blossom Ashley Osborne At only eleven years old, Ashley has grasped the basics of photography and produced a lovely image. Don't be afraid to fill the frame, Ashley. On the other hand, the best piece of advice anyone could ever give you is that if it looks right to you, then it *is* right. That's the only thing that counts - as long as you're happy with it. If you're not, you won't rest until you go back and do it again until you are. Well done. Meter With Maid Paul Stenquist Nice composition, and startling colour. Yep, works for me. Say is that a 67 on your tripod or are you going to the moon? ;-) Resting Engine Parvaiz Interesting image of a motorbike framed by tree and foliage. Works for me! Urban Still Bill Peifer Gritty shop front instils uncertainty. Nice capture, Bill. Stones Alexey Tikhonov Lovely low-key mono of some floor. What a terrific picture. I'm biased because I like low-key images, but wow - what a sense of feeling this conveys. The lovely way the light catches the bricks, the subtle footprints in the dust. I can smell the scene from here. Dark, dank, moody. This month's runner-up for me. Well done Alexey. Kitchen Window, San Antonio Dick Jones Shots of windows, looking out, are always a favourite with me. I've always wanted to put together a collection of pictures like this. Dick's done well here - capturing the feel well. Lighting's always tricky because the intensity from outside is usually going to clash with the ambient in the room, if any, and getting the balance right is not easy. Dick has got it just right and the result speaks for itself. Really pleasing image, thanks. (Aside: a primary school project for me in the early 70s in Cupertino, Ca, was to build Mission Santa Barbara out of sugar cubes! Some things you never forget...) Bonsai and Bulb Matt Bevers Matt's first PUG with his first roll from his first MX. I can see the making of a fine art photographer here. At first I thought the vertical banding above the subjects might be a scanner issue, but I realise that it's part of the background. Don't forget that the finished image is what you will be judged by, Matt. Get it to your satisfaction, then you'll be able to live with it, and yourself. I like this shot. Technically you've chosen a difficult method - lots of backlight means you're always in danger of turning things into silhouettes, which if desired is fine. Try shoving some light onto the scene from the front, not a lot, just enough to put a bit more detail into the tree. In monochrome, an anglepoise lamp works fine. The bulb vase is nice, the twisty shapes inside betraying the organic nature of the subject. A really great first effort, take a bow! Commode and Plant, Wales, 2001 Cotty Crap subject. 25 Carat Diamond in Claw Setting [I Suppose] Stan Halpin Fascinating close up of ice, I presume. Being a sci-fi fan, I can see an alien head right away. Mom! Terrific form, well captured. Frozen Dave Kennedy Dave's the name, abstract's the game. Nicely captured ice on the foliage, interesting forms in the frozen water. Great effort. A new PUGster and doubtless we'll see many more from Mr. Kennedy in the future. Woodscape Frits W Always a sucker for a big fat close up of a tree trunk, this one's a beauty. Nice work (as usual!). Rod's Reeds Ken Waller Classic double-image reflection in water, and Ken's achieved what he set out to. Very pleasing image with lovely sharp elements. Nice. Sifonazos Facit What a corker! Fantastic colour and form to these bottles. Completely bowled over by them. Well done Facit. The composition is superb, the feeling just right, the exposure spot on. Can't think of anything I would change in this picture, it all sits just right and I love it. Picture of the month for me, congrats. Now I'll have a 16X12 of that please, mounted, natural wood frame please ;-) Which brings us tidily to the end for this month. They were all good. I looked at every one. Well done to you all for submitting the images. It takes a certain confidence to publicly show your work, and I know that especially for first-timers this can be gruelling. Don't be disappointed if nobody mentioned your photograph - just do what Steven Spielberg does: he makes his movies for himself. If anyone else like it, then it's a bonus! Til next month, keep clicking. Cheers, Cotty _______________________________________________________ Personal email traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MacAds traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the UK Macintosh ads http://www.macads.co.uk - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
