The Beauty of Alaska

Backyard Shenanigans

***AUGUST PHOTO CONTEST: THE WINNERS!***

Thank you all for participating and voting in the August 2022 photo contest. The theme for this contest, as chosen by AndyS, was as follows:

"The unseen world. The small things we walk past every day; the beauty in the bouquets in the floral department at the grocery store, the zen of stones in a garden, that lone green sprout in the compost or that small creature under your feet. Not necessarily macro but that's not excluded. Butterflies and birds reach out and grab our attention but I'm encouraging all of us to take note of the more subtle compositions around us. As for post processing, sure if it makes the image more appealing or enhances the connection between the subject and viewer. Most of all HAVE FUN with it."

As always, we had many amazing entries. I am happy to report that this was the first contest in a while that did not require “second entries” to reach our thirty photos. We had thirty entries by thirty individuals. It was gratifying to see that level of participation. We also tried something new this month, having entrants post a few words about their photos in a separate thread. Here is a link to that thread if you’d like to read more about the pictures. https://democraticunderground.com/1036104759

And now, without further ado.. (drum roll!!!)

First place goes to HappyCynic for their stunning photograph “Morning Dew”! As winner, HappyCynic will chose the topic for the next photo contest. They described their photo in the comments thread:

“I took this a few years back in late January at Stanley Park (Vancouver, BC, Canada). While I've named it Morning Dew, it was actually taken in the early afternoon. At that time of year, with the temperature and humidity, the morning dew pretty much lingered all day. In addition to the dew, what I personally like is the blade of grass that is running through the dew laden blade of grass. I'm not sure how this happened nor how frequent this type of thing is but I found it interesting to look at.”



Second Place goes to 2naSalit and their entry “Clover.” 2naSalit had this to say about their entry:

“Was taken around summer of 2015 in the Hebgen Basin area to the west of Yellowstone NP. It's just a simple clover. I took several shots of different clovers, made a brief study of them and I wasn't sure which to use. I rarely do anything beyond crop, color saturation and some sharpening... I wouldn't know what to do with anything else. I mean, if the shot is a good one, in my mind, I shouldn't have to do much else. I usually shoot with that in mind.”



Third place goes to HAB911 for “Window to Another World.” The wonderful thing about this photo is that it was snapped nearly a half century ago. HAB911 described it this way:

“1974, Nikon F2, Nikkor 50mm f2, cross-screen filter, Kodak Plus-X ASA/ISO 125, literal photo of a print, Nikon D750 with a little scratch removal in PS”



Thanks again for participating and voting!

Grumpy Old Guy

***THE WINNERS OF THE AUGUST PHOTO CONTEST!***

The winners thread for the August photo contest is posted in General Discussion. Congratulations to HappyCynic, 2naSalit and HAB911.

https://democraticunderground.com/100217075118

Honey bee

I'm home recovering from surgery for two more weeks, so I thought I'd put the time to good use in the backyard. And yes, I did a ton of photo-processing on this image, probably too much.

***AUGUST PHOTO CONTEST: FINALS THREAD UP IN GD!***

The finals thread is posted in GD. Please let me know if you see any mistakes.

Good luck to our finalists. This is another tough competition.

Grumpy

https://democraticunderground.com/100217065373

*** FINALS THREAD FOR THE AUGUST PHOTO CONTEST***

These are the ten finalists for the August photo contest. The theme, as chosen by last month’s winner AndyS, is as follows:

"The unseen world. The small things we walk past every day; the beauty in the bouquets in the floral department at the grocery store, the zen of stones in a garden, that lone green sprout in the compost or that small creature under your feet. Not necessarily macro but that's not excluded. Butterflies and birds reach out and grab our attention but I'm encouraging all of us to take note of the more subtle compositions around us. As for post processing, sure if it makes the image more appealing or enhances the connection between the subject and viewer. Most of all HAVE FUN with it."

Please vote for the entry that you think best typifies this theme, and please leave comments. We love to hear what you think. This thread will run for seventy two hours, after which the winners will be announced. It is posted here in GD by permission of the administrators.

Thanks for voting.

only fruit w/seeds on outside


Sunflower facing the sun


In The Flight Path


Window to another world


It’s not easy being green


A Stick is a Stick. Maybe


Red Rock Erosion


Morning Dew


Clover


Shore feather

The August prelims have closed!

I'll get the finals up in the morning.

***AUGUST PHOTO CONTEST: PRELIMINARY THREADS ARE UP IN GD!***

The preliminary threads for the August photo contest are up in the General Discussion Forum. They'll run for 72 hours.

Please let me know if you see any mistakes.

Good luck everyone!

Here are the links.

Thread one: https://democraticunderground.com/100217052684

Thread two: https://democraticunderground.com/100217052697

Thread three: https://democraticunderground.com/100217052724

***AUGUST PHOTO CONTEST: THIRD PRELIMINARY THREAD***