4th: Francis (2)

Francis (2), originally uploaded by Parc Cruz.

The Fourth PICK OF THE WEEK, goes to
Francis (2) by Parc Cruz

Picked by Christine Lebrasseur and here's what she said:

I have already chosen the photo I preferred and it was
really difficult because the thing which I am the most
sensitive is the poetry of the picture, when it talks to
me.

____________________________
La technique, photoshop, la manipulation ne m'intéresse
pas, bien que tout ces éléments soient bien maitrisés
dans cette image, mais cette homme ambigü parce qu'à la
fois vétu de la capuche de la mort et auréolé de la
sainteté de la lune traversant en conquérant ce
cimetière nocturne m'a rappelé ces vers de mon poète
préféré dont voici un extrait en français (il faudra
trouver un traducteur poète ;) :

"(...)On dirait que le ciel, en cette solitude,
Se contemple dans l'onde, et que ces monts, là-bas,
Écoutent, recueillis, dans leur grave attitude,
Un mystère divin que l'homme n'entend pas.

Et lorsque par hasard une nuée errante
Assombrit dans son vol le lac silencieux,
On croirait voir la robe ou l'ombre transparente
D'un esprit qui voyage et passe dans les cieux."

[Charles Baudelaire] - Incompatibilité

Merci à lui...
_________________________

The technique, photoshop, manipulation does not interest
me, although all these elements are well controlled in this
image, but this ambiguous man because in the same time cover
of the hood of Dead and haloed holiness of the Moon crossing
as a conqueror this cemetery by night, remember me these
verses of my preferred poet of which this is here a French
extract (a translator poet will have to be found ;) :

"(...)On dirait que le ciel, en cette solitude,
Se contemple dans l'onde, et que ces monts, là-bas,
Écoutent, recueillis, dans leur grave attitude,
Un mystère divin que l'homme n'entend pas.

Et lorsque par hasard une nuée errante
Assombrit dans son vol le lac silencieux,
On croirait voir la robe ou l'ombre transparente
D'un esprit qui voyage et passe dans les cieux."

[Charles Baudelaire] - Incompatibilité

Thanks to him...

Chris

3rd: Nightmare...

Nightmare..., originally uploaded by *Christine Lebrasseur.

Picked by Andrew Geddes and here's what he said:

:: and the winner is...


Like Uli before me, I utilized the Firefox tab elimination
technique and Nightmare... by *Christine Lebrasseur was the
last tab standing!

I was a little wishy washy after i had narrowed it down to
the final 3, but when i looked at it large, and on a black
background, it sealed the deal.

The pink of the little girls clothes.. the surreal blue of
the vegetation.. it really does look like a scene from a
nightmare. i love it!

Thanks to all who participated, you didn't make it easy on
me ;)

Andrew Geddes

1st: room with a view

room with a view, originally uploaded by u.linder.

edit: this pic made it to become the first ever pick of the week winner! unbelievable!!
thx to joe!
thx to everybody for your nice comments, favs and congrats!! i am so honored!!


i met this guy in one of the rooms staring through this open window. i don't know who he is. maybe somekind of caretaker. =)
third pic of the special places i mentioned.
i took this during a tour with mace2000. we went to the hornisgrinde, the highest point of the northern black forest (1.164 m / 3.819 ft.). this was inside an old, abandoned and decayed house.
meanwhile we found out that these houses were used by the french army from 1945 to 1996.
it's a really great and creepy place!!
i think there are lots of pics to come. stay tuned....

-----

Upon winning the 1st ever Pick of the Week, here's what Uli said:
My best friend Mace2000 and I went on a photo-tour to the Hornisgrinde, the highest point of the northern Black Forest (1.164 m / 3.819 ft.) in Germany. It was a great tour. My friend showed me some old, abandoned and decayed houses which he discovered on a single tour a few days before our tour. I took this picture inside one of these houses.To be honest this one was done more or less by accident, so I am sorry, but there is no interesting story behind this pic.

I shot a lot of rooms, and then I thought, "Ok, lets try something with the autotimer". I only shot one pic with the autotimer, this one you see here. Back home I looked at all my pics and I thought "Oh, not that bad"... Ok, it was a little overexposed. I played around with the raw-file and then I thought "This could be cool". I changed the exposure compensation, added a lot of shadow contrast and suddenly the reflection in the window appeared... in photoshop I dublicated the layer, added a black radial gradient overlay in between both layers to darken the bright window. For the upper layer I used the unsharp mask and changed the layer opacity till I thought it's ok. I used a filter called melanchytron to get this melancholic look and finally I desaturated it a lot. I think that's it.

Thanks again for all your nice comments, thanks Joe for choosing my pic, and I hope I will do a good job choosing the next pic of the week. ;)
Greets from Germany,
Uli