Honorable Mentions go to:
terse. As the submitter of over 1/3rd of the threads pictures this bi-week, he's almost turning into the antonym of his own username. A veritable superfluity of loquaciousness.
There also seemed to be a secret theme of minimalism this week with some standout examples from
sinnerjohn,
JillyG,
WOTANICUS and
terse. Particularly enjoyed
sinnerjohn's batty
. And if we include batty (and I am, judges perogative), that's 6 pics with airbourne birds this week.
In 3rd this week is
Geek1956 with
Summer fun at Botany Bay with a seagull fly past. Lovely tonal depth in the sky. 3 sweeps of criss-crossing movement in the lower part of the picture and the gull accent highlighting the lot. Good job.
In 2nd is
deepop with
Blindsided. Another quite minimalist piece, the contrast between strong, linear bands of light and dark and softer gradients and gentle sweeps is lovely. The delicate curve of the blinds and the echos of them in their own shadows, I find quite powerful.
Our winner this week is
terse with Tailgating.
View attachment 169209
There's something very Fatboy Slim "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" album cover about this but with fewer big beat, electronic music references.
What's to say? A naturalistic, candid portrait, with little or no element of it not doing something useful. The subject looks happy, very comfortable, plugged in and, at the same time, looking out from her personal bubble and the frame of the shot to her companions. And despite being physically out of shot, they are there reflected in her glasses and the back of the tailgate. It's almost a metaphore. Extra points for the fishing gear.
Teachnically, given it's a shooting from the hip shot, It's clean, crisp, compositionally and tonal very nicely balanced. Well done.