Winning images - Admin's choice - Round three 2015

[Marko]

Hi members,

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo nominated by other members from the Member's monthly choice forum. Once 10 images are nominated, I choose a 'winner'.

Just so it's clear, the photo(s) I choose are not necessarily the best ones of the month. I've come to realize it's not logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That's why there are categories in photo contests. My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo (or two) and talk about why I think it rocks.

This round of nominations, once again yielded images of exceptional quality in genres so different that I was unable to choose just one.
So this round's winners are Two views of Brooklyn Bridge by ewaizel and Eastern Bluebird Update by Mike Bons. I chose these images for several reasons;

Two views of Brooklyn Bridge by ewaizel

1 - Perspective and composition - I really like the viewpoint of this photograph. We are seeing Brooklyn's famous bridge from an unusual angle and my eye likes it. I also dig the 'layering' of elements (cars, bridge buildings) in this image from front to back and left to right.

2 - Colour/timing - Colour works well for me. The Blue hour was a great time to shoot this scene as the buildings in the background are well separated colourwise from the sky. We even get some detail in the water.30 minutes later and it would have been too dark.

3 - Exposure - Lovely choice using a long shutter speed to show the movement in the cars.

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Eastern Bluebird Update by Mike Bons

1 - Exposure - colour - sharpness - Wow this image pops due to its colour! It was shot under good manageable lighting conditions, likely with some external flashes and it's busting with beauty. Love the shallow depth of field to keep our eyes glued to the 2 main subjects. Shutter speed is fast to freeze the eye and open beak and we even catch a bit of airborne debris. Great choices all around.

2 - Gesture - timing - Both are perfection. We love the open beak of the bird just about to receive a treat.

3 - Post-processing - The postprocessing here tightens up the image big time. Look at the tree's stump in the foreground. It's colour and tone are perfect in brightness. Edges are clean, no brightness distractions.

For all these reasons, these are my choices for round 3. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choices. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my picks, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photos that we may learn from.

Congrats again to ewaizel and Mike Bons!