Ruins in B&W

[armando_m]

Left over of an old aqueduct

Drove early in the morning hoping to take a picture of the morning sun coming through the arches, but the weather thought otherwise, it was foggy 20kms away from home and stay like that for another 40kms until I got to the location .

What do you think ?

I think the crop is a bit odd

I wish it further in the water, so the reflection would be complete, but the plants start right at the bottom of the current crop

Thanks for looking

[arne saknussen]

I think this is a brilliant shot. The birds couldn't be more perfectly positioned. The little islands of reeds, also well placed. Very moody in a good way. Maybe the out of focus flora in the lower right could be cloned out.
But one of the best photos I've seen on this site.

[albot976]

The photo has a lot going for it, I really like the overall feel of the scene. Off the top of my head:

I agree with your own assessment on the positioning/reflection. I also sense a slight clockwise tilt. Minor issues are the oof reeds and the interrupted patch of reeds on the left. I can't quite decide on the extra bird in the top left.

[LeeIs]

Top notch this one! Amazing. I love the quality of this. Great capture. Its' so surreal. The black and white treatment is also great. The birds push this one out of this planet. Really amazing job on this one. You should submit it to those national geographic photography contests.. Great job!

[jetrim]

Beautiful shot with a fantasic conversion. The only thing I don't care for is the out of focus weeds on the lower right.

[llewpics]

I love the photo. Very good. My suggestion - clone out a few of the out of focus reeds in the lower right, the head of the bird and straighten the bottom of the shot - left side has some land showing, the right side does not. I would remove the bird in the upper left - not sure it adds anything - unless it's one of those "hay, wait up for me"? :-)

[armando_m]

Wow! thanks for all the comments
I'll work on the cloning at the bottom

[GB1]

Tons of potential Armando, though a little busy as is. I took the liberty of making a few quick edits (crops, mostly..). What do you think of the adjustments?

Looks like old Roman ruins btw. Where is it?

G

[armando_m]

GB, I think the crop on the left works well

I'll clone the out of focus weeds tonight

This is at a town called "Teuchitlan " at " De la vega" dam, 60 kms east of Guadalajara, México.
The view is from the side of the road, there really isn't much room to stand and take your time, it is a really crappy little 2 lane road with plenty of potholes right at the end of a hill so cars coming down are going fast, there are a couple of restaurants to each side of the ruins, here is a view from the side...

[daq7]

I really like the basic image. The big blown white spot is a bit of a deraction.

[armando_m]

thanks daq, by big white spot do you mean the sky ?

here is a second version

[PhilF]

sweet... I like the edited version when you got rid of that distracting grass in the foreground

[LeeIs]

love your edit. works well. now i know the secret of getting such a soft silky exposure! FOG! awesome. i really love this photo.

[armando_m]

Thanks Phil and Liban

[arne saknussen]

You made a great shot even better.

[DrRoebuck]

The original crop is hands-down the best.

People here are way too quick to clone things out. IMO, the stuff at the bottom of the frame is enough to add interest and natural framing to the photo without taking anything away from the main subject.

Great shot.

[armando_m]

Thanks Arne and DrRoebuck

[PrevailingConditions]

Armando,

I've been meaning to comment, but haven't had enough time.

This is a really striking shot - especially the edited version. Great textures and tonality in the B&W and the slow shutter nicely accentuates the movement of the birds. Muy bien hecho amigo!

PC

[gahspidy]

Great! I like your last edit here best. My only suggestion would be to crop out the top sky into a 4x8 ratio as opposed to the 4x5 it is now.
Excellent shot with great mood and the b&w works perfectly in this one.

[hminx]

Congrats on sticky, +1 on what Gary suggested but make sure you keep that bird in the top left hand corner even if you have to clone it down. Very nice shot.... :thumbsup:

[rebcastillo77]

Fantastic shot- love the choice of black and white! Although like you, I wish the reflection was complete. Given the fact that you were working with what was there the composition is great. I do think the blurry reeds need to be cloned out, and possibly a faster shutter speed to get better stop action of the birds in flight- overall really well done.

[LeeIs]

Congrats on the stickification! Well deserved.

[Greg McCary]

The last one is stunning maybe brush up on your cloning skills it could use a few ripples were you cloned the weeds. If you lose some off the top please leave the bird in the upper left even if you have to move it. Great work like this is inspiring.

[armando_m]

Thanks Mike, Gary, Pete, Liban , Greg

yeah, I need to improve my cloning of things, may need to use something else than capture nx2 , it's cloning can be brilliant, other times is not the best, the worst is that it decides by itself what to clone, so ... I ended up painting some of the area eliminating the ripples all together, I think picasa can do better

I do not think I'll crop it any further

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Mike, Gary, Pete, Liban , Greg

yeah, I need to improve my cloning of things, may need to use something else than capture nx2 , it's cloning can be brilliant, other times is not the best, the worst is that it decides by itself what to clone, so ... I ended up painting some of the area eliminating the ripples all together, I think picasa can do better

I do not think I'll crop it any further

Even an older version of PS. I used PS7 for a couple of years. It has all the basic tools you could need. In some ways I miss it. I use CS4 now.