Challenge! Challenge #48 - Photo Essay - WINNER ANNOUNCED

Briar

Hall of Famer
Location
Scotland
Start Date
May 16, 2021
End Date
Jun 13, 2021
Start Date May 16, 2021 End Date June 13, 2021

Photo Essay:
With six photographs (no more, no less) tell me a story of your choice. Your story should have a clear beginning, middle and end. You must give your photo essay a title. There is no requirement for you to include captions or text with your six photographs but you can if you want.

As usual, this challenge will consider originality, technical merit and artistic vision.

No change to the tried and trusted rules, which are as follows:

1. Either take pictures that match the nominated theme or select some from your portfolio. You must be the photographer that created the images in order to enter it.

2. Only one entry per challenge, please. If you want to withdraw an entry and replace it with another, that is OK, but you must make it clear in the post containing your replacement pictures that this is what you've done. You can add or change the title and add to the edit line to let everyone know.

3. The decision of the curator at the end of the challenge is final - don't give him/her a hard time about it: this is just a friendly photo challenge, after all!

4. The winner will assume the responsibility of curator for the next Challenge, and as soon as possible post a message in a new thread in the Cameraderie Photo Challenges forum, with details of the new theme. Don't forget - the opening message must include a copy of these instructions, which also double as the rules.

5. The curator cannot enter in his or her own challenge.

Have fun !!!
 
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Excellent challenge!
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A Day In The Life.

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I'm not certain if at a later date, I won't withdraw this entry and enter a second, more thought-out one - but this impromptu Photo Essay just sort of happened to me, the other day. A bit of context: the place is Cape Blanco on the Oregon Coast, which I visited a few days ago, and which, at lower tides has a number of smallish tide pools. Among their denizens one can spot a number of different hermit crabs. And if one is lucky, one can even witness a Close Encounter of the Crustacean Kind -

Like the underwater encounter between these two tiny crabs. Which I later discovered belong to the species Pagarus samuelis - aka blueband hermit crabs---

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I realized the larger one was dragging - pulling - or maneuvering - the smaller one, 'taking it for a ride' so to speak. I wondered if they were fighting, or if the larger wanted to eat the smaller. But it didn't seem that way. The smaller seemed to be cooperating, and both occasionally touched each other, with claws, pincers, or extremities.

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It was like a tidepool dance. What was more unusual was how much both crabs were showing their normally unseen parts. The other hermit crabs I saw largely stayed hidden inside their protective homes. Not these two. They were really coming out of their shells---

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In fact as the smaller one came further out of (her) shell, my camera lens could make out the bristles or setae on her cephalothorax, which normally stay hidden.

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Later, reading up on hermit crabs, I found this behavior - a male pulling or partly dragging the shell of a female - and both crabs touching one another - is part of the foreplay in hermit crabs' mating rituals. It was, literally, a touching display---

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But I think some crustaceans value their privacy; the last I saw of them was when both crabs moved together into the relatively secluded and protected shade of a patch of algae, the equivalent of a tidepool bower :)

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So I wished them well, and walked away.
 
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Instructions:

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The above photos are from a training session some years back with my local chapter of the Oslo based "Historical European Martial Arts" (HEMA) club Frie Duellister/Free duellists. This particular series shows a play from Achille Marrozzo`s treatise "Opera Nova dell'Arte delle Armi" published in 1536 in Modena, Italy.

Interesting challenge, not to easy to do. Never puzzled together a series in LR and found it somewhat wanting. Probably due to me not being very good with it.
 
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I'm flooded with work and other obligations and cannot remember when was the last time I took some calm-time to bond with world through the lens :-(
I really like the concept of this challenge, and would prefer to shoot something specifically for it, but, alas, it's now impossible...

But I wanted to at least participate, so here is a short story of renovation of my studio in the attic; I used to work there for several years, but when roof failed under some heavy snow, and water poured over the walls and my bookshelves, I was forced out. Took me some courage to go back in, but over the years I did, doing most of the work myself, with some help from my father for those tasks that needed some specific tools which I cannot handle alone.

Shots span over long time, various gear and several formats, but let's hope they will work together after all.

1 - Here is the starting point, water stains on walls still visible and furniture moved to allow reconstruction:
1 - PICTOGRAMAX - 2017 - REATELIER - 001.jpg
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2 - Shortly afterward, main cracks on the ceiling fixed:
2 - PICTOGRAMAX - 2017 - REATELIER - 004.jpg
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3 - After finishing the walls, it was time to address the floor:
3 - PICTOGRAMAX - 2021 - ATELIER BLANC.jpg
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4 - That is, to cover it with laminate:
4 - PICTOGRAMAX - 2021 - ATELIER - DEMI LAMINAT - H.jpg
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5 - Then the attention turned to new bookshelves:
5 - PICTOGRAMAX - 2021 - 04 - ATELIER - BOXTIME - A31.jpg
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6 - But before I even got to fill them with books, I found an intruder already sneaked in!
6 - PICTOGRAMAX - 2021 - 05 - ATELIER - INTRUDER.jpg
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It's a shared studio now :)
 
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Oh wow, this was a tough challenge to judge.

First up is Ingall, “A Day in the Life” – I like all the photographs and they work well with one another to tell your story of your day. Starting with mowing the lawn (hope not too early so as not to wake your neighbours), hanging up the laundry, working/studying hard at the computer, making dinner, washing the dishes and finally relaxing in front of the telly with family/friends. Well done.

Next up is Miguel with his “courting” (as my gran used to say) hermit crabs in a “Close Encounter of the Crustacean Kind”. It is a winning title, for sure. I like that you have gone somewhere different with your story and, to be honest, I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. That said, I am struggling to see a story progressing through your six photographs - I think because your male crab is spending too much time “on the pull”. Maybe you needed to be there a little bit longer, wait until they had both said “I do”, and the hermit crab’s equivalent of a midwife had delivered the fruits of their labour. That said, they are colourful images, crabs are always interesting creatures and your commentary was good.

Next up is Matt, “Giving the past a chance to shape the future ...” I’ve got to be honest - I’m not sure exactly what I am looking at (definitely at a loss with the first image) but I can see there is music there, a cigarette butt, a sound booth of sorts(?), maybe a saxophone or some kind of brass instrument and a self portrait?. The images and the way they are presented gives your story a moody feeling, particularly the blurry self portrait. Musician turned teacher? It’s the kind of story that when I reach the end I’m not really sure where I’ve been but keeps me thinking about it afterwards. Intriguing. The images themselves are all well-presented, I like the tones.

Next up, JensM, “"Opera Nova dell'Arte delle Armi", I have a friend who competes in and teaches fencing and I know she would love these photographs. I think your story would have been stronger if you had varied the photographs more – for example including an image of the subjects putting on the headguards/gear, shot the fencing images from different angles as images 3, 4 and 5 seem too similar to show a clear progression from beginning to end. Interesting though and as a subject choice I think it could have worked really well as a photo essay had you approached your image making with that intent at the point in time you originally made these photographs.

Next one up is Milan (pictogramax) and his “Studio Renovation” – I love this. I don’t enjoy doing renovation/decorating but I like watching room transformations. What a wonderful space you have created for a “shared” studio. The different formats of the photographs work well to emphasise the passage of time from the start to the end of your story, the similar processing of the images also tie them together (your images always have a dreamy, pastel look which I like very much) and the variety of images showing the developments within the room as the renovation progressed clearly show a story.

Next up is Don, “Allison’s Four Years at The University”. First up, congratulations to your daughter, Allison, for her graduation. Great achievement. Your photographs are well presented, processed in the same style and individually all very good, and Allison is a beautiful subject. My only criticism is that as most of the photographs are very similar (in a bedroom) I don’t feel I am following the story of your daughter’s four years at the university.

Finally, Ricks’ “Building Project”. I like your images and they clearly show the progression of your story of the build. I am a little distracted with the amazing building behind your project. Please tell me your built that one too. I don’t really get a sense from the images you have included what your build is and I would have liked to have seen some portraits of the personalities involved in the build to invest me more in your story. However, I do like the repeating shapes in some of your images (starting from the building behind).

But now to the winner of the challenge, oh I did say this would be tough … but then it was a tough challenge. My winner is Ingall as his photographs were amazing and clearly worked well together to tell the story of a day in his life. Well done Ingall, now up to you to set the next challenge.
 
Karen, Thank you for this wonderful and really cool challenge. The contributions were extremely varied and quite interesting. Your comments are really appreciated. Congrats to Ingall for the winning set. That raised a high bar from the beginning.
 
Serious congrats to Ingall for a compellingly worthy series of photographs which (Karen is so right in her judging) truly tell the story of a Day in a Life. Additional major props to Karen for creating a great (and difficult) Challenge, and then judging it with clarity and vision. Reading her reactions to, and thoughts about, each series, was illuminating and made me go back and look at them all, again...and again. Which speaks highly to the quality of each entry as well.

On a personal note: you're so right, Karen, my two crabs didn't really afford me the 'story' I was hoping they would. After they disappeared into their 'bower', I waited and waited (and waited!) for them to come out before finally giving up--- so I'm definitely guilty-as-charged (for trying to paper over missing story elements with some clever verbiage, a subterfuge you saw through...:hiding: )

Next time, I'm going to wait alongside the tide pool until the midwife hermit crab arrives... no matter how damn long it takes.

Bravo again to Ingall. What you did wasn't easy.
 
Someone needs to check in on Ingall, let him know he won and that he either needs to start the next one or pass it to someone else
He has visited recently but may have missed this thread update.

Folks can be tagged by putting an @ symbol in front of their name, like @Ingall so the next time they visit they'll get an alert (or receive it to their device if they have push notifications turned on). With that in mind.... tagging @Ingall! :D
 
Sorry for the late reaction, Karen - I've been away renovating grandfather's old house in countryside.
Apparently it's a recurring theme with me :)
Anyway, thanks a lot for an intriguing challenge and lovely comments.
I found your decision totally justified; each of Ingall's images work well independently as well as a whole.
Looking forward to the next one!
 
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