Photograph of the Day at Photography Cafe is always a lovely surprise, and this image of a Camellia, was even more of one.  This was a repost after some suggestions from another member to improve the conversion from colour to B&W.  Taken at Haldon Grange near Exeter, I loved the shape and softness of the Petals,  but in colour it just seemed like another “flower” shot,  with a soft conversion to a split toned B&W I felt really improved it.

Here is what the reviewer “Big Al” had to say

I’m claiming some POTD glory this morning with my editing suggestions, but Jane created the general concept. The brown monochrome tone carries an air of decay about it and leads us to think of the camellia (with its naturally ragged petals) as dying. So that is likely to be your first instinctive impression. Then the thoughts change as you take in the delicate folds that are captured by the retention of detail in the whites. The nicely off-centre flower is well counterbalanced with the subtle leaf.

After a long gap I have had 3 Photograph of the Day awards in quick succession.  This image taken the same day as “No Place to Sit” was too busy in colour so I converted in to Black and White and added a subtle split tone effect, to lift it slightly.

Big Al Says:

The stark contrasts in Jane’s POTD add to the sense of abandonment of the boats and the fishing tackle. The two foreground stacks form a good diagonal that give depth to the image.

I was delighted to receive Photograph of the Day for this image taken down on Beer Beach in Devon.  Taken back at the end of October it was pretty cold and grey,  but the four empty deck chairs, sat on the beach seemed to echo the end of autumn.

Big Al Says:

Jane’s POTD works so well through being semi-desaturated. With the sepia tones and the blues, the whole image has that cold feel to it.

We visited a Troglodyte house in Matmata, where a woman lives with her 5 children. The house has some electricity via a solar panel, with a small TV in one of the rooms off the central courtyard and a piped water supply to the front of the building. The youngest of the children grabbed the bag of lollipops our guide brought and was working his way through them, even though I suspect he was supposed to be sharing them.

Jane’s POTD is like a quick trip to the location. In one image we have all the elements that describe living at that location. By having the subject so strongly off-centre we become more focussed on the empty walls and are given a sense of how little there is within the home.

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