Theme: Looking Up

[Nancy Bell]

Another image from Honolulu. Normally I try to avoid cities but there was a great park with several good bird species so I had to travel through the forest of tall buildings until I found the park. Ugh, what a complicated mass of on-ramps, off-ramps, one-ways and solid traffic. What caught my eye was this single Palm Tree rising up against the modern building. I admire the Palm for perseverance. The sooty look to this is my interpretation of the unnatural city atmosphere.

Worked my way through a fair number of steps. Converted to b&w in PS. Used topaz lens effects tilt & shift (I have never tried this before). Into Nik analog and Nik color efex pro, bicolor filters. A layer of fratctalius glow, reduced. A layer of topaz b&w adaptive diffusion. And finally a layer of fractalius blended at reduced opacity.

[Paul Lagasi]

Perfect geometric lines for the theme. Like the blurring around the outside edges...Enjoy Hawaii and don't for get to see the Tropicbirds and Albatrosses

[Cheryl Slechta]

Nancy, I think you used the effects to perfection. It portrays the grittiness of big cities (and the disorientation I always feel with so much going on) and I love the perseverance of the palm tree.

[Dennis Bishop]

I really like the symbolism and the perspective. I haven't, yet, decided how I feel about the left and right sides. The tilt-shift effect sounds like a good idea to emphasize the center vertical. Perhaps it's overshadowed by the texture from one of the Fractalius layers. In any case, those two sides seem to be curving toward me, thus becoming more noticeable. I wonder about darkening them . . .

[Anita Bower]

Wonderful contrast between the tree and the building, the natural world and the human-made world. The colors and muted tones are pleasing. I also like the angle of the shot, with the building diminishing as it rises. I wonder what it would look like with the sides either less blurred, or with a more narrow blur.

[gary ellwein]

The imposing urban structure is encroaching on the brave little palm. The image effectively conveys your feelings.

[Kerry Perkins]

"Every picture tells a story don't it?" - but few do as good a job as this one! I understood your point before I read your comments. The image succeeds in telling the story. I, too, was struck by the contrasts of Honolulu, where everything still proceeds on "island time" despite all the frenetic activity. Very interesting and well-presented image.

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. The tilt & shift effect was not very easy to adjust and I could spent more time perfecting the position of the effect.

Paul, saw the albatrosses and for some reason the tropicbirds went missing. They were not in any of their usual places.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Really good interpretation. I like the juxtaposition between nature and hand of man and did a good job conveying that.