When we were in Berlin we went to a very nice 'craft' market which included a great photographer who was selling some very beautiful photos of churchyard angels. His were sunlit and in B & W and I haven't managed to reproduce the effect. So I've gone for a softer version - in fact this did look effective in B & W but I didn't want to 'lose' the ivy. This is one of a couple of angels in Ascension burial ground (more info on a very interesting place is in the post from April http://365project.org/judithg/365/2011-04-02 ). I had a nightmare deciding on crop - should I have kept more of the wings?
I love the softness of this, Judith. I can see where you might have wanted to go with b&w but I agree that the green of the ivy is effective. As for the crop, I really like this. There is enough of the wing to let the viewer know this is an angel.
Love the soft focus and creeping Ivy
I agree with Karen @minxymissk reminds me of Doctor Who episode "Blink" which was one of the scariest ever.. excluding the Daleks or course.
looks good judith quite a different genre for you. If you wanted to do B/W but keep the ivy, you could try selective colouring, but I'd imagine that would be tough to do with all the curvy shapes of the ivy :) ,,,,having said that you could try just a couple of ivy branches rather than every one
@phil_howcroft Yeah I should make the effort to Photoshop - I haven't done any in a while. I did have a letterbox crop at one point - it was effective but I didn't have the angel in the right place - I'll have to try again...
I think it's a good crop and a well balanced composition. If you added more of the wing it would probably dominate the top left of the shot, so I think you made a good choice. I like the softness of it.
He looks like a boy angel to me & I have a thing about angels, I love them & in fact collected them for years...visitors brought them from all over the place for me !!! None as nice as this one though & I really like how you have shot this , very soft & the ivy is perfect trailing round across that mellow stone ! The wings are magnificent !!! Beautiful Judith !!
@happypat Thanks very much Pat - yes - could be a boy! In a large and beautiful graveyard there were only two angels and lots of celtic crosses. I don't know why. We do have another graveyard with some beautiful angels but some lout knocked the heads off lots of them one night. I like your new profile pic!
@judithg Thanks Judith. I am making heavy weather of commenting tonight as I'm watching my two favourite TV programmes, Location , Location & Grand designs so bobbing back every time there is an ad on !!
I agree with Karen @minxymissk reminds me of Doctor Who episode "Blink" which was one of the scariest ever.. excluding the Daleks or course.