Last week's Project 52 challenge was started with amazing examples, setting the bar very high. The contributions were all of similar high standard, yet at the same time very different from the examples. Excellent choices!

scomatic started out with an beautifully planned and perfectly executed photograph of something so quick that you can't really follow it with your naked eye, great fit for the theme. Love the smooth, perfectly placed light and the sparkling little bubbles. The narrow focus on the front rim intensifies the illusion of an infinite plain and highlights the motion of the soon-to-be splash.

noelcmn David chasing Goliath, who needs an enormous amount of muscles to get his rear out of the water. An intense moment so impressively captured only because of Fast Shutter Speed. Nice framing, perfect focus - which even makes the somewhat busy background almost disappear.

djb47, using the theme's tool, also captured something which you normally can't study in detail - the underside of all feathers maximally spread out. Great timing. It took me a while to focus on it though - there's a lot of extra stuff in the picture, it's unclear to me if the other bird had anything to do with 'Breaking for touchdown' and the bird has little separation from the tree trunk.

Tamia, I love the sensation of being immersed in a flock of birds and although likely having been more beside than within, using a telephoto lens, I feel that you managed to capture such a moment. Love the almost monochrome high-key range of tones with the red accents as well as the dynamics despite freezing some of the motion with Fast Shutter Speed. I wonder if the reason for feeling a sense of immersion, which I normally try to capture using a wide angle, is actually created by the top birds being cut off a bit, which could ring associations with the limited natural field of view when being "within". I need to experiment with that effect with some of my shots.

How do I rank those? So close that the outcome depends on my mood. With only four, I'll give a full list, as of now:

djb - spot on to the theme - honorable.
scomatic - third. You wrote "... i not even close to it... " about Colors - Blue winners. Not anymore - extremely close (even beyond). Way too close for me though.
Tamia - second for this emotional impressionist moment, and the WINNER is



The Chase from Noel, reminding us that it's sometimes better to run and save your butt even if you have great muscles.

Congratulations and thanks for keeping Project 52 running. I got a lot of inspiration out of it in only a few weeks.

[scomatic]

JensE, haha.... thanks bro for giving 3rd place.

Noel... i was lost to u... 1-0 now...

Congrate to everyone ya..

[noelcmn]

Oh dear! I can see you are a newbie to Project 52 JensE. If you keep me out of the next challenge, and still give me WORK, you go onto my ENEMY list . Dieterson, and Scomatic and others are on that list and they will tell you I have ways of getting you back . See Scomatic is even keeping a record. I m chuffed though, considering that it was really a lucky shot. I was about to leave that pond when I saw the coot approaching and knew there would be some scuffle. The Egyptian goose and mate had a brood of 8 teenagers, which I guess does add a load to the food supply chain. Congrats to Tamia, Scomatic and Ddjb47.

[djb47]

Congrats Noel, Tamia, and scomatic.

[Dieterson]

Dieterson, and Scomatic and others are on that list and they will tell you I have ways of getting you back .

Join the club!

And congrats to the win, Noel, great picture!

[Tamia]

Congrats Noel! A fine shot, indeed, captured at just the right place and time. Thumbs up to Scomatic and DJB47 too. Great shots. Thanks for the judging JensE. Never an easy job, and well done. Thanks for commenting, and for picking my photo for the podium.