Lens-Artists Challenge #408 — Over the Top

~ MaryG

Posting for Egidio’s Lens-Artists Challenge: “Over the Top” 🤩

Nature was showing off last night as my oldest friend and I dined at The Boat House restaurant in Tiverton, Rhode Island. (And by oldest, I mean that we’ve been friends since junior high.) This was the view from the window at our table, as captured by my iPhone 15 through a pane of glass.

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Does anyone else have this problem: you take multiple photos of the same scene and can’t decide which one is the best? Opinions welcomed. If you were me, would you share photo 1, 2, 3 or 4?

I am also very moved by Egidio’s recent post “Walls that Need no Wall” on his blog Through Brazilian Eyes. It’s about the heartbreaking effects of the massive border wall construction project on nature in “one of the last places in Texas where wildlife still moves freely along the river corridor.” Combined with his great photography, it’s a powerful post.

40 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Challenge #408 — Over the Top”

  1. In my experience as someone who takes a lot of photos and posts them and as someone who enjoys looking at photos online, I think people ruin the presentation by showing too many versions of basically the same shot. The wow factor has been crushed, essentially. You were feeling strong emotions when you took that shot, and you want to convey them with your photo, and presenting several moves the viewer away from emotion and towards rationality in deciding which they like. I know that’s what you mean to do here! And sorry to pull this thread away from that intention. It’s just a pet peeve of mine that I easily rant about. I just pick a version and run with it and don’t worry about the others. But, I am less visually attuned than you are, as an artist.

    Gah, the Rio Grande area is spectacular and this wall is breaking my heart. I do not want to see photos or read about baby javelinas being driven from their mothers or whatever. I can’t.

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      1. No worries Shelly! Thanks for looking at my pics. Sunsets and skies in general are so irresistible to try to capture, but even as I’m taking the pics, I’m like WHY am I taking so many? It’s an iPhone. I’m not a professional!
        But You should really check out Edigo’s photos of the Rio Grande “Cathedral” They’re pro pics! (No sad subjects…just the great beauty of that area)

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      2. There really is no excuse for me to comment on your blog like that. I truly am sorry. I’ve a friend who takes amazing photos – he’s got professional cameras and lenses and travels full time, and I love his work. But man does he post so many shots that their power is watered down. I was probably thinking of him when I saw your post.

        Big Bend is gorgeous, as is Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona that is being ruined by the wall. So many gorgeous places down there. We spent three winters on the Rio Grande in south Texas and two in southern Arizona and loved the beauty and the people and watched as border patrol arrested and took them away to God knows where. Terrible.

        In any case, I truly am sorry, and I’ll be more careful of my ranting in the future, promise!

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  4. I love The Boat House! We discovered it last year when we were in Newport.
    Beautiful pics!
    They’re all pretty but if forced to choose, I’d say the last one as the colors are a tad more vibrant.

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    1. Isn’t the Boat House great? It’s so fun that you’ve been there too! And thanks for sharing your opinion on the pics. Much appreciated! That’s actually what I was thinking too.

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  5. Sunsets over the water always seem to know when you’ve got good company — dinner with a friend since junior high sounds like the perfect setting for a sky like that. And the can’t-decide-which-shot dilemma is very familiar here; I come home from every trip with six near-identical frames of the same sunset. If I had to vote I’d lean toward #3, but shooting that through a restaurant window is a lovely catch.

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  9. I have that issue all the time and am glad you posted all of these!! It made for a more ponderous experience. 🙂

    I’d love to read the post you’re recommending, but will hold off. I’m having an “I can’t bear anymore” kind of day. 😦

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    1. Thanks for looking at my photos Stephanie. I’m glad I’m not the only one debating over identical pics!

      Sorry you’re having one of those days. I was away for the weekend, but when I got home, I watched Heather and Joanne talk about Todd Blanche becoming AG and Heather was SO out-of-character upset about it, she freaked me out. 😟

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      1. It’s the constant grasping on to positives, as in “Maybe there are sane republicans that will not do this”, only to again and again and again and again, be failed, with such high stakes. Women are sold out every time. So tired.

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  13. It’s the photographer’s nightmare, choosing between multiple similar images! I must admit I find no reason to prefer any one over the others so if I were you I’d choose a favorite and * it in my database but I’d keep them all because sometimes we change our minds!

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    1. So true Tina! Sometimes I wish I would just stop myself on the front end: just take ONE picture of a scene, like we used to do with film cameras.

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