Most Viewed Photo For Week Ending 12/8

steamer

steamer

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The color is outstanding, the handling of the light is technically perfect, and the composition is spot on.

What IZr has here is by far superior to images for the winter holiday season I've seen around.

His photo is a serious and considered piece of work.

I'm impressed.
 
Up to a point, Lord Cropper

Up to a point, Lord Cropper

steamer said:
An intriguing take on the holiday by uber-curmudgeon, Cristopher Hitchens:
http://www.slate.com/id/2179045/
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What is particularly intriguing is that Hitchens clearly knows nothing about his subject. The Maccabean revolt was not an attack on philosophical Hellenism. It was a national reaction to the enforced worship of the same pasteboard gods that Socrates and every other significant Greek philosopher had already debunked. As for the Seleucid Empire as in any sense a culture bearer, well you could just as well say that Mugabe's Zimbabwe is the embodiment of English literature.

In fact the influence of Hellenistic philosophy in Judaism grew massively in the following centuries - and Jewish thought exerted a powerful influence in return. Far from being introverted hicks, the Maccabees sought to reject the rotten, fast declining and essentially unhellenic institutions of post-Alexandrian kingship for the rising power of the Roman Republic - they gave Rome the best review it ever got - http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/1maccabees/1maccabees8.htm . One could easily argue that Hanukkah marks a significant step towards a revival of the genuine Hellenic culture which lit the eastern world for some centuries afterwards, and which in its generous diversity is well reflected in IZr's beautiful photograph.

Cheers, Ian
 
I think you will find there is much reaction to the photo, just that it is with the photo, in the gallery. Nice photo for sure.
 
steamer:


Keep at it my friend.

We'll bump this thread as long as it takes to succeed. And then some more.

Stephen wants this site to be more image centric, so he's not going to mind bumping to keep 'Most Viewed' on the front page.

Awhile back I almost gave up 'Gallery Picks', and then it suddenly and unexpectedly came to life again. Same with 'Critiques'.
 
Thanks Jon. It's not much trouble to post this every week. Maybe a problem that anyone who might be inclined to comment on the photo has done so the previous week in the gallery .
 
steamer said:
Maybe a problem that anyone who might be inclined to comment on the photo has done so the previous week in the gallery .
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I think that could be a problem, Steamer, but I one which might be overcome if the photographer contributed too, explaining circumstances, intentions and so on. That opens up discussion beyond simple responses to the image, as in the gallery.

I also think the Hitchin's link was a good idea 😉

Cheers, Ian 🙂
 
Hanukkah by IZr.

Hanukkah by IZr.

This is an outstanding photo certainly one of the best ever here at RFF. It should be noted here so every one can enjoy it. It's in My Favorites.
 
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I think the opportunity to discuss the images we share is what is most important, and a value to RFF. If the conversation does not go far this week, next week hopefully it gets a step further.

As for the image, yet another simple photograph, and glad I am to see that it was so viewed this week of Hanukkah. Though I don't know all of the symbolism, if the colors of the candles mean something different each day, it does glow and in general shares a warm inviting atmosphere which we should all feel as our year wraps up.
 
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It's a beautiful shot. I agree, the colors are nice. The pastry really softens up the image, I might add. And looks inviting too, as others commented. Nice shot, Izr.

And I love the discussion of the Maccabean revolt against post-Alexandrian Hellenism. No, really! Thanks for the discussion, steamer, and Jocko (aka Ian).
 
I'm sure Chris will let us know what he thinks about Christmas before too long. I remember some years ago he was in demand on the TV news because he was the only person who had something bad to say about both Mother Theresa and Lady Di.
 
This is a good image. The exposure is good. The color balance is good; I like that lzr kept some of the color of the light. It's very easy with PS to "correct" that out. I don't know the significance of the pastry, but including it on the left and cropping that same side cleverly supplied a nice balance.

.
 
ClaremontPhoto said:
steamer:


Keep at it my friend.

We'll bump this thread as long as it takes to succeed. And then some more.

Stephen wants this site to be more image centric, so he's not going to mind bumping to keep 'Most Viewed' on the front page.

Awhile back I almost gave up 'Gallery Picks', and then it suddenly and unexpectedly came to life again. Same with 'Critiques'.
Click to expand...

One thing that MIGHT have made this the most viewed image of week (besides it being a great image) is RFF's bias toward gear. A low-light shot like this is going to attract a lot of attention, because of our love of fast lenses. A lot of members are interested in low-light performance. One of the first things I did after admiring the shot was to look for the camera specs (film or digital, what camera, what lens?), and I normally don't do that, unless the shot has some techincal difficulty. One of the most viewed threads on RFF over the last two weeks has been the Bokeh thread. 99% of that thread is images, and it is probably one of the more instructional threads I've seen in a long time here, because it makes a nice correlation between gear and image. One must know the capabilities of the gear one owns.




🙂
 
steamer said:
I'm sure Chris will let us know what he thinks about Christmas before too long. I remember some years ago he was in demand on the TV news because he was the only person who had something bad to say about both Mother Theresa and Lady Di.
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His column is called "Fighting Words". I see him as a professional provocateur. Often entertaining and worth having around even (perhaps especially) when he's wrong.

...Mike
 
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