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Lens-Artists Challenge #308 – Perfect Pairs

Cliff divers in Acapulco.

This week, Elizabeth of Albatz Travel Adventures challenges us to compare and contrast two images. She writes, “We hope you join us this week, as we focus on Perfect Pairs. In your post, compare and/or contrast people, places, food, flowers, or just about anything you wish. Be sure to use the “Lens-Artists” tag and link your post to this challenge post. ” You can read her entire challenge post here.

For my response, I’ve created five diptychs for your consideration. A diptych is simply two images placed side-by-side for comparison purposes. For a successful pairing, the two images should have common elements and at least one very different aspect.

In my opening diptych, a cliff diver hurtles off the high bluff to the sea below. These two images were captured within moments of each other. The similar elements are the diver, the rocks behind, and the crowd below the diver. The difference is the position of the diver’s hands and arms as he prepares to hit the water. Both images have the same time stamp, but he gets into the final position to hit the water below in less than one second between shots. Another noticeable difference is the rock surface behind the diver, which helps to show how fast he is moving.

El Arco, the arch at Cabo San Lucas.

The image on the right is a typical tourist’s view of El Arco, the natural arch at the end of the Baja California peninsula at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The image on the left shows the same arch viewed from the western side. From that angle, another natural arch is visible in the large outcropping at the center of the photo on the right.

1959 Chevrolet Impala.

I have been a fan of the 1959 Chevrolet’s design since it was introduced over 65 years ago. That wide sweeping trunk creates two nearly horizontal tail fins, but the iconic design element of this model year was the cat’s eye tail lights. This example was auctioned at Mecum’s Glendale, Arizona, in 2022.

Harris Hawk.

My last two examples actually feature the same image in before-and-after edits, resulting in two versions of the same story. Harris Hawks hunt in groups like wolves. The left image captures two of the birds of prey on the hunt. The photo on the right is simply a crop that excludes the bird in the background and rotated to fill the frame in a horizontal image for print and framing.

Barcelona day-to-night edit.

I’ve been experimenting with Adobe Lightroom Classic’s masking tools to create photographic art. The original image on the left was captured with my cell phone as our driver turned into a narrow street in the old town center of Barcelona, Spain. In a future post, I will describe the basic techniques I used to give the image an entirely different perspective. I reduced the overall exposure and lit the lamps by using Lightroom’s radial fill tool to transition to night, then a trip to Silver Efex Pro did the black and white conversion. I’ve posted all my diptych choices here on my Flickr site for viewing in 2K HD.

Thanks to Elizabeth for her challenge topic and for volunteering as a guest host. Last week, Leanne’s challenge got us thinking about traveling and just being a “tourist.’ Our guest host for next week’s “Balconies” challenge is PR at Flights of the Soul. If you’d like to participate in the challenge responses each week but are unsure how to get started, check here for details.

John Steiner

30 comments

  2. What wonderfully contrasting subjects you’ve chosen, John. All work wonderfully but my favourite is probably the Arches. I’m always drawn to dramatic seascapes.

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  3. Wonderful post, John. Two of your diptychs stand out for me. The first one with the diver, you managed to focus clearly on them and that makes the shot. I like that the second photo shows how busy it was too. The last diptych shows how impressive your skills are in manipulating an image. This is excellent work and I’d love to see this technique in other of your photos. I might try it myself 😀

    Reply

    • Thanks, Sofia. Credit where credit is due: I learned a lot from Jamie Mathlin’s YouTube videos on changing day into night. His techniques for using Lightroom Classic’s masking tools are so creative. Check it out. My first posts using what I learned are scheduled for September and October.

      Reply

  7. Some interesting pairings, in which the first and last caught my eye in particular. I like the way the diver seems relatively alone in the left-hand image and then in the right-hand one we see how the divers attracts the crowds! And that treatment of the street in Barcelona is really effective – I’ll be very interested to read more about how you edited that shot in a future post 🙂

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  9. It’s been quite inspiring to view everyone’s entry to this challenge, yours included as you cover a number of areas that I hadn’t thought of. The cliff diver with blurred motion, the wonderful cat’s eye taillight in the ’59 Chevy (’59 was such a year of great extravagance in American cars) and Before and After, which is perfect for this challenge! Great choices.

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  11. Excellent choices for the week John. Loved the cliff diver, and was not at all surprised at the beautiful car image 😊. Loved your edit on the bird also

    Reply

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