Image of the Week “Hall of Fame” (2021 Archive)

Question

You may know that Photo SE (this site's parent :) has a "Photo of the week" contest.

Here are all the images featured on the homepage from the beginning of 2021 in reverse chronological order.

Hall of Fame

27 December 2021: Sliver

storm grate in snowfall – dandavis

A sliver? How about 9?

Taken Dec 2005 in Urbana, IL with a Canon 300D using a Canon 28mm f2.8 lens for 1/160 @f/5 on ISO 100.

20 December 2021: Sliver

Top of the Tail – LightBender

The scutes on the top of an crocodile's tail at the Crocodile Lagoon, Cozumel, Mexico, Mar 2, 2019

Nikon D700, Nikkor 80-400 @ 400mm f9 1/250s ISO 500

13 December 2021: Landscapes

Milky Way Over Sequoia – whackamadoodle3000

Sequoia National Park, June 26th 2021
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 18-140
f/3.5, 20 seconds, ISO400

6 December 2021: Landscapes

Sheenjek River, Fall Colors, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska – qrk

4 Sep 2017
Nikon D7000, 18-140 lens, 30mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 320

Fall colors above the Sheenjek River near Double Mountain, about 240km (150mi) north of the Arctic Circle.

29 November 2021: Landscapes

Grand Tetons at Sunrise – BobT

Grand Tetons at Sunrise, Snake River Overlook
Nikon D800, 24-70mm @34mm, 1/40, f/8, ISO 100

22 November 2021: No Landscapes

Stainless Shadows – BobT

Fujifilm X-E3, XF18-55mm @55mm
1/150 at f/5.6, ISO 200

Detail, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago.
Frank Gehry, Architect.

15 November 2021: No Landscapes

Sherwood Toadstool – Matt Dunn

Amanita muscaria

Sherwood Forest, UK
October 17 2021
Fujifilm X-T3, XF35mm
f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 500

8 November 2021: Black and White, Metaphorically

Under Pressure – Ed on PCR

Part of a series of photos pitting nature against machine. Taken in September 2019 with a Sony A65. f/5.6 at 1/6 second using a 120 mm lens and a tripod.

Note - I used a found nest and fake eggs - no birds (or eggs) were harmed while taking this picture.

1 November 2021: Black and White, Metaphorically

Darkness Sleeps – Tim Medora

From a "Darkness and Light" series I shot in May 2019.

Canon EOS R w/ RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM
74mm f/10 1/250s ISO 1250
Portable strobe with 2x4' softbox.

25 October 2021: Festivals

Your Favorite Enemies at Midi Festival – techolic

It was a great performance with a crazy crowd, there were numerous diving and crowd surfing from the audience but what's shown is the vocal surfing while recording with a camcorder at the end of the performance.

05/08/2011, Central Park, Shanghai

50D, 50mm, f/3.2, ISO 100, 1/1250

18 October 2021: Festivals

Renaissance Festival near Charlotte NC – Ed on PCR

Renaissance Festival near Charlotte NC. My first year attending. This photo captures a lot of the feel of the festival - hot, dusty, magical- with the backlight of the sun really bringing out some of the latent energy while the festivalgoers moved from experience to experience.

Taken with an iPhone 6 in 2016. f2.2 at 1/3049 sec at ISO 32 (according to the meta-data).

11 October 2021: Metal on metal

Underneath the beehive – MiguelH

Seen at Kew Gardens. A metal construction that you can walk into, around and under. It has a glass floor that collects rainwater. A view from underneath.

Lumix Panasonic gx80, 14 mm. f: 6.3, ss:1/320, iso:200

4 October 2021: Metal on metal

Heavy Metal – Michael C

_{Canon EOS 5D Mark IV + EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II @ 200mm. ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/400.}

Six-hundred tons (1.2 million pounds or 544,310 kilograms) of Union Pacific 'Big Boy' locomotive #4014 rests on one-hundred-sixty pound rail¹ during an August 26, 2020 stop in Gurdon, Arkansas as it waits to stretch its legs again once the green light is lit.

The locomotive, manufactured in 1941, was restored to operating condition in 2019 after spending over fifty years on static display at the RailGiants Train Museum in Southern California. Following several tours of various parts of the Union Pacific system in the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2019 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad connecting the east and west coasts of the United States, #4014 did not make any public appearances during 2020.

Union Pacific took #4014 out again for a six week tour in the late Summer of 2021 with stops in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Kansa, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and then back home to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

_{¹ 160 pound rail is so called because it weighs 160 pounds per linear yard (72.6 kg per 0.914 m).}

27 September 2021: Relationships

Bicycle Brothers – LightBender

A pair of brothers out for a ride along the East River Greenway on a cool spring afternoon in Manhattan - April 16, 2016

Nikon D700; Nikkor 80-400; 2X Teleconverter; ISO 200 1/1600 f/5.6 800mm

20 September 2021: Relationships

Unknown couple at town fair – The _traveler

Unknown couple at town fair in Laurel, MD
Shot with Olympus EP-3 (lens 14-42) 1/200, f/8, ISO 200

13 September 2021: Cats

Neighbour cat on the tree branch – Slasher

Canon 800D | EF 70-300mm F4-F5.6 | 1/30 | ISO 1600

6 September 2021: Cats

Pixel, focused – xenoid

Another family member's cat (appropriately named "Pixel") that we fostered for two weeks. New environment, new discoveries, here fascinated by a furniture lift operating outside. The almost snake-like head droop intensifies the attention.

Canon EOS 70D + EF-S 35mm Macro, ISO800, f/3.5, 1/160s.

This little 35mm lens is overlooked, it changes your style.

30 August 2021: Food

Onion Volcano – LightBender

An onion volcano at my favorite Japanese Steakhouse that got a little out of control.

Pentax K1000 (I think, Nikon F2 also possible given the time frame Mid-Late 2000's), Unknown lens and settings, Kodachrome ISO100, digitized with a Nikon D700 using a PB-4 bellows and a PS-4 slide copy adapter.

23 August 2021: Food

A productive afternoon, guaranteed – techolic

home

EOS M2, 22mm, f/2.0, 1/60, ISO100

16 August 2021: Music

Halftime Hip Hop – Michael C

One of the Drum Majors for the Jackson-Olin High School Marching Mustangs Band performs at halftime of a first-round playoff game in Birmingham, Alabama November 9, 2018.

Canon EOS 7D Mark II + EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II @ 200mm. ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/500.

^{Cropped from 3,648x5,472 (2:3) to 3,483x4,644 (3:4) before resizing to 1,800x2,400 to meet the Photography SE size limit}

9 August 2021: Music

Musical urinal – Baz

Found this interesting urinal on a trip through England.

Camera: Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro Lens: f/1.8 1/20 4.77mm ISO2422
Location: The Bell Pub in Ticehurst, England

2 August 2021: Surprise!

The Blues – whackamadoodle3000

7:07pm, July 13th 2021, Los Gatos, CA
Nikon D500 with Sigma 150-600
1/1000, ISO10000, f/6

A California Scrub Jay attacked a house finch in the air, pecking it to death on the road. It really surprised me, I never thought they killed other birds.

26 July 2021: Surprise!

Before The Snap – LightBender

Nikon D200, f13, ISO 100, 1/100s (with strobes that dump their charge in 1/1200s)

Don't ask me how this got into my head, probably some mixture of insanity, boredom and insomnia. I was playing around with some 70/30 beam splitting glass (which only has one reflective plane), bought a dozen mouse traps and a dozen eggs and did exactly what it looks like, dropped the eggs on the traps.

This was the second best timed shot in the batch. Even though I missed the timing (off by a couple of lousy milliseconds), I've always particularly liked the pent up anticipation in this shot. This is the first time I've ever shared it, so as Bob Ross would say, enjoy this happy little accident.

In case anyone is curious, this was the image I actually selected from the shoot. It's surprisingly one of the best selling images in my gallery, so for obvious reasons I don't want to release it under CC BY-SA 4.0

19 July 2021: Street Photography

I'm Moo-vin' On – Michael C

The parade had passed moving right to left earlier in the evening. About forty-five minutes after the end had snaked by the Princess Theatre and continued another mile or so to the end of the route this entrant drove by retracing the path from whence it had come.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II + EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS.
ISO 3200, f/4, 1/160.

December 3, 2012. Decatur, Alabama.

12 July 2021: Street Photography

37 Pieces of Flair – LightBender

On a photography walkabout to downtown NYC 2017-06-24 4:27pm, saw this lady who could give Brian a run for his money.

Nikon D700, Nikkor 80-400mm
f9 1/200s ISO 3200 @ 800mm (using a 2x teleconverter)

Converted to B&W in Photoshop plus an emulated split contrast double exposure for depth.

5 July 2021: Street Photography

Indifference – MiguelH

PANASONIC LUMIX GX10, 31mm
F10, 1/400, ISO 200

28 June 2021: Long Exposure

Ice Cave – user24582

Location: Eisriesenwelt, Austria
Date: 2019-08-16
Camera: Nikon D3100 18-55 @ 18mm, f/5, 4s, ISO 3200

The entrance is at the bottom of the cave, these people are actually on the way out.

21 June 2021: Long Exposure

Pay Here – Tom Brossman

People's Park, Saint Helier, Bailiwick of Jersey
6 August 2016
Nikon D750, Nikkor 50mm f1.2, 3 seconds (tripod), ISO 140.

Walking around the park taking some ordinary long exposure photos and filling the frame with motion blur, I noticed the ticket taker in the booth sitting perfectly still and thought "could be an interesting photo", so I backed up a little to include the ticket booth.

14 June 2021: Symmetry

Underpass – MiguelH

London

Panasonic Lumix Gx1
F5.3, 1/125, 29mm

9 June 2021: Symmetry

Great Egret – whackamadoodle3000

Baylands Nature Preserve, March 28th 2021

Nikon D500 with Sigma 150-600
ISO 224, f/7.1, 1/2000

31 May 2021: In Deep Thought

Furrowed brow – user98068

2021-05-15, a German kitchen

Sony DSC-R1, f=58mm (135 eq), f:6.3

24 May 2021: In Deep Thought

Should I Stay or Should I Fold Now? – Lightbender

One of a group of elderly women playing cards in the park on a beautiful spring day. Wasn't close enough to see what game they were playing. Taken during a street photography trip to Columbus Park, New York, NY.

Nikon D700 with a Nikkor 80-400mm and 2x teleconverter at 700mm. ISO 800; 1/500s; f/5 Captured 2015-05-23

17 May 2021: Typography

Numbers – Zeus

At MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), Hobart, Australia.

September 2013
Canon EOS 5D III, EF24-105 f/4L @ 65 mm f/5.6, 1/13 s, ISO 3200.

10 May 2021: Typography

Confidential – Gian

Manila, 2019
iPhone 8 + macro attachment, desaturated with minor exposure adjustments

3 May 2021: All Blur

Picasso in Four Dimensions – LightBender

Shot through a cascading sheet of water, using the water rather than the lens to blur and distort the model. (Honestly never thought I'd actually get to use this for anything other than having a little fun experimenting in the back yard.)

Nikon D300; Nikkor 70-300mm @ 145mm; 1/125sec; F7.1; ISO 200

January 30, 2011; Knoxville, TN

26 April 2021: All Blur

Working Through the Night – whackamadoodle3000

April 12th 2021 1:30 AM, Los Gatos, CA

iPhone 7+, my keyboard, and solely my monitor/keyboard backlight used for lighting

Swirled my phone at the keyboard to represent my state of mind. If you're wondering why you can see discrete keys instead of just a blurry spiral, it's because the keys actually blink faster than I can see (did a slowmo of my keyboard), so on a slow exposure each of these blinks is recorded, breaking up the blur into pieces.

19 April 2021: Up There

Andromeda Galaxy/Messier 31 – Jonas

Location: Taken from my backyard in Southern Germany (Bortle 4)

Date: February 13, 2021

Camera: Nikon D5300 with Tamron 70-210mm f/4 @135mm, ISO 4000, f/4, 1.3s

I stacked 350 light frames with some calibration frames in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Photoshop and StarNet++. If anyone is interested, I mostly followed the process described in this video: ANDROMEDA GALAXY with only a Camera, Lens, & Tripod.

Considering this photo was taken without a star tracker and a beginner DSLR, I am quite happy with the result even though it is admittedly noisy. I hope it might encourage someone to try astrophotography out themselves, without needing expensive equipment.

12 April 2021: Up There

Kaylee mid-flight – Baz

This is a shot of my wee dog Kaylee chasing after her ball jumping across the heather.

Location: Sidlaw Hills near Dundee, Scotland

Date: 2020-11-28

Camera: Panasonic DC-GX9, 12-60@39mm (image cropped in post), f/5.4, 1/800 sec, iso 200

4 April 2021: Transportation

Tired man after work – phuclv

Ho Chi Minh city, 29 Jan 2019

29 March 2021: Transportation

No Parking – Tetsujin

Our neighbours woke us up in the middle of the night with "I think you ought to come & see this…"

The Merc that the BMW came to rest against is mine. The driver had managed to lose control so spectacularly that he wrote off 6 cars on a road only 80 metres long, some much worse than you can see here, he'd managed to surf along a few. Mine was miraculously untouched.

Nikon D5500 50mm 1.4 2xGodox V860II - one on-camera, the other held by the neighbour.
Sept 2017, North London.

22 March 2021: Reflections

How I need to feel! – MiguelH

Date: 27/02/2020
Place: Piha Beach, NZ

14 March 2021: Reflections

Long Exposure Over Local Lake – Bodkin's Best Photography

Subject: Local Lake
Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Date: January 2021

Long Exposure Over Local Lake

8 March 2021: Straight out of Camera

Black & White Self - Caveman – Eric Duminil

It's a self portrait, taken in front of my house, in Stuttgart, on the 26th of September 2009.

Shot with D90 in RAW+JPG mode, and BW preset already applied. The only thing I changed after taking the picture was to choose "M" size in order to stay under the 2MB limit. (Here's a large JPEG in original size and with EXIF preserved.)

D90 + Tokina 11-16, 16mm, f/7.1, 1/200s. Multiple flashes.

1 March 2021: Straight out of Camera

Maroon Bells in Moonlight – scottbb

Taken at the edge of Maroon Lake in the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area, west of Aspen, Colorado, USA, two nights before full moon on September 25, 2015, 2:40 AM.

Nikon D800E and PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5 ED lens; ISO 3200, ƒ/5.6, 30 sec.

This was trying to dial in Scheimpflug tilt to maximize depth of field with a wide aperture, under dark conditions. I learned a lot in the effort; primarily, I still have a lot of practice to go.