Mini-Challange #162 Overgrown - Results

kentwaller

Well, I have reviewed these entries many times over. I realized pretty quickly that this was a fairly narrow-focus, and a somewhat unusual subject, but I was still very impressed with the quality of photos posted - Vielen Dank to all who entered! I started with a Top 20, cut it to 15 , then to 12, then to 9, and finally to 5 that I will highlight here. So many interesting shots made it very, very difficult to choose - each one of these at some point in my mind was going to be the winner. But rank them I must, so here we go - announcing the Top 5:



5th Place:
Ulrich - Hang'g Around. I think this maybe is an old gas station? The clouds and indirect lighting create a very unique mood. Looks like this is your first ever post on dgrin, so well done and welcome to the forum!






4th Place:
DsrtVW - Fountaingrove Barn. Wow - talk about overgrown! This is fascinating - is that barn literally holding up that tree? Great shot!





3rd Place:
Earache - Fixer-Upper. Great title! Or as my real estate friend would say "handyman's dream". This house is done. Nature wins. Terrific shot!





2nd Place:
TravelinLass - Ta Prohm. When I first announced this theme I wondered if you had any pics of Angkor Wat that you would enter. You came through! Spectacular photo of an unbelievable ruin. I wonder if there might be a local debate about whether or not the trees should be removed to protect the ruins. Tremendous mood to this scene - great work as always!





and the winner is...



1st Place:
fjcvisual - I remember. I really liked the emotion projected by this photo. Terrific composition, lighting and mood. The nearby tree gives me a sense of peering around a tree into a forgotten link to the past. This old house has a story to tell, such a ghostly feel to the place. Great work, terrific photography, thanks for sharing, and now - you get to do the next challenge!

grandmaR

Really good pictures and congratulations to all.

ShootingStar

Nice choice.
I feel that I am in the forest looking at it and something is about to happen...

richtersl

Great choices!

Congrats to all the winners!!!

fjcvisual

Thanks and congrats to everyone.

I will come up with a theme and start the next challenge soon.

travelways

Congratulations to all - wonderful images here

Special congratulations to the winners clap

Earache

Great subject Kent - thanks for the mention!
Thumbs-up to all winners and participants - it's always interesting to see other places and points-of-view.
Kent, if you're interested, I'll sell you that house - easy low payments!

kentwaller

well eric, it does have a pretty nice yard! trade you my 7D for it

TravelnLass

Some truly outstanding entries there - thanks for the 2nd place, Kent. Indeed, I don't know that I can any credit for the pic (other than that I literally had to dash through a veritable DELUGE to get it - including more than a few near-flash floods across the road as my tuk-tuk sped away from the ruins) as clearly it's those glorious ruins that deserve all the credit.

And about any "local debate" - as I mentioned in my entry, interestingly, Wikipedia says that "...When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began in the early 21st century, the Ecole francaise d'Estreme-Orient decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a 'concession to the general taste for the picturesque.' " So - apparently it's the only ruin deliberately left untouched from natural "overgrown", and personally, I think it was an excellent decision.