180. In the Shade

A tree in Tuscany, Italy
photo by Daniel Kordan
website - https://danielkordan.com/
original image - https://danielkordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/DSC_3102.jpg

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I liked this photo - especially the silhouetted cart, but not the colors. Pale, monochrome and dirty.

So I went to town with them. I decided to make something that would look pretty to me, even if not exactly realistic. Warm, kind of what it may look like during the sunset. And I didn't like the look of the mud, so I made it more reddish.

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167. Details Matter

Tolbachik Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia
photo by Daniel Kordan
website - https://danielkordan.com/
original image - http://danielkordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC_1173.jpg

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I love it how an unexpected detail can make a photo. Ostensibly, this is a photo of the Tolbachik Volcano, and sure, there it is in the background, sitting pretty. But the real star is the grass in the lake. It's what makes the photo stand out. That, and the beautiful colors. Daniel Kordan, whose photos I really like, can be quite heavy-handed in Photoshop, but here I think he hit just the right balance.

But as usual, I felt the need for some more darkness, so there.

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156. Cold Cyan

'Antarctica Dream’ - Barque Europa at Antarctica
photo by Daniel Kordan
website - https://danielkordan.com/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/1736/27537108707_74b5381038_b.jpg

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Nice and calming.

Only fixed the levels.

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139. Warm 'n' Glowy

‘Kolyma Gold’ - Jack London Lake, Kolyma, Russia
photo by Daniel Kordan
website - https://danielkordan.com/
original image - https://danielkordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DJI_0585-Pano%D0%BE%D0%BE.jpg

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Another photo by Daniel Kordan. I love the warm glow here, so satisfying.

I fixed the general levels and increased sharpness a little.

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133. We Don't Like Visitors

‘Autumn Caucasus’ - Shoana Church, Mount Shoan, Karachay-Cherkessia Republic, Russia
photo by Daniel Kordan
website - https://danielkordan.com/
original image - https://35photo.pro/photos_main/1103/5518301.jpg

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A really nice photo by Daniel Kordan, but something about its composition was off, it felt somehow disbalanced. It took me a while to figure out that the ridge the church sits on looks better if it's cropped a bit so that its beginning falls out of the frame.

Colorwise, I thought a bit more painterly look could be appropriate, and I increased the contrast. Oh, and I removed all the tourists that were milling about.

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5. Scotland Is Green

Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK
photo by Daniel Kordan
website - https://danielkordan.com/
original image - https://danielkordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/%D0%A8%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%8F-7.jpg

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There’ll be more photos by Daniel Kordan (aka Daniel Korzhonov). He’s a photographer worth checking out. His photos are one better than the other, and there’s a lot of them. I don’t always like his image processing though - he’s one of the photographers who will often turn their photos into something that looks more like an illustration, with too sweetened-up, almost tacky colors, but when you compare his take on a subject with the take of the other photographers, he is usually a class above.

There’ll be more photos of Scotland, and the Isle of Skye, as that place looks simply amazing.

I tightened the colors here, and made the whole scene a bit moodier, as I think that does justice to the stormy sky.

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