Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: John R on October 06, 2009, 09:10:50 am

Title: Wooden church
Post by: John R on October 06, 2009, 09:10:50 am

In the Hastings Highlands there is a little known wooden church in a place called Rockingham. It was saved from demolition because it was considered a fire hazard. I include two photos of this small church. The outside gable entry is crooked but good enough for a photo. The inside is great as it fills instantly with natural light and would be ideal for portrait shooting.

JMR

Title: Wooden church
Post by: RSL on October 06, 2009, 10:29:19 am

John, To me they're both very good, but the first is more than just good. It's art. The light is what makes it that.

Title: Wooden church
Post by: jasonrandolph on October 06, 2009, 11:44:30 am

John, the first one is excellent.  Like Russ said, the light is exquisite.  I like how you composed the pews.  It almost turns it into an abstraction.  The second shot is nice, but I think it's too symmetrical to hold my interest.  Maybe shooting it from a diagonal angle on either side would work better for me.

Title: Wooden church
Post by: John R on October 06, 2009, 12:53:19 pm

Quote from: jasonrandolph

John, the first one is excellent.  Like Russ said, the light is exquisite.  I like how you composed the pews.  It almost turns it into an abstraction.  The second shot is nice, but I think it's too symmetrical to hold my interest.  Maybe shooting it from a diagonal angle on either side would work better for me.

Thanks for the comments Jason.

Jason, it is funny you should make those comments. I had in mind a first shot of the top of the grey shingles (they were shimmering) juxtaposted with the trianglar shapes of the brown boards. I would have arranged the composition to make it look like triangles with vertical boards and rectangular shingles within them, if you know what I mean. But alas, I was in a hurry to get to the cottage before dark. I knew when I posted the second image, it would not be everyone's cup of tea. Se la vie.

JMR

Title: Wooden church
Post by: John R on October 06, 2009, 12:55:02 pm

Quote from: RSL

John, To me they're both very good, but the first is more than just good. It's art. The light is what makes it that.

Well thanks. As we always say, the Light is everything.

JMR

Title: Wooden church
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on October 06, 2009, 01:11:14 pm

I like them very much indeed, and I agree with Russ about the first. However, both look to me as if they could do with being rotated a little anti-clockwise.

Jeremy

Title: Wooden church
Post by: John R on October 06, 2009, 01:18:55 pm

Quote from: kikashi

I like them very much indeed, and I agree with Russ about the first. However, both look to me as if they could do with being rotated a little anti-clockwise.

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy. I did just that before posting and went back to the original angles. Why, because no matter what I did, there was some kind of appearance that they were slightly off. For example, in the gable shot I thought about aligning to the tiles' horizontal lines but I realized they were dipping because the church was dipping! After a while, trying to level images grates on you and you have turn away and get some distance to determine what is best. But I do appreciate you noticing. Sometimes it can be an easy fix.

Title: Wooden church
Post by: cmi on October 06, 2009, 02:40:05 pm

I like the first too!