Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: stamper on October 08, 2010, 05:18:49 am

Title: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 08, 2010, 05:18:49 am
I haven't posted one for a while so here goes.
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on October 08, 2010, 06:57:24 am
This is another type of image I'd call a beautiful background shot.

Explanation:
I often see images posted here, which are beautiful and well executed, but where I miss something to break it up.
This could be something living, like a person or an animal, or some sort of additional requisite or breakup in the scheme.
In the case of this image it could be a broken stair, a crack in the reling, a tree growing out of the ground, a missing brick - many possibilities.

This is critique on a relatively high level, I like the image.
I like the perspective and overall composition, the colors, the detail.
This is far from being the first image where I feel this.
Its just the first time for me mentioning it.

Cheers
~C.
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Rob C on October 09, 2010, 03:10:40 pm
I like the shot too; but I also agree with Christopher and not for the reason that I think anything amiss with the original shot as is. It is just that I feel exactly like that with more or less every shot I take that doesn't include a girl. It is something that I think has killed my ability to do landscape in the accepted way - the documentaion of something unusual and beautiful in its own right!

This is a real problem. In order to get out of this, I think that the answer might lie in using a camera and focal length that I seldom (if ever) used before. I'm thinking RF and 28mm, (35mm format and film).

This could also be another attempt to buy myself out of trouble - but I don't really want to become a camera collector; it's bad enough collecting my own prints!

Rob C

P.S. What did you use to shoot it, Stamper?
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: RSL on October 09, 2010, 03:35:04 pm
Stamper, Excellent composition and an excellent play of contrasting colors. Bravo!
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on October 09, 2010, 09:40:12 pm
Stamper, Excellent composition and an excellent play of contrasting colors. Bravo!
I'm with Russ on this one. Very fine.

Eric
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: slrlounge on October 10, 2010, 12:46:39 am
I love grunge backgrounds and I love urban shots.  However, I do feel like the post production could use a bit of 'pop,' whether it be bumping the contrast/blacks or applying a fine-art texture.
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 10, 2010, 03:47:02 am
Thanks for the feedback. Regarding making it pop I was actually worried I had went too far. I deliberately clipped the blacks in ACR by 5. Adding a texture I will look at. It is all a matter of taste! 8)
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 10, 2010, 03:52:22 am
I like the shot too; but I also agree with Christopher and not for the reason that I think anything amiss with the original shot as is. It is just that I feel exactly like that with more or less every shot I take that doesn't include a girl. It is something that I think has killed my ability to do landscape in the accepted way - the documentaion of something unusual and beautiful in its own right!

This is a real problem. In order to get out of this, I think that the answer might lie in using a camera and focal length that I seldom (if ever) used before. I'm thinking RF and 28mm, (35mm format and film).

This could also be another attempt to buy myself out of trouble - but I don't really want to become a camera collector; it's bad enough collecting my own prints!

Rob C

P.S. What did you use to shoot it, Stamper?

I used the Nikon D700. Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens at f/10. BTW Rob it is part of the old Western Infirmary hospital at the top of Church street at the corner of Byres road.
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Rob C on October 10, 2010, 04:50:03 am
I used the Nikon D700. Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens at f/10. BTW Rob it is part of the old Western Infirmary hospital at the top of Church street at the corner of Byres road.


Hi Stamper

Those buildings must be a treaure trove of photo opportunities!

My wife's first job was in the labs, but she eventually got spooked with the steaming horse hearts and the morgue; she moved to a commercial lab...

If you looked at Fred's link to the Peter Lindbergh film, The making of Berlin/German Vogue, you'll find he has a thing for old factories - always did, as I remember from years ago - and it's amazing the access he gets as well as that the properties have not been taken over and developed. Can you get easy access to any of the old yards doon the Clyde? I'd be surprised!

Rob C
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 10, 2010, 06:17:48 am
Rob after taking that pic I wandered around the buildings without seeing anything more worth shooting. I then wandered into the University which has a lot of possibilities and got one or two worth processing. Regarding derelict places in Glasgow then most of Glasgow has been cleaned up. What remains is mostly security guarded. The old Govan dry docks is a large drinking den so you have to be careful. A lot of what is left are drinking and drug dens. To be honest I don't go east of the salt market with a camera very much. I know Glasgow like the back of my hand and have run out of places to shoot. I am now revisiting known places. The pic I posted is one that I had already taken a couple of years ago and re took it the other day. It ain't easy getting new locations. :'(
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Rob C on October 10, 2010, 11:23:48 am
Rob after taking that pic I wandered around the buildings without seeing anything more worth shooting. I then wandered into the University which has a lot of possibilities and got one or two worth processing. Regarding derelict places in Glasgow then most of Glasgow has been cleaned up. What remains is mostly security guarded. The old Govan dry docks is a large drinking den so you have to be careful. A lot of what is left are drinking and drug dens. To be honest I don't go east of the salt market with a camera very much. I know Glasgow like the back of my hand and have run out of places to shoot. I am now revisiting known places. The pic I posted is one that I had already taken a couple of years ago and re took it the other day. It ain't easy getting new locations. :'(

Yes, I was told much the same by my family: keep away from the river if you can. I think there's a new walkway or cycle track towards the west that is seldom used for the same reason: danger from yobs and layabouts. Hell of a shame in all senses of the word. Many years ago, on a trip back to Scotland, we drove along the coast from Erskine past Port Glasgow, Greenock and on down to Largs; how sad that northern end of the place looked: all rusted cranes and closed gates. But there you go: everybody chases the cheapest source, and the poor countries are it until they get too rich and expensive, lose the competitive edge and it becomes somebody else's turn all over again. Just wait: Japan is already making some of its cameras abroad, one day Reid, Corfield, MPP, all of those guys will start up again... maybe Box 14, Hemmel Hempstead will reopen! YES!

Rob C
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Riaan van Wyk on October 10, 2010, 01:26:12 pm
I love the colours Stamper. The contrast of bright green moss to red rust and everything inbetween..lovely. 
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Riaan van Wyk on October 10, 2010, 01:52:44 pm
Rob ( and appologies Stamper for being off topic) there is so much in our daily lives that has changed for the worse. I see it everywhere- I'm only 36 this month so I haven't been around much truth be told.

Having moved away from my children and the town where I grew up ( two and a half hours drive away) and not being part of the general state of afairs in mentioned town for the last five years or so, I found it shocking to be told I am being stupid to want to have a relaxing afternoon with my offspring at an area where I as a child used to be dropped off and picked up later by my father.

 A wide open grassed area next to the estuary with a swimming pool and swings and a noisy ice cream vending vehicle are my fond memories of the place. But no more, the swimming pool was broken two years ago- by new year's revellers so it holds no water, the swings, made out of wooden poles, have been used for bonfires. And drug peddlers are on the prowl there these days, and so are common criminals, pouncing on anything if it seems to have value. Or maybe mankind seemed more true when I was a naive child and I was oblivious, as children are, to things going on around me.         

     
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 11, 2010, 03:51:11 am
Yes, I was told much the same by my family: keep away from the river if you can. I think there's a new walkway or cycle track towards the west that is seldom used for the same reason: danger from yobs and layabouts. Hell of a shame in all senses of the word. Many years ago, on a trip back to Scotland, we drove along the coast from Erskine past Port Glasgow, Greenock and on down to Largs; how sad that northern end of the place looked: all rusted cranes and closed gates. But there you go: everybody chases the cheapest source, and the poor countries are it until they get too rich and expensive, lose the competitive edge and it becomes somebody else's turn all over again. Just wait: Japan is already making some of its cameras abroad, one day Reid, Corfield, MPP, all of those guys will start up again... maybe Box 14, Hemmel Hempstead will reopen! YES!

Rob C

That would be Yoker Rob. At the west end of Garnethill above Sauchiehall street there "was" a viewing platform that gives good views to the west over Park Circus. Passed it on Saturday. Flats getting built next to it and the platform is blocked off. It may re open but probably not. Right of ways in Scotland that are legally open to the public are getting built on despite the right to roam act. All sad?
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Rob C on October 11, 2010, 04:54:47 am
Riaan

It was the same when I returned to Scotland on the first driving holiday with my wife some seventeen years ago. We lived with her parents near Glasgow for a few weeks and then with mine, up in Perthshire. Having both met at school, we had similar memories of where we thought we were going: we were mistaken. In the Big Smoke it was a palpable sense of fear even getting into the lift to return to the car in the parking building; in the countryside, the nights were filled with the shouts of inbred local yokels high on beer. Walking through the centre of the city of Perth was not pleasant either for the same reason: insane looking people slouching on the benches and glowering at one as one passed by them, which was utterly unavoidable.

I remember on a later trip back, we had gone for dinner to a posh restaurant in Glasgow in what's now called The Merchant City. We had a great meal, and then on leaving, there were the obligatory youths, sitting on the pavement opposite the restaurant, propped against the wall, their beer cans on the ground beside them. Even the upmarket places aren't kept swept clean by the police; God alone knows what it must be like in the sink estates that surround the city on pretty well all sides.

We lived for years next to a beautiful park: Rouken Glen. As the kids came along we'd go there for walks, and in winter, when it snowed, we'd take them sledging. Before that, I had lived there too and would wander around the place without a care in the world; I even shot fashion pix and a calendar in that park. Autumn brought beautiful colours on the zillion trees and on two islands in the lake; I often went there and shot that. Now, I wouldn't even consider wandering about the many tracks on my own, never mind with the old camera case with Hasselblad writ large on pretty stickers!

Blame it on the bleeding hearts.

Rob C
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: tokengirl on October 11, 2010, 08:26:21 am
Love the contrast of the rust and moss, as well as the subject matter.  I wonder though, could there have been a wider perspective that would have added a little context?
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 11, 2010, 10:46:08 am
A reasonable point. Unfortunately it is situated in a confined space and the wider view, which I have images of, doesn't add anything to the overall context, thus I decided to concentrate on the stairs. Thanks for the feedback. :)
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: RSL on October 11, 2010, 10:48:25 am
In other words, you did the right thing and cropped before you tripped the shutter. Good shooting, Stamper.
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 11, 2010, 10:57:33 am
A wider perspective. Not sure if it is better?

Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: stamper on October 11, 2010, 11:01:39 am
In other words, you did the right thing and cropped before you tripped the shutter. Good shooting, Stamper.

Russ though we sometimes disagree on cropping what I do if I see something that I like I will bracket for different views. Regarding the one above I was tempted to crop the rails at the top but decided to present it as taken. Thanks for the input. :)
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: RSL on October 11, 2010, 03:26:58 pm
Stamper, I really like your first crop, but I also like the full view. The color in the upper right tends to balance the color in the lower left. It's a call shot and you're the caller.
Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Dave Millier on October 15, 2010, 01:34:34 pm
Rob

"It is just that I feel exactly like that with more or less every shot I take that doesn't include a girl. It is something that I think has killed my ability to do landscape in the accepted way - the documentaion of something unusual and beautiful in its own right!"

I find this quote of yours interesting, mainly because prior to attending to this thread I had worked my way all through your "motivation" thread.

What I find interesting is that I have almost the exact opposite response. Whilst I am able to appreciate a well turned ankle as any one else, I find that I absolutely detest all "girl" photography. Whether it's fashion, glamour or the front cover of T3 magazine, I can no longer bear the existence of the totally overwhelming volume of girl photography. 99% of all professional photography must now consist of some pretty girl, plastered in make up, with barely any clothes on, air-brushed to death. It's so utterly boring because of its omnipresence.

Surely it's possible to sell a laptop or a set of spoons or a can of beans without having to present the product in the grasp of a preening teenage model with sparkling lip gloss. Not to mention what it must be like for real women to see the endless walls of beautful people, everywhere.  I went into WH Smiths in Victoria Station near my office and just took a look at the mags. It's not just the fashion and beauty mags and the porn shelf any more. It's everywhere: lads magazines whose existence hinges on screaming headlines "Photoshoot:  Caroline from XYZ TV soap NUDE"; the fashion and beauty mags of course; any kind of product marketing mag like computer mags, gadget mags, photo mags; and amazingly even things like trainspotter mags have glamour women on the cover. It's marketing of the most cynical but, crucially, dull kind.

I suspect that I would feel similarly about any genre of photography if I were presented with an endless diet of almost identical photos every direction you look in. The girl genre just got done to death first because it's the easiest and cheapest and most automatic way to market something it would appear. And the fact the presence of the attractive female is usually unconnected with the product in any way whatsoever, certainly tells you everything you need to know.



Title: Re: Dereliction
Post by: Rob C on October 15, 2010, 02:49:45 pm
Dave

There is no argument: you are absolutely right. And perversely, that ubiquity of semi-porn is what led to the political correctness syndrome that killed my version of girl photography. It isn't new; it was all around us in the mid-eighties too and when the ugly sisters began to export the pc doctrine out of the campus in Wherever, USA, clients began to fear their secretaries who, for the ones I met, seemed as interested in what I was doing for the companies as were the men commissioning me to do it! Those men should have spent time chatting with their secretaries.

It's crazy thinking, out there. There is more blatant sex in any top fashion magazine today, aimed directly and exclusively at women buyers, that I ever thought of putting into a calendar; it just didn't seem to be what I wanted to do; I was interested in beauty and fashion and trying as best I could to meld the two. I have never shot a pornographic image in my life and have no wish to start any time soon! It just ain't my thang.

Rob C