Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: RSL on June 13, 2012, 11:02:12 am
-
To steal a title from Gene Smith... Actually I had to step out the deck door to shoot this, and it really needs the D800E.
-
Cute little tortoise, that; you can see it, can't you - just sticking its nose out on the left, under the shell of the fallen trunk section? I suspect that it's keeping a wary eye out for kangaroos. So far, I don't think they have flown, but let's not tempt head-keeper Ray...
Any old excuse to justify buying a new camera, Russ!
;-)
Rob C
-
Fresh cuppa joe: check. Fake art-school dimploma: check. Here we go!
There's a lot of good stuff in here. The hunk of wood, the irises (?) behind, the confusion of needles in the foreground. The tree on the right. It's a good set of textures. The negatives:
- The stuff upper left I find distracting and uninteresting
- I feel like the tree on the right isn't pulling its weight -- it's a good texture by itself, but I don't think it's playing well with the others, nor is it contrasting enough to be interesting. The tree is helping only in framing, to my eye, and it's not terribly well placed to do that.
The positives:
- I really like the light, texturally. The dappling is very nice across the irises and log.
- The log and the irises are really nicely placed relative to one another, and in the frame.
- I also like the colors, the muted wood tones and the mild pop of green is good stuff.
Compositionally I have a bunch of ideas, but you're a grownup and it's your photograph, I'm pretty sure my quibbles make it clear how I'd "fix" it.
With this sort of thing you can't really stick in a message about humanity or politics, so I think all one can really hope for is an evocation of place. This is necessarily really dependent on the viewer, since we've all experienced different places. Still, for me it fails, and it's interesting to me why. The light, which I like as a texture, is actually working against you here by being so gentle. It feels vague, it's not the Burning Sun of the desert, it's not the Cool Shadows of the forest, it's the soothing dappling of scrub (which I assume is pretty much what it actually is), and that doesn't hit my brain hard enough to really make me feel like I am There. If that makes any sense.
-
You're right, Andrew. I probably shouldn't have posted it, but the light grabbed me when I was eating breakfast. It was early morning light, so you're right again: it's a little too soft to bring out all the texture. Besides that, I'm not sure 12 mpx can do the job, and I'm not sure viewing it on a 72ppi monitor can do it either. I plan to take another whack at it once my D800E gets here -- possibly in two and a half months. Only problem is that the light will be quite different then. Next shot I'll bring everything in a lot closer.
-
You're right, Andrew. I probably shouldn't have posted it, but the light grabbed me when I was eating breakfast. It was early morning light, so you're right again: it's a little too soft to bring out all the texture. Besides that, I'm not sure 12 mpx can do the job, and I'm not sure viewing it on a 72ppi monitor can do it either. I plan to take another whack at it once my D800E gets here -- possibly in two and a half months. Only problem is that the light will be quite different then. Next shot I'll bring everything in a lot closer.
Hi Russ.. I know you're a big boy and I'm going to say lovingly..."What were you thinking!!"... OMG... :)
For me this is a bit of a mish mash.... way too many elements of the same tonality...the big tree on the right toppling the image over..dark top left corner isn't balanced by anything else...top of leaves of grassy leaves at the bottom... lines going everywhere. Sorry Russ.. have another cuppa and look out of your window and simplify what you want to say.
Julie :)
-
You're right, Julie. This is what always happens when I go off half-cocked and post a picture before it's been sitting for at least a couple weeks. Mea culpa.
-
Russ,
I have to agree with the other critiques.
This one has made me feel very uncomfortable every time I've looked at it, and I've just begun to realize why. I must have a few thousand shots where the light just seemed so great to my naked eye, but then the camera image just doesn't have the magic that first excited me.
Welcome to the club!
Eric
P.S. I'll be eager to see if the 800E captures the magic, but I'm skeptical. That's a hard subject, IMHO.
-
I have no problem looking at works in progress, Russ. Whether you choose to post them or not is of course your call, but don't stop posting them because you don't think they're welcome.
-
Russ, stop wasting time and get back out on the street! ;)
-
Believe it or not I appreciate the no-holds-barred critiques I've gotten on this one. One of the things I appreciate most about LuLa is that most people on here don't adhere to the "never a discouraging word" philosophy I see on other fora, "Documentary" on "Digital Grin" topping the list. LuLa is a teaching forum -- mainly because its practitioners are willing to call a spade a spade.
I violated my number one rule, the one I always pass on to beginners: never, never, never show anything that hasn't had at least a couple week cooling off period. I learned that in college, when I was submitting my poetry to "little" magazines, and I learned it again when I started doing serious photography and making the rounds of the local galleries.
But I have a problem. I live in a very gorgeous area. Here's a snapshot I made this morning for this post with a 50mm lens from my seat at the breakfast table. That's my back yard out there, and those are rocks from the same formations I see just north of me in Garden of the Gods. The rocks are even redder and more gorgeous a little earlier in the morning. So, as Eric points out, it ain't easy, but I've got to keep trying.
And Pop, yep, I'll be back on the street this afternoon, probably working on the penny arcade book for which I've been collecting stuff the past couple summers. Earlier this spring I made a Blurb book of what I've got so far. Here's the cover, and you can see the current contents at http://www.russ-lewis.com/photo_gallery/Penny_Arcade/index.html. It's one of the last of its kind in the U.S., and I'm not finished yet.
-
.....never, never, never show anything that hasn't had at least a couple week cooling off period.
I still make that mistake, and probably will till the day I die. Sometimes, our initial excitement and exuberance, no matter how misguided they may be, can cloud our better judgement.
As for the photograph, my only complaint is that it doesn't have enough resolution.
-
Russ,
It just dawned on me why the new photo (back yard) is so far superior to the first post (down). It's the Hand of Man in the new photo!
Specifically, the Abacus on the window sill.
So when you try the driftwood log again with your 800E, be sure to put the abacus on top of it. ;D
Eric
-
Russ, forget the fermentation period; post what grabs you at the moment and enjoy it for what it is. Don't expect everything to kick ass - it can't and won't.
The super shots are usually rare for most of us, mainly I think because we do them for ourselves without the discipline and direction that commissioned work forces us into from the moment we go for the shot.
Just enjoy it and never say Sorry! because as you know, clay is to be found around all our ankles.
;-)
Rob C
-
To steal a title from Gene Smith... Actually I had to step out the deck door to shoot this, and it really needs the D800E.
Mmm, shooting into a wood with high contrast dappled light and shade = next to impossible. I would have thrown on a long macro and got right into that curving gnarled bit of wood at the top myself, that is after I had gone for the light just as you did and why not?
I hope the new camera works out for you Russ and as a Canon user myself, I am more than a bit envious of the D800E, but as with all new cameras I have lusted over, if you are anything like me, you will probably be amazed at just how under whelmed you will be initially. Upgrading kit is often a bitter sweet experience I find, that after putting so much anticipation into what I will do with the new camera and all those problems it will instantly solve, that the reality often turns out to be far less than my expectations, not to mention the wrench of moving away from that previously beloved kit that I knew inside out and cherished so well. But eventually when you do fully get into it and can think and speak its language fluently, then it starts to pay off and the love affair blossoms once again and you wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
- that is until the new version comes out and it gets thrown into a drawer never to be seen again.
Yup, I'm envious all right :P
Dave
-
....because as you know, clay is to be found around all our ankles.
What I'm ankle deep in is NOT clay.
-
Hi Dave, During the 59 years I've been shooting more than snapshots I've probably had at least thirty or forty cameras. In Korea I bought three that I can think of. In Thailand I bought and traded a couple. In Vietnam I was playing poker just about every evening and consequently was able to buy, sell and trade cameras all over the place. During that period I even had an Olympus Pen, the first half-frame camera, and similar to the E-P1 Pen I carry on the street a lot nowadays with a 25 mm Summilux on it. When I left Vietnam I was down to one Canon 7, an excellent Leica knockoff with a 50mm f/1.2 lens. Back in the States in the sixties I traded the Canon for a Leica M4, bought a Leica M2 and a IIIf, with its f/35 collapsible Summicron. I also bought a Rollei and a half-trashed Speed Graphic that I stripped down and turned into a 4 x 5 view camera. Since the beginning of digital I've had 8 different cameras of which I still have three: the E-P1, a D2X, and my favorite D3. The D800E isn't going to replace anything. I may sell the D2X, but the D3 still will be my main machine. I intend the D800E to be specifically for two things: landscape and what I'll call wabi sabi: dying prairie towns and deserted ranches and goldmines.
I know Canon tends to change things from camera to camera, its lens-mount change being the prime offender, but Nikon doesn't do that. I have a PDF copy of the D800 manual, and everything's right where it should be. The feeling's going to be a bit different from the D3, but the external controls haven't moved much at all.
You're right, new equipment often is underwhelming, but the D3 with its then incredible ISO ranges wasn't at all underwhelming. With a 50mm f/1.4 on that camera I still can walk St. George Street at night in St. Augustine and shoot black cats along the way without a flash. The D800E is going to live on a sturdy carbon fiber tripod, drive set to mirror-up, and the ten-pin cable release glued to it. From your fine work it's clear you understand all that. For anything else the D3 comes out.
-
Russ, I love that Penny Arcade cover shot.
-
The D800E is going to live on a sturdy carbon fiber tripod, drive set to mirror-up, and the ten-pin cable release glued to it.
If you haven't already got that sturdy carbon fibre tripod yet and are looking for what to buy, may I suggest and highly recommend the Gitzo GT3542XLS.
A couple of years ago I decided that once and for all I would buy what is arguably the best tripod available on the planet, so I dug deep and blew quite a large wedge on a Gitzo GT3541XLS (now superseded by the GT3542XLS). It is a huge beastie, no centre column, but fully extended I can walk under it and essential for those times when you need to get that little bit higher by standing on a rock, or standing on the side of a steep hill etc. It is fairly heavy even for carbon fibre but absolutely rock solid. I also added the Acratech GV2 Ball head, which I also believe is the best ball head on the planet. A lot of money for this setup I know, but with the D800E being to all intents and purposes a medium format camera, I think for you to get the maximum quality out of that resolution, you will certainly need something like that.
I am getting exited for you now ;D
Dave - and thanks for the comment.
-
This is what I would have done (and probably Gene Smith too):
-
What I'm ankle deep in is NOT clay.
Aye, Chuck, some have it harder than others.
Rob C
-
This is what I would have done (and probably Gene Smith too):
Why are you proving all over again that the manuscrpit is superior to the reading? The wheel exists!
I think your offering is excellently on-tone, but you have seriously misjudged Eugene: he's have used a helluva lot more Farmer's reducer, showing again the inherently better technology of wetness over a dry run.
Rob C
-
This is what I would have done (and probably Gene Smith too):
Maybe, Slobodan, but I doubt it. Problem is the poor thing doesn't have a mother to bathe it.
-
Russ, I like the photo for the composition. I know some have mentioned that it doesn't work but I think it does- purely for the reason that I can't see a way of doing it otherwise here. The fallen tree on it's own doesn't say anything, it needs some sort of balance as provided by those growing around it. I wish the light was softer though.
Dave mentioned tripods; I fell in love with the Manfrotto 058B a few years ago, lent to me by my friend Harry. For work like this it would be perfect, you could mount a camera and a medium sized SUV on it and it wouldn't flinch. Pity it weighs as much as an SUV too.
-
Riann, that tripod was to keep Harry grounded - earthed, even, what with all those bare young fillies running around the place.
;-)
Rob C