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Author Topic: Canola Field Fantasy  (Read 10291 times)

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #20 on: January 26, 2018, 07:48:52 am »


...However, Socyboy aside, none of these replies answer Oscar's legitimate question beyond admitting that they, the responders, saw no point either, but dug the thing anyway or simply felt defensive...

Rob, I could write a whole essay, perhaps even a book, about why such images work and what’s the point, but... 1. I lack your eloquence 2. am too lazy. That's why I am a photographer, not a writer. 1000 words, etc.

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #21 on: January 26, 2018, 08:02:02 am »

The notion that every photograph needs a "point" is vastly overrated. If I feel an emotional connection with a photo, that's enough for me.

The canpla field is a fine, minimalist image, with echoes of both Rothko and BobDavid, IMHO.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #22 on: January 26, 2018, 08:10:05 am »

Rob C

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #23 on: January 26, 2018, 09:00:54 am »

For me it's an abstract inspired by Canola. The irony is that I started to "get" Rothko when his paintings started to suggest themselves as abstracts: that just seems to be what vibrated in my head one day. So this is pretty much exactly the sort of landscape that Rothko could have been abstracting (if he hung the result upside down).

Doesn't matter, the colours are pretty, the texture is interesting, that's enough for me. I'd take it any day over one of those melodramatic sunset pics of purples and oranges  in a drug-fueled sky-orgy.

I catch your drift, but would you then extend that sense of acceptance or, even, recognition of something beyond the obviously obvious to that photographer (whose name I can't remember) but whose oeuvre appears to be an interminable series of almost identical images of the sea and sky doing absolutely nothing at all beyond changing colour? Of course, whether it is really a series of different camera exposures or just Photoshop manipulation of a single exposure - which would have saved a lot of walking and, probably, carbon footprinting to boot - I have no way of knowing. Not that it would make the slightest noticeable difference to the artwork.

But it clearly brings me back to where I began with this thing, which is that with people/HOM shots, at least there is a lot to appreciate and discuss - apart from whether or not the images may be ethical.

With landscape/seascape et al. one is limited to a variation of +1, +2 or 0. There's nowhere constructive to take it because it all boils down to a ready appreciation or otherwise of an ethic that depends on the provisions of God and not Man. As we all realise, God is bountiful, so what else did such a photographer expect beyond the cloning of His work? And no, I am not being disrespectful towards God. I have my private interpretation and understanding of Him and I doubt it corresponds a heap with the standard, homogenized versions around. I was never much of a team player in my life or in my work; was that, is that easy? Not particularly, but the alternative would have been something far more stressful and damaging for me to contemplate.

Regarding the over-fuelled people of this world: they too have their place and market and bear the scars that come with it, whether they are aware of them or not. We can't escape what we are. Most of us who have worked this seam for a living realise, in the end, that we have been making the same image - or variations of it - since day 1. I am sure that as pros we are aware of it more early than are amateurs by the inevitable fact that we produce just so much damned evidence by which to condemn ourselves.

Perhaps that's the basis of style.

Rob

David Eckels

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #24 on: January 26, 2018, 10:11:12 am »

As for HOM, you can see subtle evidence in the grooved patterns in the field, rising left to right slightly. So I will add subtlety to simplicity, complementarity, and juxtaposition in one of my previous responses to the question, what is the point? But, Rob, I think there is a place for photographing the bountiful provisions of God just like there's a place for street photography where snaps may depend on pure chance. Why would we want one genre of image making? That may not be what you are saying, however. Fashion photography may be more like painting because of the creative effort that goes into achieving a satisfactory let alone beautiful result. I question your premise, if I understand it, that only the HOM is worthwhile and all else is mere cloning.

I remember a recent exchange with Russ and his quoting Ecclesiastes, "All is vanity," and your comment above about "making the same image" and how that is somehow condemning of our efforts. Not trying to put words in your mouth, but I think of my mother who made her living as an oil painter for more than thirty years. She would do seascapes with variation after variation until she moved on to landscapes  :o  or whatever and then back again. Each was unique, each a variation on a theme and this is common with painters, but is that a futile effort? I think not for it may be the progression of subtle differences "seen" by the artist that tells a more interesting story. Formula novels may be predictable, but I still read them.

I wrote a blog article (Why take a photograph?) about a posting by Russ, The Tracks. Nothing new under the sun, but it is still worthwhile sitting around the campfire listening to the same story even if told differently. I just finished "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman and in one of the vignettes he discusses his observations that people think differently even with the seemingly simplest of things, for example, counting. Some compute a mental rhythm while others see a visual image (read the book). But the point is that we all see internally (mentally) differently and there's no guarantee we will "see" the same thing (image, poem, prose, etc) the exact same way the next time we "see" it. I think this may make revisiting old stories, in this case images, meaningful.

By the way, I knew when I took this image that it had probably already been done, but that realization did not diminish my joy at discovering it for myself.

RSL

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #25 on: January 26, 2018, 11:13:31 am »

I guess everybody on LuLa knows I'd prefer being in St.Augustine on St. George street shooting people. But to emphasize what David just said, here's a picture. I have 53 shots of this tree in my Lightroom catalog. I've shot it in all seasons and at all times of day. There's a 17 x 22 copy of one of the views hanging in my bedroom. The world is full of things that somehow put you in touch with the music of Parnassus. This is one of them. Unfortunately, somebody bought the lot across the river, cut the trees at the right end of the picture, and put a hideous shed just about where this picture ends. What once was music has become more like rap.
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Rob C

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #26 on: January 26, 2018, 12:42:32 pm »

As for HOM, you can see subtle evidence in the grooved patterns in the field, rising left to right slightly. So I will add subtlety to simplicity, complementarity, and juxtaposition in one of my previous responses to the question, what is the point? But, Rob, I think there is a place for photographing the bountiful provisions of God just like there's a place for street photography where snaps may depend on pure chance. Why would we want one genre of image making? That may not be what you are saying, however. Fashion photography may be more like painting because of the creative effort that goes into achieving a satisfactory let alone beautiful result. I question your premise, if I understand it, that only the HOM is worthwhile and all else is mere cloning.

I remember a recent exchange with Russ and his quoting Ecclesiastes, "All is vanity," and your comment above about "making the same image" and how that is somehow condemning of our efforts. Not trying to put words in your mouth, but I think of my mother who made her living as an oil painter for more than thirty years. She would do seascapes with variation after variation until she moved on to landscapes  :o  or whatever and then back again. Each was unique, each a variation on a theme and this is common with painters, but is that a futile effort? I think not for it may be the progression of subtle differences "seen" by the artist that tells a more interesting story. Formula novels may be predictable, but I still read them.

I wrote a blog article (Why take a photograph?) about a posting by Russ, The Tracks. Nothing new under the sun, but it is still worthwhile sitting around the campfire listening to the same story even if told differently. I just finished "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman and in one of the vignettes he discusses his observations that people think differently even with the seemingly simplest of things, for example, counting. Some compute a mental rhythm while others see a visual image (read the book). But the point is that we all see internally (mentally) differently and there's no guarantee we will "see" the same thing (image, poem, prose, etc) the exact same way the next time we "see" it. I think this may make revisiting old stories, in this case images, meaningful.

By the way, I knew when I took this image that it had probably already been done, but that realization did not diminish my joy at discovering it for myself.



David,

First of all, I am not suggesting but a single photographic culture; there are and can be many. My quibble is an extension of Oscar's question, which is regarding the point of a specific image. I suppose it comes down to the question of motivation; you more or less explain that yourself, but motivation to do something does not confer point intrinsic within the work. It just denotes one wants to do something, even if for no specific reason than it's there and so is the desire. Much of life is like that; it's what drives the leisure market.

Fashion photography is too wide to classify with an easy categorisation. Much of what I shot was to shift frocks from factory to shops. Another option, different emphasis, was to shift stock from retail outlet to private home. Each had its own requirements and audience, and from my luck of the draw, the second outlet was the more rewarding because, essentially, it had more to do with selling the image of a shop than a particular garment. If you found a client with belief in you, that meant you could build a relationship that provided vital continuity; failure to build a relationship would mean one soon ran out of possible options. It was, in my day, a small, incestuous world where fibs, envy and plotting ruled. No wonder stock provided such a great lure which, in the end, was killed off along with so much else that allowed photography to be a career, as different to just a passing phase, a second string in someone's life.

The creative effort in fashion has little in common with painting. Fashion is about creating something that doesn't really ever exist, even when you snap it. This may seem impossible, but it is true. By the time you and your girl have made the shot, you will never again be able to return to where you were. It is a fleeting moment at best, and even then, just an illusion, a trick in its own right that remains beyond both of you. It's why I always dreaded working a shot with more than one model in it. Getting the stars in line once is cool; wanting them to align in duplicate is rocket science. Painting is different because it is done over a fairly long time, compared with a people snap. Also, unless one is trying to be a photographer with a brush, the result is wide open to the degree it resembled whatever set it in motion.

But to return to that specific shot: I can understand you when you say that you find joy in discovering something new to you, whether or not it has been done before; I get the same buzz aping the New York school by shooting reflections in windows, but only when there is human presence in the shot does it really work for me. The rest of the time it's just abstraction at best, or abject failure. So, when I think it works, what's my supposed point? The answer, for me, is in the caption; and of course, that may only be obvious to me because I felt driven to shoot the thing. Now and again I start out with caption in mind and magically, I run into something that fits the bill. That is the exception, though, and at once, the appeal: I enjoy the winging it aspects of my sort of non-aggressive street. Frankly, it's how I did everything in photography and at once illustrates why I was not mad about team-playing and having people hanging about watching and throwing in their sixpenny bits. Maybe that's the real genesis of Without Prejudice: simply an extension of my own way.

Rob

David Eckels

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #27 on: January 26, 2018, 01:37:34 pm »

I can understand you when you say that you find joy in discovering something new to you, whether or not it has been done before; I get the same buzz aping the New York school by shooting reflections in windows, but only when there is human presence in the shot does it really work for me.
Emphasis mine. Rob, thanks for clarifying for me;  I think I get what you are saying, which takes me to the quote above and discussions we've had in the past as to why take a photo: It is, in the end, for me as Peter concludes in his post just now. I also think my motivation or rather what I am learning to take out of my photography is that it's for me. I could post on 500px and lust after a thousand likes, or seek gallery representation, certainly not money (!), but ultimately satisfaction must come from within and I think that has been a consistent message from you and many others here in LuLa land. I very much appreciate that message and the more I assimilate it I think the stronger my photography becomes, or rather, I should say my satisfaction with it grows.

But we also have here something that is unique in my experience, to others a cliche perhaps ;) and that is the ability to post experimental images (for the poster at least) and learn from the reactions and discussions we have, such as the one we are engaged with now. Of course, this is probably off topic.

Rob C

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #28 on: January 26, 2018, 05:19:42 pm »

Emphasis mine. Rob, thanks for clarifying for me;  I think I get what you are saying, which takes me to the quote above and discussions we've had in the past as to why take a photo: It is, in the end, for me as Peter concludes in his post just now. I also think my motivation or rather what I am learning to take out of my photography is that it's for me. I could post on 500px and lust after a thousand likes, or seek gallery representation, certainly not money (!), but ultimately satisfaction must come from within and I think that has been a consistent message from you and many others here in LuLa land. I very much appreciate that message and the more I assimilate it I think the stronger my photography becomes, or rather, I should say my satisfaction with it grows.

But we also have here something that is unique in my experience, to others a cliche perhaps ;) and that is the ability to post experimental images (for the poster at least) and learn from the reactions and discussions we have, such as the one we are engaged with now. Of course, this is probably off topic.


Yes, it really does boil down to the necessity of doing it for oneself. Strangely enough, that may take some time for people to realise truthfully rather than in some form of mere lip service to an idea or an ideal, depending on how one views it, and I rather suspect that some pros never do realise this aspect of their life at all, or otherwise, how can some continue doing what they do without going crazy? I have never understood the photographer for whom a photographic career has been just a means to earning a crust. There are far easier and more financially rewarding jobs out there to pursue than the making of images. I may be mistaken, but I think that painters are seldom found in this strange position: either you love the thing so much there is no choice but to do it 100% or you become a weekend artist, which is perfectly fine too, and provides an interest that does not depend on making it pay its way.

Yes, it is one of the strengths of LuLa that we are able to post pictures freely, and as great that we can do so and, should we wish, discuss without the same rancour that politics encourages. The Internet does have some positive aspects!

David Eckels

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #29 on: January 26, 2018, 06:01:32 pm »


Yes, it really does boil down to the necessity of doing it for oneself... Yes, it is one of the strengths of LuLa that we are able to post pictures freely, and as great that we can do so and, should we wish, discuss without the same rancour that politics encourages. The Internet does have some positive aspects!
Amen, brother!

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #30 on: January 26, 2018, 06:10:37 pm »

... I'd take it any day over one of those melodramatic sunset pics of purples and oranges  in a drug-fueled sky-orgy....




Parisian Sky
by Slobodan Blagojevic, on Flickr

degrub

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #31 on: January 26, 2018, 07:25:54 pm »

Naaah....that's mellow yellow....
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Rob C

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #32 on: January 27, 2018, 04:16:46 am »

So there you are: through photography we have caused climate change and the flooding of the Seine! Any day now La Gioconda will be found floating, face down, in a little black backwater where the ghosts of HC-B and Willy Ronis will be clicking silently away as she drifts from old tyre to empty, grease-caked drum, the stray dog sniffing the air as if aware of something not quite normal before raising his right hind leg and expressiing his opinion just like anybody else. The elders at Adobe will smile, and sign another virtual contract.

armand

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #33 on: January 27, 2018, 06:46:28 pm »

I like it quite a lot, the colors are just right. Can I express why I like it? Maybe but I'm not trained for it and it will take me too much effort and risk not being understood anyway. So, I'll just keep enjoying it and maybe some day I'll have the words, if only to figure out how can I create something to replicate the same feeling.

David Eckels

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #34 on: January 27, 2018, 06:59:51 pm »

I like it quite a lot, the colors are just right. Can I express why I like it? Maybe but I'm not trained for it and it will take me too much effort and risk not being understood anyway. So, I'll just keep enjoying it and maybe some day I'll have the words, if only to figure out how can I create something to replicate the same feeling.
I do too, Armand, I think Slobodan won an award with this one.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2018, 08:41:39 am by David Eckels »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #35 on: January 27, 2018, 07:17:53 pm »

I do too, Armand, I think Slobodan one won an award with this one.

I think Armand is referring to your OP photograph :)

armand

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #36 on: January 27, 2018, 10:10:44 pm »

I think Armand is referring to your OP photograph :)

Sorry Slobodan but you are right  :D, even as your photo is not too shabby, I was referring to the initial photo.

tom b

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #37 on: January 28, 2018, 12:01:20 am »

Slightly left of field, slightly colourful. The alternative name for canola is rapeseed or its shortened name rape.

So we could have the title – Rape in the fields:)

Cheers,

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Tom Brown

Rob C

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #38 on: January 28, 2018, 04:23:23 am »

Slightly left of field, slightly colourful. The alternative name for canola is rapeseed or its shortened name rape.

So we could have the title – Rape in the fields:)

Cheers,

Attempted rape in the fields.

As David suggested, the model ran far too fast: it's a proven fact that a woman with her skirt up around her waist runs faster than any man with his trousers around his ankles.

Fake news, bro'.

Rob

David Eckels

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Re: Canola Field Fantasy
« Reply #39 on: January 28, 2018, 11:42:18 am »

I like it quite a lot, the colors are just right. Can I express why I like it? Maybe but I'm not trained for it and it will take me too much effort and risk not being understood anyway. So, I'll just keep enjoying it and maybe some day I'll have the words, if only to figure out how can I create something to replicate the same feeling.
Thank you, Armand, sorry for my confusion.
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