Duck Lift

[katemann]

Thanks for the chuckle! I do enjoy the abstracts and ephemera Michael! Please post more.

[pgpgsxr]

Michael,
I still believe your most interesting work is shot with a rangefinder!! Please give the M8 a go at some landscape work. I find your latest work with the M8 is the freshest and most inspired work in a long time. Perhaps someone should make a medium format digital rangefinder, sort of Mamiya 7D or Fuji 670D!
Paul

[Rob C]

Michael,
I still believe your most interesting work is shot with a rangefinder!! Please give the M8 a go at some landscape work. I find your latest work with the M8 is the freshest and most inspired work in a long time. Perhaps someone should make a medium format digital rangefinder, sort of Mamiya 7D or Fuji 670D!
Paul
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=88393\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hi Paul

Back home again; crisis over.

Yes, you're quite right, I have thought that Michael's city and non-landscape (in the strict sense) work is always very fresh.

This has been discussed before on these pages and it isn't meant as any criticism - by myself, at least, of his other work - it's just that we are swamped with landscape stuff not only on this site, appropriately enough, but everywhere else too, and one more landscape however wonderful is just part of the 'another rock another tree' syndrome; there is a shock failure to all this natural world stuff created by its very ubiquity. By contrast with this, the rare or less visible metaphors for the human condition and the human construct are rendered more surprising, playing straight into the hands of those of us blessed with the eyes to see. And also, I suspect, those of us with the eyes to appreciate that vision in someone else!

Interestingly enough, nice to see a squarish image out of a Leica...

Ciao- Rob C

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I, too, appreciate very much Michael's willingness to put up a "chuckle" picture like this one now and then. It's very refreshing to see excellent pictures that are clearly not trying to be "masterpieces."

-Eric

[pgpgsxr]

Hi Rob;
Great to hear  the crisis is over!! Back home in time for Christmas!!
 It´s the old cliche problem, I´m the first one to admit I suffer from it! I think one can sometimes lose this problem by not trying to please the audience and making images from deep inside. Michael´s M8 images are very personal and loaded with originality and their is no doubt  Michael is enjoying this camera. Perhaps Michael has found  Zen in his M8. I just hope Michael takes the M8 on his winter holiday to Morrocco, if so, I think we can hope to see something totally fresh from the usual sand dune/palm tree/clay building cliche.
 Paul

[macgyver]

I, too, appreciate very much Michael's willingness to put up a "chuckle" picture like this one now and then. It's very refreshing to see excellent pictures that are clearly not trying to be "masterpieces."

-Eric
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Who says that a "chuckle" shot can't be a masterpiece?  If there's one thing I don't like about many photographers its that they take their work (much less themselves) far too seriously.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Who says that a "chuckle" shot can't be a masterpiece?  If there's one thing I don't like about many photographers its that they take their work (much less themselves) far too seriously.
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I think you're saying what I was trying to say: The picture isn't trying to be a masterpiece, and the photographer isn't taking himself too seriously. I agree that a light-hearted picture can be a masterpiece, but it probably won't be (in my mind) if it looks as if it is trying too hard.

Concerning "Duck Lift", I doubt if Michael asked himself whether it was "Important" enough to put on the web. I suspect he looked at it and said something like (I like it! I'll make it the new home page photo."

-Eric

[Box Brownie]

Yes, such images have a whimsical aspect to them but does anyone else 'see' another image in it.

It suddenly struck me that it looked like a monk with the duck being his hand waiting to receive the dropping "chain".  That impression is emphasised if you cover the reflection on the right with your hand!

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Yes, such images have a whimsical aspect to them but does anyone else 'see' another image in it.

It suddenly struck me that it looked like a monk with the duck being his hand waiting to receive the dropping "chain".  That impression is emphasised if you cover the reflection on the right with your hand!


[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=89286\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks. That helps me make sense of the dark area on the left. Now I'll always see it as a monk.

In my own photos, I'm always delighted when someone sees it in a way I never intended.

[Scott_H]

I struggle with this one.  I realize the reflection must be from a set of tackle that is outside the frame, but it upsets the perspective for me.

[jani]

I struggle with this one.  I realize the reflection must be from a set of tackle that is outside the frame, but it upsets the perspective for me.

My impression is similar, except that I think it works well.

It's a typical "Wham! Got it!" kind of photograph, but tastes vary, of course.