End of the road

[jule]

Another few bite the dust!  

Regards,
Seamus






[attachment=20624:car_door.jpg]

Seamus, Fabulous subject matter and way of perceiving it. I actully love this last one.. I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty to have a play with the cropping (yes I know the saying...and I have my helmet on in preparation for the forthcoming beatings :-) )

I have translated the image into more of a graphical one rather than a narrative. The dimensionality suggested by the plants through the window, contrasting with the elements in focus on the one plane (the foreground plants I think would have been a tad better a bit more in focus)  I think gives it some tension and can mess with your head thinking whether it is 2D or 3D.

There is also a lovely balance between the corners of both the metal on the ground in the lower right, and the corner on the curved window on the left, which also creates a diagonal element to the image as the eye joins these two points, encouraged by the lines of the vines going upwards.

Thanks for this opportunity.

Julie

[Mike Louw]

Seamus, Fabulous subject matter and way of perceiving it. I actully love this last one..

Me too..:-) Beautifully worded critique, Julie, btw. Can't add anything to it.

In your first set, I also prefer the shot without the door. It seems to me more balanced and "complete", somehow. Great work!

Mike

[popnfresh]

I think this last shot shows the most potential. What makes it interesting for me are the car windows brimming with foliage. I would have gone in tighter on the windows. There are too many other things going in the shot that aren't helping the overall composition. Decide what elements make a scene interesting and compose the shot around those. In that shot it's the windows that make it interesting.

[seamus finn]

Hi all,

Thanks very much for your interest, Julie. Rest assured, I have nothing against cropping and in this case,  your suggestion is just what the doctor ordered. You're right - there's too much irrelevant clutter at the bottom. When I took the shot I thought I'd include it to enhance a sense of abandonment etc but the crop tightens things up without interfering with that element.

Popnfresh: If I had had the presence of mind to concentrate more on the window at the time, I'd be a happier camper but unfortunatly, in the rush of blood to the head, I subconsciously  noted the obvious but failed miserably to react and didn't really see the possibilities until I was sitting at my computer playing around with the Lightroom crop which is a wonderful tool for finding out what you should have done but didn't.

Many thanks to all for your continuing interest in this series. I'll keep you posted if I find any more elderly cars peeping out from their resting places in the Irish countryside.

Slan,

Seamus

[popnfresh]

If I had had the presence of mind to concentrate more on the window at the time, I'd be a happier camper but unfortunatly, in the rush of blood to the head, I subconsciously  noted the obvious but failed miserably to react and didn't really see the possibilities until I was sitting at my computer playing around with the Lightroom crop which is a wonderful tool for finding out what you should have done but didn't.

Seamus

You're definitely on the right track. Just keep shooting. Nothing improves a photographer's eye more than shooting like there's no tomorrow.

[tokengirl]

I like how the earth seems to be reclaiming them.  "Life After Humans" kind of stuff, very cool.

[John R]

Hi all,

Thanks very much for your interest, Julie. Rest assured, I have nothing against cropping and in this case,  your suggestion is just what the doctor ordered. You're right - there's too much irrelevant clutter at the bottom. When I took the shot I thought I'd include it to enhance a sense of abandonment etc but the crop tightens things up without interfering with that element.

Popnfresh: If I had had the presence of mind to concentrate more on the window at the time, I'd be a happier camper but unfortunatly, in the rush of blood to the head, I subconsciously  noted the obvious but failed miserably to react and didn't really see the possibilities until I was sitting at my computer playing around with the Lightroom crop which is a wonderful tool for finding out what you should have done but didn't.

Many thanks to all for your continuing interest in this series. I'll keep you posted if I find any more elderly cars peeping out from their resting places in the Irish countryside.

Slan,

Seamus

I don't necessarily agree with the new crop. A couple of points:
Any reasonably good or seasoned photo enthusiast can crop a photo, seven ways to Sunday. The issue is what one wants to, or hopes to convey. To my mind, Julie's crop is excellent, but so too was the original. I can crop further and emphasize the delicate looking swirling vines in the plants even more. The point is, each new crop tends to emphasize and reinforce something slightly different. Therefore, if one has an excellent image, which this one is, a new crop is just someone's personal taste. The other point is, we all have to work with the 2X3 (about) rectangular format that is on most cameras, so we tend to see and compose the elements within that frame unconsciously. Even if wanted to crop out any part of a given given image, we cannot until we get home on the computer, and it is doubtful that most of the time we would have the presence of mind to think in terms of cropping while shooting in the field. Of course, perimeter cropping is standard and quite different than habitually shooting with the aim of making substantial cropping later on. I think the original image deserves more credit.

JMR

[jule]

I don't necessarily agree with the new crop. A couple of points:
Any reasonably good or seasoned photo enthusiast can crop a photo, seven ways to Sunday. The issue is what one wants to, or hopes to convey. To my mind, Julie's crop is excellent, but so too was the original. I can crop further and emphasize the delicate looking swirling vines in the plants even more. The point is, each new crop tends to emphasize and reinforce something slightly different. Therefore, if one has an excellent image, which this one is, a new crop is just someone's personal taste. The other point is, we all have to work with the 2X3 (about) rectangular format that is on most cameras, so we tend to see and compose the elements within that frame unconsciously. Even if wanted to crop out any part of a given given image, we cannot until we get home on the computer, and it is doubtful that most of the time we would have the presence of mind to think in terms of cropping while shooting in the field. Of course, perimeter cropping is standard and quite different than habitually shooting with the aim of making substantial cropping later on. I think the original image deserves more credit.

JMR

John, I'm not too sure that it has anything to do with not giving credit to the original image at all. Life is about experiences, as many as we can fit into this short time span....and if we can experience something or respond to something in a different way by interacting with it or putting our input into it  - well I say go for it! I wanted to share another vision and experience I had when I saw this image. If I had just left it alone and said...this image deserves for nothing more to be experienced from it, I would not have experienced the mind disorientation of the 2D and 3D effect and the lovely balance of shapes created by the crop I had a play with. There was room for me to experience something else from this image, and in this forum this is an ideal place to do so. Yes, as you rightly say...is just someone's personal taste...and mine - which I shared in a community in which I can interact and learn.

And personally, I also don't want to be limited by the parameters of the frame of the camera....why should I ? Just because my camera sensor is in a 2:3 format and the vision I see through the viewfinder is different from that proportion, what law (written or unwritten) is there to say that I 'shouldn't' do that ?  I may have another camera at my feet which has the ratio which suits my vision; is it ok to put down one camera and use the other just so I haven't broken the "Though shalt not crop after clicking shutter code" ? Why is it ok to use one piece of technology to determine a frame ratio (camera), yet frowned upon to use another (ie; computer)?

I don't want to start a 'can' or 'can't' argument about cropping and sidetrack this thread, but since cropping this particular image has been given consideration by a few, I thought I would mention my own personal opinions.

Julie

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I like both versions, and I agree with Julie that they express different experiences.

In my own photos I am always pleased when a discerning viewer sees an image in a different way from the way I saw it.

Eric