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Author Topic: Oaks in Fog  (Read 1623 times)

John R Smith

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Oaks in Fog
« on: May 07, 2012, 08:47:53 am »


Oddly enough, we don't very often get fog here in the Valley. If you think of Cornwall as mild and wet (which it is), this will seem strange, but there you go. One morning last year I woke to quite a dense fog, so I quickly put on my coat and hat, slung the good old 500 round my neck and stomped out up the lane to see what I could do. This is one of the resulting frames with the 80mm Planar, see if you like it or not.

John
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William Walker

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2012, 09:06:31 am »

Hi John

It is good to see you posting again.

We have fog around these parts at this time of the year and I have always been keen to take something like this. The only problem at this point is I'm not sure what works or not, so, if you don't mind, I will sit back and see what comments you get!

Perhaps then I will have a better idea of what to look for.

Right now I simply am not qualified to offer any thoughts on this. (Perhaps a sinister-looking figure coming out of the mist on a bicycle?)

William
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2012, 09:50:44 am »

Simple and elegant. In tonality and composition.

The only thing I would change is to clone out that single straight line on the right-hand side (a power line?).

shutterpup

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2012, 10:20:02 am »

Simple and elegant. In tonality and composition.

The only thing I would change is to clone out that single straight line on the right-hand side (a power line?).

Yep, the powerline; first thing my eye went to. Pity too, since I really like the image. We have no fog in the Sonoran Desert of southern Az; yesterday, the humidity was a whopping 5%!
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John R Smith

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2012, 10:27:35 am »

The only thing I would change is to clone out that single straight line on the right-hand side (a power line?).

Thanks for your input, Slobodan. Yes, that pesky overhead wire. I'm very much in two minds about that one. I think that, if this picture was intended solely for a general audience, yes I probably would be persuaded to take the wire out. But as my pictures are really just for me (I don't sell them and they have no other end use) I like the wire because it tells me exactly where I am, not in only in geographical place (this is my back lane) but also in time - this is now in the 2000s , not back in the 18th or 19th centuries. And that wire is my 'phone line, down which this image travelled to your desktop through the branches of those oaks, which is quite a romantic notion in itself, perhaps . . .

John
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 10:31:42 am by John R Smith »
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amolitor

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2012, 10:44:32 am »

I think that if you want a postcard photograph, a nice technical exercise that looks exactly like 19282938 other pictures of a tree in some fog, by all means clone the wire out.

For me, I'm not sure that the photograph actually works this way but I see that it COULD work this way: The wire draws the eye, reminds us of man's presence, and then the rest of the scene fills in -- the fenceline, the plowed earth in the foreground. All these details are a bit subtle, and can pass unnoticed, leaving one with a vague impression of a pretty tree in some pretty fog, yawn, can I order 1000 of them to put into the rooms of my budget hotel chain please?

With the wire it might fail, but it aspires to be something more than a pretty picture, of which I feel we have far too many already.


Edited to add the attachment. This is, I like to think, similar in feeling. Also, it is a complete nothing as a photograph. Sure, it's tolerably well balanced, there's the bird which makes things more interesting, but there's nothing there. The picture functions as a snapshot, it exists to remind me of what mornings were like when I visited my friend at his rural home last summer. I flatter myself that it's quite a nice snapshot, but that's all it is.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 11:38:32 am by amolitor »
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RSL

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2012, 10:54:42 am »

John, No question about it: you're a Pictorialist, born after your time. As far as this shot is concerned, I agree with Slobodan.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2012, 11:41:47 am »

John, No question about it: you're a Pictorialist, born after your time. As far as this shot is concerned, I agree with Slobodan.
Me, too. Of course, you can always keep a print with the telephone wire left in for viewing in private.   ;)

Most fog photos need something close up, usually quite dark, to balance the lighter foggy parts of a scene and give a sense of depth, but the bit of close foreground in yours satisfies that need quite adequately. Nice shot (but I'm a sucker for a good fog shot).

Eric
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2012, 12:27:28 pm »

Oh, boy! It always has to come down to the wire! ;)

John, did not meat to hit a nerve (or is it wire?), so close to home and dear to your heart. ;) I understand the desire to have some hands of man in a landscape, to add context, or time/location stamp, or some personal meaning. However, once the image is shown to the public (us), it gets a life of its own, stripped of all the emotional attachment the author might have. And in that respect, that line looks more like a scratch on paper (or sensor-cleaning accident), than a "romantic notion" of communication,  "through the branches of those oaks," and across the oceans. In other words, for the hands of man to work as intended, they should be there clearly and unambiguously. For instance, in this case a telephone pole or two would have helped.

John R Smith

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2012, 01:05:38 pm »

Yes, well, it's not that "dear to my heart"  ;)

Don't worry, folks, a bit of honest opinion never hurt anyone (after all, why else post the shot?). I agree with Slobodan completely, if you are going to have the wire in then you really need the pole as well (and I do have a few like that). Fear not my friends, I shall make a new version of this picture sometime without the wire.

John
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Rob C

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #10 on: May 07, 2012, 01:20:21 pm »

Yes, well, it's not that "dear to my heart"  ;)

Don't worry, folks, a bit of honest opinion never hurt anyone (after all, why else post the shot?). I agree with Slobodan completely, if you are going to have the wire in then you really need the pole as well (and I do have a few like that). Fear not my friends, I shall make a new version of this picture sometime without the wire.

John



That sounds seriously like a threat to cause vandalism; the fuzz will get you, they have the Internet covered. You should just have snipped the wire but without telling anyone!

;-)

Rob C

Isaac

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #11 on: May 07, 2012, 05:24:34 pm »

The only problem at this point is I'm not sure what works or not...
If there's a patch of open woodland then sometimes you can do more than show the fog as impenetrable; you can show the tree limbs becoming less and less distinct into the distance, a gradation from dark to lighter gray into the distance.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #12 on: May 07, 2012, 08:10:18 pm »

Fear not my friends, I shall make a new version of this picture sometime without the wire.

John
How about cloning in a pole from another shot?   ;D

Eric
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John R Smith

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Re: Oaks in Fog
« Reply #13 on: May 08, 2012, 02:20:50 am »

How about cloning in a pole from another shot?   ;D

 ;) Nice bit of lateral thinking, Eric!

John
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