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Author Topic: A beautiful cliche  (Read 8353 times)

RSL

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A beautiful cliche
« on: May 09, 2012, 01:38:56 pm »

Sorry, couldn't resist it.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Chairman Bill

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2012, 01:51:13 pm »

Methodist United - a football team?

Rob C

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2012, 03:00:38 pm »

Prepare for take-off!

Rob C

seamus finn

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2012, 03:06:07 pm »


What's to resist!!! A beauty.
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Roberto Frieri

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2012, 03:49:51 pm »

Nice!

John R Smith

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2012, 04:11:24 pm »

Russ

It's lovely. And it would also look very well in B/W. The wording is an abbreviated form of "United Methodist Free Church", part of the complex history of non-conformity in the late 19th century. Pictures of important buildings, like churches, are not cliches but vital historical documents.

Will you forgive me, Russ, if I add another Methodist church to your thread? This is the gorgeous Georgian example at Tregony, about 7 miles from here.

John

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an

RSL

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2012, 06:07:14 pm »

Thanks, John. Yes, I'm familiar with the United Methodist Free Church moniker. My grandmother Lewis was a Methodist. One time my brother asked her (in jest): "Grandma, how can you be so sure you'll go to Heaven?" She answered (not in jest): "Because I'm a Methodist."

I thought about correcting Bill but I figured he knew and was kidding.

Tregony Chapel is a beautiful building.You're welcome to add anything you want to my threads. That's one of the beautiful things about LuLa. We can discuss and argue, and illustrate our points with examples on the threads where the discussions are taking place. There are other fora where that's a no-no. With a rule like that teaching and learning pretty much die.

Now I have to confess: The church I posted is in the "Central Kansas Flywheels Yesteryear Museum" in Salina Kansas. My wife and I have been driving by the museum for decades when we make trips to Florida or Michigan. This time, on our way back from Florida we stopped. The church was brought in from one of the surrounding communities.

Here's a picture of the beautiful little organ inside the church. Couldn't get into a position where I could get the whole thing. And a picture of some detail from an antique steam tractor.
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Chris Calohan

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2012, 11:39:05 pm »

If I may be so bold as well...

In my neck of the woods, the Baptists have a church every three or four hundred yards along any country road and most look like this...

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Rob C

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2012, 04:42:04 am »

Why is so much American building construction in wood? Surely it must be about the worst 'solution' for a land where violent weather can arrive out of the blue and blow your washing line down, not to mention park your car on its roof, with the wheels immodestly up in the air.

Rob C

Chris Calohan

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2012, 06:10:57 am »

I guess it is because it's God's way of providing us with so many weather related photo ops.
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WalterEG

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2012, 06:31:56 am »

In the harsh sun of the Australian outback they built 'em out of corrugated iron.

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graeme

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2012, 07:39:25 am »

Falling congregation numbers at this place>

Graeme

( Nice image Russ ).

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amolitor

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2012, 09:52:43 am »

Wood is absurdly strong given its weight, and it tends to bend under stress rather than break. It's almost the perfect construction material.
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Chris Calohan

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #13 on: May 10, 2012, 10:17:16 am »

That it is and when we first settled this land, trees were quite abundant. With careful woodlands management, trees and wood are still the preferred choice of builders.
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RSL

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #14 on: May 10, 2012, 11:25:03 am »

Maybe we should start a church thread. I'm seeing some pretty fine stuff on this one.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #15 on: May 10, 2012, 01:33:42 pm »

Sorry, Russ, could not resist a little critique:

First, the positive (after all, we do not want to be accused of discouraging, non-constructive criticism):

- you did not forget to remove the lens cap
- the font chosen for the United Methodist sign is lovely, elegant yet strong, modest and bold at the same time
- the leading lines on the top of the roof (see my diagram) rightly point to the main point of interest: the cross

Now, what I really think (a.k.a. the negative):

- you have two huge empty areas, as indicated on my diagram: what's up with that? My eyes wander aimlessly there and then... leave the picture, as there is nothing to hold my interest there... for the future, make sure you always have something to show, wherever the viewer might look, i.e., do not leave any areas empty and devoid of meaning

- now, the rest of the leading lines are, frankly, a huge disappointment: there are too many of them (I got tired of pointing them all out with red arrows after a while), but where do they lead!? At best, they intersect at some totally compositionally irrelevant point and then continue ad infinitum to who knows where? What's up with that!? Leading lines are supposed to lead the viewer to the main point of interest, not all over the place, or, worse into deep space

- for example, the two leading lines intersecting just above the sign: they missed it by a hair! Couldn't you find a better vantage point (use a higher tripod or a ladder, like Ansel Adams - speaking of which, he is someone you could learn a lot from, and he also had some nice church images - you should check him out, try a local library)... right, I was talking about a vantage point, a better one, so that the leading lines point out the center of the cross sign, not above it

- now the worst part, indicated by an oval in the lower left of my diagram: there is shadow there that is not counterbalanced on the other side. Even worse, the other side is underexposed (a word of advice: check your exposure before you press the shutter). This dichotomy creates a deeply disturbing sense of disbalance and lack of harmony and unity, in direct opposition to the very meaning of church and religion (if, on the other hand, that was your intended metaphorical message, I suggest you better discuss you political views in the other forum we have on this site: The Coffee Corner)

- ultimately, there is too much blue in the picture (have you tried a different white balance?)... blue is known as a synonym for depression, which clashes with the otherwise sunny disposition in your image, creating yet another disturbing disbalance

I could go on and on, of course, but I do not want to discourage you from trying harder next time.


« Last Edit: May 10, 2012, 02:27:25 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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Rob C

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #16 on: May 10, 2012, 01:50:21 pm »

+1

Rob C


P.S. Try using a digital camera, preferably one of those new Nikons, a D800. No, they don't come with a fixed lens, which, granted, can be awkward for the neophyte, but there's an abundant choice available (check your local camera shop - it's sure to carry a full range of Nikkor lenses) including several which will permit semi-automatic adjustment and exposure of difficult subjects such as this one, where there are vertical lines that, if you are not careful, might actually appear to converge towards an imaginary vanishing point, such as an earlier correspondent was trying to indicate as kindly as he could (always heed this person, he comes with pedigree), a phenomenon that will inevitable take you to Zabriskie Point, which isn't a place you want to be: houses there expolode.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2012, 01:52:11 pm by Rob C »
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32BT

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #17 on: May 10, 2012, 03:09:27 pm »

LOL, Given that on these forums we measure creativity by the size of our d… uurrrr, price of our equipment, I have to agree with the former two gentlemen. They are after all better line-drawers than I am. Or it might be a case of just seniority… with age comes experience. And between the two they have plenty of that.

Age that is…

 ;)
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #18 on: May 10, 2012, 03:46:12 pm »

... Or it might be a case of just seniority… with age comes experience. And between the two they have plenty of that.

Age that is…

 ;)

"I will not make age an issue in this campaign.  I'm not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience."

RSL

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Re: A beautiful cliche
« Reply #19 on: May 10, 2012, 05:05:47 pm »

Well, Slobodan is 55 and Rob is N/A, so, since I'm 82 that means I'm 27 years older than the two of them together. It's clear that I have the edge in experience.  8)

I agree with Slobodan: one should always draw ellipses and diagonals on one's photographs before they're posted. That way the graphically ignorant won't have to draw their own conclusions about composition and can be appropriately instructed.  ;D

Nevertheless, I have to explain to Slobodan that those "huge empty areas" aren't "empty areas." They're "negative space," a very important part of this kind of composition. A point he missed.  :-[

But Slobodan slipped up. The other thing he missed is that (sotto voce) I cropped. If he'd noticed that, instead of saying "I could go on and on..." he'd have gone on and on.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2012, 03:22:50 pm by RSL »
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