Feedback please!

[ivan muller]

I saw this nondescript yellow stone on the beach this weekend. What really attracted me was all the different patterns made by the water...I supppose in a way I am trying to show all the different patterns simultaneously! Am I getting a bit too carried away here?

.

[popnfresh]

I don't think you're getting carried away at all. I kind of like it.

[Kerry L]

Hey Ivan,

Intriguing idea, quite original. What an interesting study.

BUT, if I were you, I'd leave it at this. Don't want to get accused of not knowing when enough is enough, eh. ;-)

[Tony Jay]

Ivan, I like it but then I am a sucker for images like this.

Regards

Tony Jay

[Bruce Cox]

You are not showing them simultaneously; you are showing them sequentially, because they do not have a common ground.   The white grid prevents the tan, etc., from being the common ground.  The tan would have some problems without the white, but...

Bruce

[churly]

Ivan,  I really enjoy the individual images and the whole.  I am also a sucker for patterns in water and their evolution.  You have managed to catch some unique points in time and put them on the table.  To me there is no need for an iimplied time line.

[louoates]

No need to change a thing with this very inventive series. About the only thing I'd fiddle with here is the spacing between each. The farther apart each element is spaced, the more removed each is from the others. It seems to me that if you removed ALL the spaces you'd have a different kind of time line.
   

[sdwilsonsct]

I like it. I can waste a lot of electrons trying to get "the one" image. Why settle for one?
Scott

[ivan muller]

thanks all for the unanimous positive feedback so far! I include a single image to show you how interesting the patterns are...I think printed really big say A0 one will be able to see the grains of sand distorted by the water...could be nice...I have a 44inch printer and I am quite looking forward now to make a large canvas print...thanks again!

[amolitor]

Ok, just to bring you back to earth, since everyone loves this

I quite dislike this sort of thing, and these photos are no exception! These sorts of things always strike me as images of "hey, a cool thing I saw" rather than any attempt to communicate or say anything. As far as I can tell, these are essentially personal images, that serve to remind one of the cool thing they saw that one day, and are pretty much meaningless to anyone else. Making a whole bunch of them a) seems to be the thing to do and b) seems to me to simply multiply the sin.

On the other hand, people seem to like it. I'm pretty sure all anyone else is getting is 'hey, a cool thing' but it seems pretty effective at communicating that? The photographs I can dismiss with a wave of my arrogant hand. The universally positive reactions are much harder to wave away!

[louoates]

Ok, just to bring you back to earth, since everyone loves this

I quite dislike this sort of thing, and these photos are no exception! These sorts of things always strike me as images of "hey, a cool thing I saw" rather than any attempt to communicate or say anything. As far as I can tell, these are essentially personal images, that serve to remind one of the cool thing they saw that one day, and are pretty much meaningless to anyone else. Making a whole bunch of them a) seems to be the thing to do and b) seems to me to simply multiply the sin.

On the other hand, people seem to like it. I'm pretty sure all anyone else is getting is 'hey, a cool thing' but it seems pretty effective at communicating that? The photographs I can dismiss with a wave of my arrogant hand. The universally positive reactions are much harder to wave away!

Wave away if you must. What is most interesting to me about these images is that I've seen this rock or its cousins a million times without seeing it as clearly as Ivan has. That impresses the hell out of me.

[fike]

I like these quite a lot. Any one of them by itself wouldn't be particularly impressive, but together they are interesting.  Why?

To me, one important aspect of photography is to show a story over time.  There are a lot of different ways to do this with images that the viewer deciphers or reads over time--eventually understanding what happened before and after the actual scene.  This is hard to do and very rewarding when you manage it well.  Triptychs and series are another way to do the same thing.  Because in still photography you can't actually show movement, you have techniques to suggest movement--motion blur is one way.  Series like this is another.  My brain can stitch these images together over time to make a short memory of a beautiful and marvelous natural expression.  People motion blur water for the same reason, to show movement and passage of time. 

This series it to photography as a haiku is to poetry.

[popnfresh]

thanks all for the unanimous positive feedback so far! I include a single image to show you how interesting the patterns are...I think printed really big say A0 one will be able to see the grains of sand distorted by the water...could be nice...I have a 44inch printer and I am quite looking forward now to make a large canvas print...thanks again!

Just out of curiosity, what did you shoot these with?

[Riaan van Wyk]

Hello Ivan.

I'm not particularly fond of the idea- I much prefer the single image- it seems to say more to me.

This reminds me of Lucien Clerque's beach photographs, even though he had very different subjects.

[michaelwm]

Hi Ivan,
I like the idea, "surf sequence" by AA is one of my all time favourites.
But... I would cut it down to 3 or 4 images, displayed horizontally. For me, there a too many that are too similar, and the 3 x 3 presentation is too busy. For example, the top row are all sufficiently different, but the next row down is almost a repeat of it, especially the first two in the first column. This distracts me a bit, as I'm double checking to see if its the same image or not.
Great individual captures too, as a sequence needs to be.
Michael

[ivan muller]

Thanks once again everyone for the interesting feedback.

Michael, you have a point and I am going to see what other configurations I can come up with...I need something longer for my lounge wall...

popnfresh...I used a 5d2 with the cheap and nasty almost all plastic 50mm1.8 and for me a very rare thing, 4or so frames a second! f stop was probably f8-f11...