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Author Topic: Untitled  (Read 3521 times)

Richard Pearlman

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Untitled
« on: April 21, 2014, 12:34:44 am »

Comments and critiques are appreciated.

luxborealis

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2014, 09:54:08 am »

I see a drab day at a wetland photographed with a wideangle lens at a low camera angle with an incredibly detailed foreground including some cut logs seemingly randomly placed or left which appear incongruent to the rest the of the photograph.

My intent is not to be harsh, but you've asked for a critique. I'm wondering "why?". If it is an "I was there at this time" shot, you've been successful. But if you have a further intent for or a deeper meaning behind this photograph, it escapes me. I can see why it is "Untitled".

I realize that not everything we shoot can be as dramatic as, for examples, the Dolomites, but this image just doesn't seem to evoke anything in me. My loss, I suppose.
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framah

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2014, 10:47:44 am »

I second Terry's thoughts. It's just a snap shot of a place you visited. Nothing more.
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Richard Pearlman

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2014, 11:41:33 am »

Thank you for your comments. I am in agreement regarding the mundane nature of this photograph. It seems to be representative of the way I feel about some of the locations I have visited recently. I go to these parks for the better part of the day in search of good compositions. I research them extensively and hike for miles, but I seem to be unable to find anything of real interest. Either these are uninteresting places or I cannot find anything interesting about them. I am uninspired by these places, so it is no surprise to me that the photographs are not inspirational. The question that I think is the real crux of the issue is how do I solve this problem of subject matter and content. Do I need to go elsewhere or is there an issue with the way in which I am seeing the world photographically?

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2014, 12:15:27 pm »

... The question that I think is the real crux of the issue is how do I solve this problem of subject matter and content. Do I need to go elsewhere or is there an issue with the way in which I am seeing the world photographically?

You got the crux right. And the answer is not going somewhere else. Sure you can go to spectacular places and return with "spectacular" photographs, especially if you follow tripod holes and are lucky with the weather.  But you'll be just playing into the hands of landscape haters who claim that all we do is raise the camera and click the shutter, just stealing what the nature created and put in front of us.

You OP photograph illustrates nicely how difficult landscape photography is, and how much more it is than just raising the camera and clicking the shutter. It is about facing the chaos, disorder, abundance of elements in front of us, and painstakingly simplifying, eliminating superfluous, rearranging, aligning, positioning, emphasizing, until we get something that is both estethically pleasing and expressing how we felt about the place. The sign we succeeded is actually paradoxical: when, after all we've done, it ultimately looks like we just happened to be passing by and snapped the scene :)

Richard Pearlman

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2014, 01:06:33 pm »

You got the crux right. And the answer is not going somewhere else. Sure you can go to spectacular places and return with "spectacular" photographs, especially if you follow tripod holes and are lucky with the weather.  But you'll be just playing into the hands of landscape haters who claim that all we do is raise the camera and click the shutter, just stealing what the nature created and put in front of us.

You OP photograph illustrates nicely how difficult landscape photography is, and how much more it is than just raising the camera and clicking the shutter. It is about facing the chaos, disorder, abundance of elements in front of us, and painstakingly simplifying, eliminating superfluous, rearranging, aligning, positioning, emphasizing, until we get something that is both estethically pleasing and expressing how we felt about the place. The sign we succeeded is actually paradoxical: when, after all we've done, it ultimately looks like we just happened to be passing by and snapped the scene :)

One of the primary problems I have been having recently is reducing the landscape to a few elements. I find something interesting, but I often find it difficult to reduce a scene to down to one element when there is so much visual chaos.

The question seems to be: What does interest you?

I am interested in landscapes of all sizes and subjects that are visually compelling as a result of several factors: light, weather, or composition to name a few.

sdwilsonsct

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2014, 02:29:32 pm »

One of the primary problems I have been having recently is reducing the landscape to a few elements. I find something interesting, but I often find it difficult to reduce a scene to down to one element when there is so much visual chaos.

That's not a problem, that's the point!  ;)    Always challenging.

It might be helpful to do some reading on composition.

JohnBrew

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2014, 04:20:31 pm »

Loss of habitat, perhaps? Just trying to help  :)

david loble

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2014, 05:48:36 pm »

Richard,
First of all, keep in mind that you are not the first photographer to confront this problem. That doesn't solve it but it might help to know you are not alone.
A couple of quick ideas: 1) Limit your landscape photos to verticals. It's a challenge that may help you bring order to the chaos. Not my word for it but it seems to ring a bell with you.
2) If you have a prime lens, say in the 28mm to 50mm range, only shoot with that. Or, set your zoom to a single focal length and work with it.
Do either or both of these for a while, not just a day or a week. One of them might jog your creativity enough to stimulate you.
Good luck.
David
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luxborealis

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2014, 11:28:20 pm »

One of the primary problems I have been having recently is reducing the landscape to a few elements. I find something interesting, but I often find it difficult to reduce a scene to down to one element when there is so much visual chaos.

First of all, ask yourself: "What's the point of me stopping here to photograph? What, exactly, has caught my eye and is begging me to photograph it?" If you don't have an answer then your might be better spent moving on to find something that grips you emotionally or catches your eye.

Once you've been "gripped", pare the scene down to its most badic elements. Move and compose to eliminate anything that pulls you away from what initially grabbed your attention and work towards emphasizing what it was that caught your eye.

Next, try looking beyond the subject to the elements that make up a photograph: contrast, texture, colour, shape, lighting. Which of those can you take advantage of in the scene before you? And, which of them do you need to work at to better emphasize?

Here's another suggestion, one that I always have workshop participants do... Take your first shot, then work towards making a second photograph of the same scene, but in a completely different way. Change the focal length, change your perspective, move to get entirely different lighting (back instead of side or front), change the format - do whatever it takes to make the second photo different. It may not work right away, but it us forcing you to think of alternatives. It'so a lack of seeing alternatives that gets us into ruts.

I know where your coming from. I was out today in the glorious spring weather and the elements would simply not conspire in my favour. So, I just walked and enjoyed the spring warmth, the bird song and the frog calls, knowing that inspiration is often serenditious. I could have made something of a couple of set-ups, but couldn't see the point - I just knew there was nothing beyond a 7.5 or 8/10. Sometimes it's better to take pass.

One fellow I worked with years ago (ouch! - decades ago!) suggested there are only 6 perfect days for photography in a given year. He was referring to nature and outdoor photography. Looking back at my work, he is about right.
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Richard Pearlman

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2014, 12:27:08 am »

Richard,
First of all, keep in mind that you are not the first photographer to confront this problem. That doesn't solve it but it might help to know you are not alone.
A couple of quick ideas: 1) Limit your landscape photos to verticals. It's a challenge that may help you bring order to the chaos. Not my word for it but it seems to ring a bell with you.
2) If you have a prime lens, say in the 28mm to 50mm range, only shoot with that. Or, set your zoom to a single focal length and work with it.
Do either or both of these for a while, not just a day or a week. One of them might jog your creativity enough to stimulate you.
Good luck.
David

David, thank you for your ideas on this matter. I used to solely shoot with a 35 mm prime before I acquired a 12-24 mm lens. Although it wasn't for a very long time, I have some experience with limiting myself to only one focal length. However, I have never tried to shoot only verticals. That would certainly be a different way of looking at things.

First of all, ask yourself: "What's the point of me stopping here to photograph? What, exactly, has caught my eye and is begging me to photograph it?" If you don't have an answer then your might be better spent moving on to find something that grips you emotionally or catches your eye.

Once you've been "gripped", pare the scene down to its most badic elements. Move and compose to eliminate anything that pulls you away from what initially grabbed your attention and work towards emphasizing what it was that caught your eye.

Next, try looking beyond the subject to the elements that make up a photograph: contrast, texture, colour, shape, lighting. Which of those can you take advantage of in the scene before you? And, which of them do you need to work at to better emphasize?

Here's another suggestion, one that I always have workshop participants do... Take your first shot, then work towards making a second photograph of the same scene, but in a completely different way. Change the focal length, change your perspective, move to get entirely different lighting (back instead of side or front), change the format - do whatever it takes to make the second photo different. It may not work right away, but it us forcing you to think of alternatives. It'so a lack of seeing alternatives that gets us into ruts.

I know where your coming from. I was out today in the glorious spring weather and the elements would simply not conspire in my favour. So, I just walked and enjoyed the spring warmth, the bird song and the frog calls, knowing that inspiration is often serenditious. I could have made something of a couple of set-ups, but couldn't see the point - I just knew there was nothing beyond a 7.5 or 8/10. Sometimes it's better to take pass.

One fellow I worked with years ago (ouch! - decades ago!) suggested there are only 6 perfect days for photography in a given year. He was referring to nature and outdoor photography. Looking back at my work, he is about right.

Thanks, Terry. You bring up several good points. Lately, I have been trying to work each scene from different angles and viewpoints. I actually photographed this scene in three different ways before arriving at the one I posted. From your last post and others, I think my main problem is that I always want to produce something better than my previous best. The conditions are not always such to allow me to accomplish this task. Nature is not under my control, and I have to learn to work more with it because working against it is a futile endeavor. Because I am so focused on producing a photograph, I often end up trying too hard and making photographs with little meaning. I guess I have discovered that I may need to take a more passive approach in my search for potential photographs: letting the feeling of the landscape flow through me (like the Force) rather trying to make something out of nothing.

brandtb

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #11 on: April 22, 2014, 11:07:34 am »

Richard - some very helpful comments here I think...
Quote
It might be helpful to do some reading on composition
...and most importantly
Quote
First of all, ask yourself: "What's the point of me stopping here to photograph? What, exactly, has caught my eye and is begging me to photograph it?"
Underneath it all should be...what is it about this thing or group of things that is worth composing. Are these things really compelling? Are they more interesting than a group of like things. Although there are times when the sum of the parts creates a greater whole in an image - one should always be analyzing/seeing/looking for the exceptional thing/object/atmosphere/color etc. etc..

There are many books about "composition" some of my favorites are by Rudolph Arnheim... "Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye" and "The Dynamics of Architectural Form". Perhaps the easiest and perhaps maybe even more immediately helpful...is to look at the work of the great landscape photographers past/present. Look at ten images from each and make mental notes and your own critiques about what is compelling/powerful/engaging in the images. You can "take these notes with you in the field" - and most likely they will sharpen your eye as you progress. /Brandt
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dumainew

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2014, 01:59:20 pm »

Richard,
May I make one small suggestion. Go to one place many times. See it year round, in all kinds of weather; notice what grows and dies and how the seasons change and the light, too. Recognize how your own moods and developing knowledge 'color' the image. Become smitten. This is the strategy that Ansel Adams took. And I'm guessing it gave him a life time of gratification.
Good luck !
Richard
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framah

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2014, 04:12:18 pm »

Here's a little exercise I do every so often when i feel i've lost my sight.. so to speak.

Go to that place and sit down on one of those logs. DO NOT take any photographs!! just sit there and LOOK around you.

Do this for a half hour. As the time passes, you begin to "see" a bit differently. When you first sat down, you saw it all and that is all you saw. By the end of the lesson, you will have begun to see all of the things you missed. Funny thing is... the odds are that what  you finally see is what drew you to it in the first place.

Once the half hour is up pick up the camera and have a go at it.

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Isaac

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2014, 04:22:32 pm »

…I think my main problem is that I always want to produce something better than my previous best.

That does set-you-up for failure most-of-the-time ;-)

Rather than compete against yourself, make the contest between the exposures made on a particular day: as-if you were coaching someone else. The ideas that didn't work shouldn't be ignored, but only because they hold a lesson about what could have been done better. The ideas that did work don't need to be part of a best-ever contest.

I guess I have discovered that I may need to take a more passive approach in my search for potential photographs: letting the feeling of the landscape flow through me (like the Force) rather trying to make something out of nothing.

"When a pathema holds sway, the artist will no longer be Master of the Universe. He or she will be instead an attentive observer, a willing participant in, perhaps even a servant of, a system larger than that artist's individual, personal, particular needs."
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KMRennie

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2014, 10:38:28 am »

Hi Richard
I am lucky enough to live in a location where within 1 hour I can be in remote mountains and lakes, sandy windswept coasts dotted with cliffs, historic and or ruined castles and have a world heritage site within 10 minutes. Even with all of this I frequently find that I can't get inspired or produce anything even adequate far less "this next image will be better than my best image to date".
The previous replies are full of useful advice but for my two pence worth (not cents on this side of the Atlantic) I would have been tempted to get very close to the central bit of tree with the cut branches, used a fairly wide aperture to throw the background out of focus and concentrate on looking at the texture of the tree and its bark. This image may not have worked but in flat light you have an opportunity to expose fine details at their best and trying to take sweeping landscapes in this light will inevitably produce flat images.
Good luck Ken
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Colorado David

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #16 on: April 25, 2014, 12:49:44 pm »

A friend of mine had a vision to shoot a photograph of a particular high mountain lake in the Colorado Rockies.  He scouted a location from which to shoot that gave him some elevation for a good overview and placed some aspen trees in the foreground.  He wanted the lake to be still so he would get a reflection of the surrounding mountains and wanted the aspens in peak fall color.  He had a well thought out vision and knew exactly what to do to achieve it.  It tool six years of regular visits before everything aligned.  This was a guy who used to say, "the harder I work, the luckier I get."  For a mountain lake to be mirror smooth, you have to have high pressure right overhead.  Even with a beautiful scene scouted and with a mature vision for the image, you can't just hike out there and shoot it.  So many things must fall into place.  I'm convinced one of the most important skills a photographer can have, and one of the most difficult to acquire is patience.  Not every trip to a location results in an image.

Geedorama

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #17 on: April 26, 2014, 04:35:15 am »

Kind of reminds me when I visited a nature reserve last summer when we passed along a road filled with photographers with big heavy lenses on big heavy tripods all trying to shoot the same bunch of deer across the road. Then someone in my car said "why don't they pick someone to take the picture and email it to the rest of them..saves a lot of time trouble and "photographer pollution" in this area..

I kinda dig what you're after with this shot..the sublime in the ordinary. Doesn't work for me with this shot, but at least it's better than just taking pictures of beautiful subject matter with no sense of original vision at all.
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Isaac

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2014, 01:39:00 pm »

Then someone in my car said "why don't they pick someone to take the picture and email it to the rest of them..saves a lot of time trouble and "photographer pollution" in this area.

'...he saw Ansel taking a photograph of Precipice Lake on the Sierra Club High Trip in 1932 and rushed to set up his own camera next to Ansel's, sure that there must be something worth recording. It was not until several years later that he saw Frozen Lake and Cliffs. He lamented, "Jeez! Why didn't I see that!" '

Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man
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astroworks

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Re: Untitled
« Reply #19 on: May 08, 2014, 01:17:56 am »

You OP photograph illustrates nicely how difficult landscape photography is, and how much more it is than just raising the camera and clicking the shutter. It is about facing the chaos, disorder, abundance of elements in front of us, and painstakingly simplifying, eliminating superfluous, rearranging, aligning, positioning, emphasizing, until we get something that is both estethically pleasing and expressing how we felt about the place. The sign we succeeded is actually paradoxical: when, after all we've done, it ultimately looks like we just happened to be passing by and snapped the scene :)

I like what you said here, this moved me about what is scape photography is. Sorry OP
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