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Author Topic: The Game  (Read 718 times)

RSL

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The Game
« on: August 21, 2014, 08:23:38 am »

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seamus finn

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Re: The Game
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2014, 08:35:49 am »

Great picture - very sharp, full of the vibrancy and self-absorption of youth, no distracting background. fading into the white light which  invites you to imagine what lies beyond the shore for this little group. So, your eye wanders into that white space and then comes back to the characters and you hope everything will be for the best for them, but somehow you doubt it. Anyway, it makes you want to be young again.

Jesus, wouldn't it be great to be sitting around, each one absorbed in a private world nowadays.  Maybe they don't talk to one another any more - perhaps they text or Facebook one another instead of having a conversation even though they may be sitting together.

On a technical b/w  level, it's all about tones, isn't it, from pure white to pure black and all shades in between. God be with the days when we had to do that stuff in the darkroom, dodging and burning a small fortune in paper, not to mention breathing in foul chemical fumes and existing on a whim and a prayer to get the print exactly right - or not.

Oh, I just noticed the date on the picture - it means you're out and about, just like myself, shooting and hoping you might get something to send to LUMINOUS LANDSCAPE, but I guess your best best efforts won't match up to your expectations - just like everybody else here.

Ahem!
« Last Edit: August 21, 2014, 09:52:10 am by seamus finn »
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Bruce Cox

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Re: The Game
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2014, 10:35:08 am »

It is all good, if not ending well as Seamus says. 

I like their hands best. 

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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: The Game
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2014, 11:43:39 pm »

This is a very rich and compelling image, and Seamus's essay is a fine accompaniment.
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RSL

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Re: The Game
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2014, 05:22:59 pm »

Thanks, Seamus. I did manage to get back on the street for a while the past few days, and for once I struck it rich. That shot makes up for a lot of plodding and a lot of waiting and a lot of bloopers I've had to dump.

I think you're right. Considering what the world's like at the moment I doubt those kids are going to have the advantages I had; I don't mean the physical advantages because I suspect from the standpoint of hardware they'll have the air conditioning, first-class kitchen appliances, heating systems that don't require shoveling coal, etc., etc., etc., that I didn't have.

On the downside they'll have television to destroy their minds. They'll have arcade games to divert them from the beautiful things in nature. And, as you've indicated, they'll have twitter, which, along with "tweet" is hilariously, aptly named. In the end, they'll probably never learn the difference between the verbs to lie and to lay, they'll never, as Churchill put it, get into their bones the essential structure of the English sentence, that noble thing, and they'll never learn the joy of creating something beyond the limits imposed by their hardware. But yes, youth is a joyful thing, and like you I hope everything will be well for them.

I agree: in monochrome, though you need a terminal white and a terminal black, it's the separation between mid-tones that makes the picture. The best recent example I've seen is Stamper's "In Pursuit." The overly contrasty version with blocked tones was striking, but things really came together when he brought out the mid-tones.

And no, your best efforts never match up with your expectations. All you can do is keep trying and remember that old cliché about how the journey is the destination.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: The Game
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2014, 06:32:07 pm »

I'm really glad you've gotten back to Street, Russ. Your recent landscapes have been pleasant, but I have felt that your heart wasn't really in them. This image is really first class.

Eric
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RSL

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Re: The Game
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2014, 06:41:18 pm »

Thanks, Eric. Interesting coincidence: I just finished answering an email from Rob and we were talking about landscape. He said that he never could get his head around open landscape. I told him I couldn't either. To me John Constable's "The Hay Wain" points the way to real landscape, landscape where the hand of man is dominant. I need to spend more time on the street and less time in Red Rock Canyon.
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Chris Calohan

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Re: The Game
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2014, 09:10:15 am »

Leave Red Rock to Hedley Lamar and get back out on that street.
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