Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: BobDavid on March 05, 2018, 07:38:45 pm

Title: another gas station at night
Post by: BobDavid on March 05, 2018, 07:38:45 pm
Conoco on the high plains, a few miles east of the Rockies...
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: petermfiore on March 05, 2018, 07:55:13 pm
Conoco on the high plains, a few miles east of the Rockies...

Monumental...It's American everywhere.

Peter
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: BobDavid on March 05, 2018, 10:52:31 pm
Monumental...It's American everywhere.

Peter

yup
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: Two23 on March 05, 2018, 11:00:18 pm
It's a nice combination of symmetry and color.  I find it's a lot easier to shoot at night than in the daytime.


Kent in SD
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on March 06, 2018, 12:29:14 am
Definitely one of your best gas stations yet.
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: 32BT on March 06, 2018, 02:05:41 am
Monumental...It's American everywhere.

Peter

+1

Clean composition, clean colors, good separation, recognisable subject, distinctive style. Your acing it, Bob.

(I'm still searching for good Hollandia to do a similar shot here)
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: Bob_B on March 06, 2018, 07:51:01 am
Definitely one of your best gas stations yet.

Agreed, and this one is a beaut.
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: RSL on March 06, 2018, 09:39:48 am
Bob, an interesting and probably important point: I look at that picture and recognize immediately that it's a BobDavid. It's just as recognizable as a Cartier-Bresson or a Robert Frank or a Garry Winogrand. Very few artists achieve that kind of recognizability.
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: BobDavid on March 06, 2018, 10:57:05 am
Bob, an interesting and probably important point: I look at that picture and recognize immediately that it's a BobDavid. It's just as recognizable as a Cartier-Bresson or a Robert Frank or a Garry Winogrand. Very few artists achieve that kind of recognizability.

Oh come on Russ, those photographers outclass my work by miles. But, I graciously accept the compliment!
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: RSL on March 06, 2018, 11:39:09 am
I graciously accept the compliment!

You'd better!

But I'm not comparing quality. That's a call shot by the observer -- whether or not a picture is good or bad. I covered that point in The Horror of Technical Excellence (http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/TechnicalExcellence.htm). What I'm talking about is recognizability -- recognizing that a particular picture is a "whatever." You can look at a picture and say, "It's a Picasso," or you can look at a picture and say, "It's a Renoir." I pretty much can look at a picture and say "It's a BobDavid." I suspect a lot of others on here would agree. I think that's a pretty important quality for any artist. Now, I'm not saying that recognizability means it's always good. Take Eddie Guest's "poetry" as an example of what I mean. It's certainly recognizable, but . . .
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: degrub on March 06, 2018, 11:55:00 am
You should visit a Buc-ee's in Texas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buc-ee's
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: BobDavid on March 06, 2018, 12:19:10 pm
You should visit a Buc-ee's in Texas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buc-ee's

If I make it down to Texas, I'll definitely scope out Buc-ee's.
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on March 06, 2018, 02:14:13 pm
You'd better!

But I'm not comparing quality. That's a call shot by the observer -- whether or not a picture is good or bad. I covered that point in The Horror of Technical Excellence (http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/TechnicalExcellence.htm). What I'm talking about is recognizability -- recognizing that a particular picture is a "whatever." You can look at a picture and say, "It's a Picasso," or you can look at a picture and say, "It's a Renoir." I pretty much can look at a picture and say "It's a BobDavid." I suspect a lot of others on here would agree. I think that's a pretty important quality for any artist. Now, I'm not saying that recognizability means it's always good. Take Eddie Guest's "poetry" as an example of what I mean. It's certainly recognizable, but . . .
Russ is absolutely right, Bob. I share his joy at seeing a new BobDavid and knowing instantly that it is, indeed, a BobDavid.

And, incidentally, they're pretty good, too.   :D

Eric
Title: Re: another gas station at night
Post by: RSL on March 06, 2018, 02:23:36 pm
+1