Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => Landscape Showcase => Topic started by: Vieri Bottazzini on July 19, 2019, 02:20:51 pm
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Sometimes, ideas come, and build up into projects. Shades of Blue is one such idea, and one of such projects.
This 366 seconds exposure, taken in Cornwall with my Hasselblad X1D, Hasselblad XCD 21mm and the wonderful Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra filters is the first photograph I am sharing out of this project.
(https://www.vieribottazzini.com/wp-content/uploads/X1D1_01006.jpg)
Thank you for viewing, best regards
Vieri
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Love it. Precambrian.
I would be even more happy if it opened in a separate window so I don't have to scroll around to see the whole thing.
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Perfect choice of scene for the "blue" concept.
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Superb (as usual) and it looks like a cold place. I like how the small ribs on the rocks point to lightest part of the sky.
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Excellent!
A good example of using the milky-water technique to create an otherworldly feel. The tonality is spot on as well.
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I was going to ask what film, then realised that would be silly.
;-)
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Meditative image.
mark
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Excellent!
A good example of using the milky-water technique to create an otherworldly feel. The tonality is spot on as well.
I have an hour or so before I go for lunch, and so I was wondering what to say about your unsettling declaration, above. (I think quickly but type appallingly.)
How can you tell that the tonality is spot on? Unless you were there, of course, but even then, your eyes would not have been able to see the scene in the same way as did the camera. Of course, on top of that, there is the inevitable time between the capture and the processing, during which the mind loses it, and has no real idea what the thing looked like at all, just a kind of generic trace memory of how such images are presented during any given era of tastes. To make things even less certain, the photographer has declared his intention of creating a series of images on the theme of blue, making reality even more unlikely in the effort to bend to a personal choice of motif. And without reality there is no way of measuring whether or not something is spot on: the call depends on an absolute.
Another problem, if the above were not sufficient, is that the person making the files then exercises his or her own sense of what looks good, what fits within his or her own ethic or even public image of style, not always the same thing: you can find yourself trapped in your own commercial bag, as it were. Reality is on a distant planet by then, and it hardly matters.
So how much is presentation a matter of personal style, a guess at what's popular and what sells? Anybody who has done stock gets the concept immediately: what's going to move and what will sit doing nothing until someone deletes it.
There is also the problem of genre; how many photographers have done exactly the same thing with the same or different rocks? How many blessed rivers and waterfalls have been photographed the same way or with faster or slower exposures, each an attempt to hit that sweet spot that might make the image different from the zillions of other similar ones? Then the realisation that hey, there is no difference at all: it's all one massive genre game, some people slightly more proficient than others.
And that the problem photography faces: it's all been done to death: from landscape through street, the best we come up with is a slight variation on the theme.
Which of course, is why the painter is the artist more often than is any photographer: he simply can't be as literal as the camera (except for very rare cases - and hell, even that's become another genre) and pretty much any painter of note will be more of an artist than your favourite snapper any day of the week if only because by his limitations he actually defines himself, as much as by his abilities. Somehow, that doesn't carry over into photography once a certain level of competence has been achieved: all you get are skilled or unskilled shooters, and digital, in making it all so much easier, has rendered that particular distinction less of a defining, separating aspect.
And that doesn't even look into the eyes of the photographer who subs out his processing.
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I would imagine what Slobodan is saying is that the tonality is simply to his taste.
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Careful, Vieri, having resigned as a Leica Ambassador there's a very real danger you will slip virtually seamlessly into the same role for Hasselblad.
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I would imagine what Slobodan is saying is that the tonality is simply to his taste.
I know, Keith, but time has to be filled and new thoughts sown or old ones given an airing.
I washed half the terrace yesterday because of that damned brown Sahara rain a few days ago; I couldn't face the second half. Today, before the Sun hit it, I got the second part done, which made me think of monkeys, as in slowly, slowly... the poor old Fiesta remains brown, except for the clean windows and lights. Oddly enough, everybody now drives with lights lit all day long. Probably an attempt to be contemporary but also, for me, so as to be visible against that brilliant orb upstairs.
:-(
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Careful, Vieri, having resigned as a Leica Ambassador there's a very real danger you will slip virtually seamlessly into the same role for Hasselblad.
True, and he'd be good at it: made me have a passing thought that a Hassy would really be nice...
Too much too late.
:-)
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True, and he'd be good at it: made me have a passing thought that a Hassy would really be nice...
Too much too late.
:-)
Sadly nothing they make would meet my needs.
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Sadly nothing they make would meet my needs.
You should know, having been chez eux both ways, film and digi. I suppose I get the desire now and again to get onto a tripod and do something "intellectual" and considered, instead of just snatched. I'm not really much good at still life, but sometimes it feels as if it could offer emotional outlets, and at such times the 135 format drives me nuts with its smallness and shape.
When I think of still life I almost invariably turn to Sam Haskins and a couple of model girl pix of his with bottles and brushes... the guy was a friggin' miracle. He's one of the very few heroes with whom I exchanged a few question/answer words. I think I remember Walter having met him too.
Rob
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...How can you tell that the tonality is spot on? Unless you were there...
I couldn’t care less for what was there. Reality is overrated anyway. I am looking for “what else is there,” as per Minor White’s quote. I meant that the tonality is spot on for the intended purpose, which, in this case, is twofold: to create a particular feel and to fit within the blue theme. And yes, as Keith observed, I do like that particular hue and shade of blue for that particular feel the image evokes in me: solitude, desolation, longing, melancholy.
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I couldn’t care less for what was there. Reality is overrated anyway. I am looking for “what else is there,” as per Minor White’s quote. I meant that the tonality is spot on for the intended purpose, which, in this case, is twofold: to create a particular feel and to fit within the blue theme. And yes, as Keith observed, I do like that particular hue and shade of blue for that particular feel the image evokes in me: solitude, desolation, longing, melancholy.
I gave up on that when I came back from lunch: when I returned home I sat down with the iPad for a little browsing. Within minutes, I thought the building was collapsing: one almighty, extended roar, and huge bang. I rushed to the back, and as I passed the loo, I saw that the water heater tank had fallen right off the wall and brought the external pipes and electricity cable with it! 100 effin' litres of it.
Nobody answered the plumbers' numbers I have (Sundays! Never on Sundays), so I went back to where I'd eaten. David, el bosso, did some calling for me, and a guy came out from somewhere in the port. He drained the tank lying on the floor - the tank, not the plumber - and plugged the inlets at the wall, and so I at least have a cold-water flat until tomorrow (?) when I call back the guys who fitted the thing. That will be fun!
So there you are; exciting happy days! What's a tone of blue in my scheme of things? I hope the carpets in the hallway dry looking normal; mopped them up as well as I can, but when the towel no longer picks up water and yet the carpet still feels sodden...
Always look on the bright side of life! My daughter arrives Tuesday night!
;-)
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I couldn’t care less for what was there. Reality is overrated anyway. I am looking for “what else is there,” as per Minor White’s quote. I meant that the tonality is spot on for the intended purpose, which, in this case, is twofold: to create a particular feel and to fit within the blue theme. And yes, as Keith observed, I do like that particular hue and shade of blue for that particular feel the image evokes in me: solitude, desolation, longing, melancholy.
Exactly my thoughts, too.
Thank you Slobodan for expressing them so well.
-Eric
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Rob feel for you. Last year returned home from a short break in York to find a burst in the main pipe in the loft had been running for two days. Whole house flooded, with collapsed ceilings and ruined carpets; Oh Joy.
However after six months of living around the mess the whole house has been completely redecorated and I did not have to do it as the insurance paid for it all. In fact their offer turned out to be more than I paid my contractors; so just back from a week in The Lake District paid for by the burst.
Oh Joy. I hope that you have a similar outcome.
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Rob feel for you. Last year returned home from a short break in York to find a burst in the main pipe in the loft had been running for two days. Whole house flooded, with collapsed ceilings and ruined carpets; Oh Joy.
However after six months of living around the mess the whole house has been completely redecorated and I did not have to do it as the insurance paid for it all. In fact their offer turned out to be more than I paid my contractors; so just back from a week in The Lake District paid for by the burst.
Oh Joy. I hope that you have a similar outcome.
Lucky you! I've never heard of anyone getting anything to do with buildings paid for by insurance out here: stock answer is always the same: maintenance. What the hell maintenance can you do to a bathroom wall inside a cupboard where hangs the water heater? The car people, on the other hand, have been excellent the few times I've been vandalised. So was the health insurance we had.
Tomorrow promises to be a busy day! Let's hope I am just being pessimistic!
Thanks for your good wishes!
:-)
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I gave up on that when I came back from lunch: when I returned home I sat down with the iPad for a little browsing. Within minutes, I thought the building was collapsing: one almighty, extended roar, and huge bang. I rushed to the back, and as I passed the loo, I saw that the water heater tank had fallen right off the wall and brought the external pipes and electricity cable with it! 100 effin' litres of it.
Nobody answered the plumbers' numbers I have (Sundays! Never on Sundays), so I went back to where I'd eaten. David, el bosso, did some calling for me, and a guy came out from somewhere in the port. He drained the tank lying on the floor - the tank, not the plumber - and plugged the inlets at the wall, and so I at least have a cold-water flat until tomorrow (?) when I call back the guys who fitted the thing. That will be fun!
So there you are; exciting happy days! What's a tone of blue in my scheme of things? I hope the carpets in the hallway dry looking normal; mopped them up as well as I can, but when the towel no longer picks up water and yet the carpet still feels sodden...
Always look on the bright side of life! My daughter arrives Tuesday night!
;-)
Why, oh why do plumbing problems always seem to happen on Sunday—or on the eve or a three-day holiday? If there is a god of plumbers, she or he has a disturbed sense of humor. 🙄
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Why, oh why do plumbing problems always seem to happen on Sunday—or on the eve or a three-day holiday? If there is a god of plumbers, she or he has a disturbed sense of humor. 🙄
Indeed! I rang the guy who fitted the heater at 08:30 today and he couldn't believe it. He's coming out whenever he can... I think I may have found a clue as to why it fell oiff the wall: previous heaters have had four fixing points; this one, only two, so that's twice the load on two screws! The holes from the earlier ones are there to see, so I think it may be a hint to him to get a different model this time! I shall certainly raise the point. This latest one was installed in April.
The good thing is that nobody was underneath it: 100 litres of water plus the weight of the metal container and heating bits - it would have crushed me or anybody else. 100 litres weighs 100 kilos, if memory serves., which is 224lbs. Quite a weight.
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I couldn’t care less for what was there. Reality is overrated anyway. I am looking for “what else is there,” as per Minor White’s quote. I meant that the tonality is spot on for the intended purpose, which, in this case, is twofold: to create a particular feel and to fit within the blue theme. And yes, as Keith observed, I do like that particular hue and shade of blue for that particular feel the image evokes in me: solitude, desolation, longing, melancholy.
"I have an hour or so before I go for lunch, and so I was wondering what to say about your unsettling declaration, above. (I think quickly but type appallingly.)"
Of course, I quite agree with you; it's one reason why I automatically go for black/white: it's at least that first step into something else. But as you well know, that wasn't my point; anyway, as I indicated, it was just to have something to do, so writing filled that gap. It looks to me like you took it a bit seriously, for which I'm sorry - wasn't meant to be. Forget it.
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Excellent image. I don't care how many times this theme has been done. When it is done this well, it rises above the mundane.
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Excellent image. I don't care how many times this theme has been done. When it is done this well, it rises above the mundane.
+1.
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Love it. Precambrian.
I would be even more happy if it opened in a separate window so I don't have to scroll around to see the whole thing.
Thank you very much Scott, glad you enjoyed it and sorry about the scroll! :)
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Perfect choice of scene for the "blue" concept.
Thank you very much indeed Eric, I am glad you liked the concept and choice of subject for it :)
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Excellent!
A good example of using the milky-water technique to create an otherworldly feel. The tonality is spot on as well.
Thank you very much indeed Slobodan, I am glad you enjoyed the photograph :) Best regards,
Vieri
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Careful, Vieri, having resigned as a Leica Ambassador there's a very real danger you will slip virtually seamlessly into the same role for Hasselblad.
Thank you for that, for now I have been enjoying my freedom but if someone contacts me with an interesting project I'll definitely consider it :)
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I couldn’t care less for what was there. Reality is overrated anyway. I am looking for “what else is there,” as per Minor White’s quote. I meant that the tonality is spot on for the intended purpose, which, in this case, is twofold: to create a particular feel and to fit within the blue theme. And yes, as Keith observed, I do like that particular hue and shade of blue for that particular feel the image evokes in me: solitude, desolation, longing, melancholy.
Exactly my thoughts, too.
Thank you Slobodan for expressing them so well.
-Eric
That's exactly what I was going for, and that's exactly my approach to my work in the landscape :) Best regards,
Vieri
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Excellent image. I don't care how many times this theme has been done. When it is done this well, it rises above the mundane.
Thank you very much Paulo, that is truly much appreciated :)
+1.
Thank you Eric! :)
Best regards,
Vieri
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ever a great pleasure to see....
All the best,
Sandro
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ever a great pleasure to see....
All the best,
Sandro
Thank you very much indeed Sandro! :) Best regards,
Vieri