Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: vorlich on September 13, 2009, 10:02:48 am
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I've always liked this shot, I just wish I'd had something other than a kit lens when I shot it. I think it's maybe about time to go back and redo this given some of the techniques I've learned since I first did it. Anyway, before I do...any thoughts on this?
[attachment=16546:ng.jpg]
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On my monitor display at least it looks as if that was a pretty good kit lens. I like it. It's almost surrealistic. If the tree and plants were a bit more fluid it would be Dali-ish.
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Ditto to what Russ said. Very nice.
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It appeals to me on first sight. It's not the optimal weather but still an attractive view. (Who says it ALWAYS has to be the standard weather?) I would have walked a bit nearer, using the dead trees on the left and the other trees at the right roughly as a border. Oh and I also like the square.
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I don't think it matters one bit that you used a kit lens for this shot, because I see the ideal print size for this as somewhere in the 1 foot range. I think that printing it larger would detract from the unusual interaction of the elements. Ordinarily, a centered focal point risks agitating the eye of the viewer. However, you've framed quite an intriguing mix here. The multiple scrub trees bottom right and fewer such scrubs bottom left as well as the medium sized tree mid right create a pleasing imbalance. The stair step effect of the clouds and the ascending horizon mid right add a second theme to consider.
One minor nit- woiuld rotating the frame clockwise a few degrees help? The tree trunk creates a "satellite dish" effect when viewed in context of the concavity of the mid ground, and my eye wants this trunk exactly vertical, to reinforce its central placement.
Well done.
John
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Thanks all for the considered responses. Some food for thought there. I never really considered it Daliesque, but the natural symmetry of the shot did strike me. You may have a point about this being slightly off vertical, I think I shot this handheld.
I would love to print this one, unfortunately my GF has no love for this particular shot, and has vetoed it. What does she know anyway?
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I would love to print this one, unfortunately my GF has no love for this particular shot, and has vetoed it. What does she know anyway?
Is it her printer or something?
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Is it her printer or something?
Nah, I generally only print to frame and hang.
But you raise an interesting point, what does everyone else do with their prints, if they decide not to hang them?
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Nah, I generally only print to frame and hang.
But you raise an interesting point, what does everyone else do with their prints, if they decide not to hang them?
I have boxes of them. I tend to print-to-hang, but I rotate them out periodically so they get taken down after a while. I really enjoy making prints, you just don't get the same experience viewing an image on-screen. It's not a photograph until you print it. :smile: Even once I've taken a print down and it goes in the box, I enjoy looking through them, and I also show them to others; the prints make much more of an impression on people than web JPG's do.
As for the picture I like it quite a bit. The symmetry is what works, and the square format is an excellent choice. I agree with most of John's (button's) points. I think if you print this too large, you'll lessen the relationship between the main tree and the ones in the mid-ground to either side.
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But you raise an interesting point, what does everyone else do with their prints, if they decide not to hang them?
The 'nice' ones I don't hang or frame get stored in boxes or given away.
I also print a loads of 'small' prints (up to letter-sized) on 'cheap' paper, spray mount them on foamcore and stick them (literally with blu-tack) all-around on a rotating basis in my home and office.
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I would love to print this one, unfortunately my GF has no love for this particular shot, and has vetoed it. What does she know anyway?
I think it's time to trade in the GF on a more tolerant model. To narrow the initial selection, get each candidate's opinion on this photo. Discard any that don't like it.
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Well she puts up with my obsession in other ways, so it's not all bad
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The magic of this shot for me is that it feels like an incredibly good book illustration, a kind of magical (as one respondent said "surreal") image which invites narrative invention and creativity. It's the unreality of the shot that makes it special. I could weave stories about this picture--as could any creative kid--almost endlessly!
Randy
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The magic of this shot for me is that it feels like an incredibly good book illustration, a kind of magical (as one respondent said "surreal") image which invites narrative invention and creativity. It's the unreality of the shot that makes it special. I could weave stories about this picture--as could any creative kid--almost endlessly!
Randy
Thanks Randy, I think you've opened my eyes to a number of aspects of this shot. I knew I liked it, but I think you helped clarify to me why it works, despite the light being subdued by landscape standards. Until this point, I wasn't really sure how I could make another image which had similar characteristics. I'm still not sure I can, [I'd love to say this was pre-visualised, but it was mostly luck; unforced, handheld, almost like a snapshot, I don't remember exactly why I photographed it - coupled with sympathetic processing/cropping] but maybe in understanding this I can learn to see similar opportunities when they arise.
cheers,
Fraser
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I don't remember exactly why I photographed it
Fraser, That's an interesting comment. I'll suggest you never want to know why you're shooting a photograph at the moment you shoot it. Knowing why means routine commercial -- wedding, product, architectural, etc. -- photography. It seems to me, from what I've seen and what I've read, that people who produce art with their cameras shoot intuitively -- on an impulse -- because something suddenly goes bang in their heads and says, shoot now.
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Exactly. Very good remark.
I have thought about this for some time (while looking at my images of course). My experience, as soon as I am no longer sure about my composition and start to think "how to frame it best" it is already too late. Then I tend to incooperate some silly formalism, merely playing with lines and forms, trying to create some formal order wich is no longer about the subject, feels forced, is no longer in connection with the subject. Another indicator is when I'm starting series of test images. Then I most of the time already did loose the connection. On the other hand I feel when it's gonna be ok, then I can just consider a moment how to frame it a little bit better and shoot, and thats it. Just my experience.