Another one from Ord (plus one more)

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

From the other night at my local shooting spot.

Matt, if you are reading this, I took this on the night you didn't get back to the house in time to join me.

Dave.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

This one might benefit from opening the shadows a bit and perhaps a conversion to b&w.

[amolitor]

I swear I've seen this one before, or at any rate a similar one that had the same issue I am about to bring up!

I find that the foreground shoreline leads the eye quite strongly, off to the right and up into the frame, where there is nothing. Everything else about the image conspires to lead the eye to the strong visual center at the sun, but this one powerful line leads distractingly nowhere.

Of course it is, like everything you shoot, extremely attractive.

[RSL]

Very nice, Dave. The sunspot on the near rock sort of makes the picture, or at least completes the composition.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Very nice, Dave. The sunspot on the near rock sort of makes the picture, or at least completes the composition.

Thanks Russ and everyone, yes I made sure I took the shot when the light was still hitting that rock for foreground interest..

Dave

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I swear I've seen this one before, or at any rate a similar one that had the same issue I am about to bring up!

I find that the foreground shoreline leads the eye quite strongly, off to the right and up into the frame, where there is nothing. Everything else about the image conspires to lead the eye to the strong visual center at the sun, but this one powerful line leads distractingly nowhere.

Of course it is, like everything you shoot, extremely attractive.

Do you perhaps prefer this composition of the same scene but from a slightly different viewpoint and taken a couple of evenings later than the one above?

Dave

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

This one might benefit from opening the shadows a bit and perhaps a conversion to b&w.

Slobodan - who's that bloke with the gray hair and no beard in your forum picture?

[Riaan van Wyk]

Hello Dave. I prefer the first one- the composition sits easier with me. Like Slobodan, or whoever the friendly looking bloke is who has taken over his posts, I would like more light on the foreground rocks.

[amolitor]

That's quite nice! I find that it doesn't lead the eye as MUCH, but it also doesn't lead the eye astray, which is nice. The clouds were certainly co-operating that day!

In this one it feels like you're going for a comparison between the sky and the not-sky, with the foreground echoing, if not the colors and textures, at least some of the visual ideas of the sky (as well as, of course, literally reflecting the sky here and there). I think the sky is so strong and dramatic that the bottom half of the image has to struggle to keep up -- like the piano in a piano concerto when the orchestra is playing too loud.

If it were mine, I might do the opposite of what Slobadon suggests (always a good plan, right?) and darken all the not sky down dramatically, first to give it some dramatic help against that sky and second to simply weight the bottom of the image down.

I'm not a color guy, though, so I'm just fumbling along making up wild guesses here.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Slobodan - who's that bloke with the gray hair and no beard in your forum picture?

Hehe... that is just my alter ego.

In all seriousness, after getting one too many complaints that I look too sinister and mean in that earlier forum photo (mostly from my teen daughter), I caved in and changed to something she finds more palatable. On the other hand, I am sure many on this forum would argue that the previous one matched my forum persona much better

It all started with a picture from iMac's built-in camera, with a Comic Book filter applied, that I then converted to b&w. The current forum picture is from a couple of years back, taken inside the Yellowstone lodge. And finally, I am including one taken (with iPhone) a few days ago. Btw, the hair was always gray.

EDIT: Come to think of it, and to preempt such comments, I am sure many would argue that the original Comic Book version, in its devil-red color, would have been way more suitable

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Hehe... that is just my alter ego.

 

I was in the Yellowstone lodge last September for a couple of mornings, working my way through a full stack of blueberry pancakes swimming in maple syrup, yum yum

Always great food over there and huge servings where ever you eat, but you lot have absolutely no idea how to make a decent cup of tea 

Dave

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... you lot have absolutely no idea how to make a decent cup of tea 

Given that is the only culinary item Brits can be proud of, I fully support your unabashed touting of it (says my red-devil alter ego)

[Rob C]

Come on, Slobodan; just because you have nice teeth (non-standard Brit issue) and a lot of hair gives you no right to claim bad things for the missing British art of cooking.

Haven't you seen how well our celebrity chefs fare once they go abroad on their fabulous road and canal trips? Goodness me, they cook in French and Spanish as brilliantly as anyone else!

The problem with Brit cooking isn't the chefs; the problem is the Brits: they give the impression of eating being equated with a pit stop or, alternatively, a means of displaying great wealth, which many indeed do have. It isn't enough to fill the kitchen with pretty cookery books, you also have to learn how to cook.

I was very fortunate in my life to marry a Scottish girl whose Mum was a good cook who believed in the essential value of great raw materials (how like photography!) even for simple, honest and traditional dishes. That start, encouraged by exposure to my own Mum, of mixed Scottish/Italian origin, led to a wonderful kitchen style further enhanced when we came to live in Spain, where very friendly local women were so willing to introduce her (my wife) to local culinary ways. Was there a drawback? Yes, we had to rise very early every Sunday morning in order to find a parking space close enough to the market that I could carry the shopping back without falling down dead. We eventually opted for one of those shopping trolleys with wheels, but I never felt happy with it - loss of masculinity etc. that I imagine it implied, when all it really implied was a sound understanding of the futility of macho pride and the convenience of the invention of the wheel.

All that experience is available to the casual tourist; the problem, of course, is that often that tourist wants nothing beyond what he eats at home. So, really, all those hamburger joints now spreading like a disease across Europe must come to roost on the head of the very tourist who sometimes complains that all you see in holiday resorts is junk food outlets... a circle as vicious as some of the ones we find ourselves drawn into here on matters photographic.

Rob C

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

This one might benefit from opening the shadows a bit and perhaps a conversion to b&w.

Like this perhaps?

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

That's quite nice! I find that it doesn't lead the eye as MUCH, but it also doesn't lead the eye astray, which is nice. The clouds were certainly co-operating that day!

In this one it feels like you're going for a comparison between the sky and the not-sky, with the foreground echoing, if not the colors and textures, at least some of the visual ideas of the sky (as well as, of course, literally reflecting the sky here and there). I think the sky is so strong and dramatic that the bottom half of the image has to struggle to keep up -- like the piano in a piano concerto when the orchestra is playing too loud.

If it were mine, I might do the opposite of what Slobadon suggests (always a good plan, right?) and darken all the not sky down dramatically, first to give it some dramatic help against that sky and second to simply weight the bottom of the image down.

I'm not a color guy, though, so I'm just fumbling along making up wild guesses here.

Like this perhaps?

[amolitor]

Nice. That one definitely works better for me. Opening up the little stream-bed in the center of the frame was a solid choice, it leads the eyes sweetly around a gentle curve and up to the sunset. Super dramatic, great color. Was this a different day, or a just slightly higher angle? Perhaps the stream bed just has more water in it in this one?

The pebbly area lower left, I might just burn that down a bit, but we're really in the land of insanely tiny quibbles -- the pebbles are awfully nice as they are.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Funny, all those incarnations seem to work, especially when viewed individually.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... Haven't you seen how well our celebrity chefs fare once they go abroad...

I rest my case

... the problem, of course, is that often that tourist wants nothing beyond what he eats at home...

How true... especially for Brits. While in Spanish tourist resorts, I was flabbergasted by rows upon rows of British pubs, serving British beer, proudly displaying standard British fare, under British flag, with the ubiquitous Benny Hill shows on the bar's TVs. Why on Earth would you pay thousands of pounds to come to a country with a distinctively different cuisine and culture, and then sit surrounded by your compatriots, drink what you drink at home, eat what you eat at home and watch the same TV reruns you watch at home!? You coould stay at home just as well and save. The only excuse might be that lobster color you get when you dared to trade the bar stool for a beach chair for a few hours, in the first days of your stay.

[Jeremy Roussak]

I rest my case

How true... especially for Brits. While in Spanish tourist resorts, I was flabbergasted by rows upon rows of British pubs, serving British beer, proudly displaying standard British fare, under British flag, with the ubiquitous Benny Hill shows on the bar's TVs. Why on Earth would you pay thousands of pounds to come to a country with a distinctively different cuisine and culture, and then sit surrounded by your compatriots, drink what you drink at home, eat what you eat at home and watch the same TV reruns you watch at home!? You coould stay at home just as well and save. The only excuse might be that lobster color you get when you dared to trade the bar stool for a beach chair for a few hours, in the first days of your stay.

I with you in everything you say, Slobodan, except for Benny Hill. I've not seen him on TV in England for decades.

I've just had the same experience in Corsica. I went with a tour company (Mark Warner), to provide entertainment for the kids. The hotel was an English enclave in a beautiful French (maybe; Corsican, certainly) island. The language was English; the food was mostly English; the absence of any acceptable level of organisation at breakfast was definitely English; even the mountain bikes (and, I shouldn't wonder, the little sailing boats and the windsurf boards) had been imported from England. Most of the people there wouldn't set foot outside the hotel in the entire time (apart perhaps from a quick ride on a bike). I hated it; I hired a car, drove away from the place and wondered at the scenery, the food, the people, the language, the culture. It's a dreadful shame.

Are we Brits the only nation which manages to be so insular? I don't know.

Jeremy

Jeremy

[Rob C]

I don't know, Jeremy, but I do find that I often sign myself twice too. Must be the briefest tautological case possible.

;-(

Rob C