Micanope

[RSL]

.

[amolitor]

I don't get it, Russ. The moss is nice, and it looks like you're going for some contrast between the man-made structure on the left and the moss on the right, but it's not really working for me. The moss is awesome and I can imagine that it's almost impossible to leave the stuff alone -- but I think it's dang hard to make anything out of.

A for effort here. Sticking the moss against SOMETHING else is a good start, but I don't think it worked out this time. At least, not for this viewer. This reads as some bizarre combination of "banal suburbia" and "beautiful Eliot Porter natural textures" which, come to think, might be a theme worth pursuing.

The JPEGification here is awful, the highlights beyond the moss are blown to hell and the sky which is making such a mess of things doesn't even appear worth looking at.

[degrub]

i thought it was a study in verticals - the moss, the pickets, with the oak trying to tie it all together.

Frank

[RSL]

Exactly, Frank. But Andrew's right: the jpeg conversion really make those leaves in the background appear to be over-sharpened. Actually, they aren't, or weren't before the conversion.

[Chris Calohan]

Micanopy. Just drove throught there yesterday on my way back from dockage in Ft. Lauderdale. iu hope you got to eat at the Blue Moon Pizza Place. Their pie is soooooooo good.

I don't think the shot works from both standpoints but understand the eye for having made the shot. Spanish moss is difficult in any setting to get to look like what we saw when raising the camera to the eye.

[RSL]

Someday I'll have to try Blue Moon, Chris, but I go up to Micanope on Sunday to eat on the porch, check the used bookstore for interesting photo books, listen to the Porch Band for a while, and join in the general good- naturedness of the folks around there.

Actually, moss isn't a difficult subject at all. What's difficult -- no. . . impossible -- is to get the picture to hold up when you jpeg it. The compression always seems to make the moss look over-sharpened and loses the moss's beautiful detail.

By the way, if you drive through Micanope you want to go on down the road a bit and drive through the back streets in McIntosh. Be sure you have your camera with you.

Oh, and the point of this picture isn't the moss. It's that glorious tree and the counter-diagonals made by the stair railing and the tree branches. The moss is background.