Different ideas for #12 - C&C please

divamum

I had thought of this as soon as the competition was announced, but didn't expect to be in the area where it's located in the time period. However, had to travel yesterday on a last-minute trip, and this time remembered to take the camera with me! Yay.

I had NO IDEA how to convey the size of it, however - the immediate surroundings/background are just ugly (it's at a train station) and it was nearly impossible to get an attractive angle (esp since my widest lens is only 28mm!!). There was also ZERO sky yesterday. However, here'sa sjot pretty much SOOC:

~40ft high Statue in the grounds of Hamilton Train Station



There's also this across the street - NO photoshop involved except to clone out the highway signs and boost curves/brightness a little (the "man: in the background is part of the sculpture!). There was NO good angle for this, particualrly with traffic at 70 mph!! On the other side is an Amtico factory - I tried juxtaposing that, but it just looked ugly rather than meaningful

I'm not convinced it has much of a message beyond capturing an image of .... well... this somewhat WEIRD sculpture. I have NO IDEA what it's supposed to be, but it makes me laugh every time I see it... (giant tooth? Tusk?). However, since it makes me laugh every time I drive by it, I share it both for the humour factor, and to see if anybody else thinks it should be entered. Massive it most certainly is...

richtersl

That giant tooth nails the theme!

I didn't know you lived near Grounds for Sculpture/Hamilton. They have some pretty cool stuff there, eh?

divamum

richtersl wrote:

That giant tooth nails the theme!

I didn't know you lived near Grounds for Sculpture/Hamilton. They have some pretty cool stuff there, eh?

Actually I don't live near there, but it's the bottom end of the NJTransit train line, so I use it as a park and ride to get to NY (after a 3hr drive from home!).

Thanks! If the tooth works, I'll use it, it just seemed such an oddly "non-interpreted" image (considering how much I'm struggling with being TOO literal, I'm trying to think outside the box a little more!)

Thanks for the feedback!

richtersl

divamum wrote:

Actually I don't live near there, but it's the bottom end of the NJTransit train line, so I use it as a park and ride to get to NY (after a 3hr drive from home!).

Thanks! If the tooth works, I'll use it, it just seemed such an oddly "non-interpreted" image (considering how much I'm struggling with being TOO literal, I'm trying to think outside the box a little more!)

Thanks for the feedback!

That tooth is very cool. I know exactly where it is. I don't blame you for not driving into NYC. If you ever get the time, do try to get to Grounds for Sculpture. They have a lot of really bizarre statues there -- some even more bizarre than that tooth. I can easily spend an entire day there. The place is about 10 minutes from that train station.

divamum

richtersl wrote:

That tooth is very cool. I know exactly where it is. I don't blame you for not driving into NYC. If you ever get the time, do try to get to Grounds for Sculpture. They have a lot of really bizarre statues there -- some even more bizarre than that tooth. I can easily spend an entire day there. The place is about 10 minutes from that train station.

Shoot - I wish I'd know that, as I could easily have stopped in yesterday while I was up there! Ah well... next time.... Thanks!

AnnasPhotos

That huge tooth is cool! Strange, yes. Fits the theme perfectly!

divamum

Working one of the tooth-statue shots I took from a slightly different angle, but still not entirely happy with it. HOWEVER... today got the below. What do we think? I wish I had a wider-angle lens (28 is currently as wide as I go, alas) - would have been neat to get the ENTIRE statue from this kind of angle underneath, especially with the clear lue skies we had today!

However... does it work to suggest size as it is? And does the contrasty light bother anybody? (unfortunately it was high noon - simply when it was possible to get down there, so I was stuck with it!)

THANKS as always for all the feedback - I'm still new enough at this that I don't really trust my own judgement/perceptions, especially about my own shots (if only because my mind fills in the "real life" aspects of what I saw), so I really REALLY appreciate the responses y'all are so kind to give!

achambers

Is it a boy or a girl?

At least you have ideas and are shooting. I've only come up with 1 idea and haven't decided how to shoot it yet (it only struck me yesterday (almost literally)).

divamum

achambers wrote:

Is it a boy or a girl?

At least you have ideas and are shooting. I've only come up with 1 idea and haven't decided how to shoot it yet (it only struck me yesterday (almost literally)).

Ha - these aren't ideas, these are happenstance bits of luck where I thought, "Oooo! That's BIIIIGGGG!"

The statue is actually the "man/woman" statue outside Baltimore Penn station - depending on which side you're looking at it from (oooo... bad English... but you know what I mean!) it either looks like a man or a woman, with the heart being present no matter which side you're seeing. It's kind of cool although, like the tooth and the handshake statue, it's surrounded by visual BLECH and almost impossible to take an artistic picture of it. This was the best I came up with - do we like this, or the sheer silliness of the tooth better??!!??

And I'm sure you're just flying high from the last round rather than stymied... (or should that be SURFING high?! ) Congrats again on that pic - it still makes me laugh when I look at it!

divamum

Oh, and fwiw, here's the other version of The Tooth (the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth...::rimshot daboom CHING:: ) I like the other statue better, but I'm open to persuasion....

achambers

Or maybe 'You Can't Handle the Tooth'.

IMHO the tooth looks better with the person in the shot, more sense of scale.

richtersl

achambers wrote:

Or maybe 'You Can't Handle the Tooth'.

IMHO the tooth looks better with the person in the shot, more sense of scale.

OMG....I love that title.

I like your current entry but can you please show us a version of the tooth photo at 800 px at the longest side and with the person in it? Pretty, pretty please? :curtsey

divamum

Picasa's cranky about displaying at selected sizes when you can't embed, however let's try this and see if it works... (I'm playing around w/ b&w too, but with the creamy sculpture against the light sky it doesn't quite work....) I think I need to clean up the background still more, too.... (having seen it in real life you know just how much has gone into the bg work!!)



Edited to add another angle/possibility. I guess my problem is that it's a reallly cool object that doesn't lend itself to particularly good photos - the actual SUBJECT is neat, but due to the restrictions of sightlines (and not having a wa lens) I just don't think they're photographically terribly good, even after I've cleaned up the bg's as best I can

Gastrocnemius

A tooth is a great example of how an apparently Miniscule issue can end up having a Massive effect, as we all probable know from painful experience.

I like the figure and trees adding colour and scale.

Stretching the metaphor....Autumn leaves = decay, but strong roots...

Steve

PS - apologies for hijacking your first thread - I'm still learning to tie my shoelaces here...

divamum

Ok, y'all talked me into it - I updated the entry under the title "We hold this tooth to be self-evident...." (grrrooooaaaannnnnnnnnn:giggle)



Does the cross-processing work? It seemed to minimise the inherent problems of the distracting location and background ....

Also, could somebody check the exif link in the entry for me and make sure it works? For some reason the final image lost the metadeta, so I had to use a previous save for the exif file. Picasa's been cranky lately, so I want to make sure it displays for somebody other than me

Thanks!

Gastrocnemius

EXIF link appears fine...

Nov 7, 2008
1583×1600 pixels – 539KB


Filename: statuecros<wbr>sprocess.j<wbr>pg
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/40 sec
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 79mm
Flash Used: No
Latitude: n/a
Longitude: n/a

pyry

My 0.02 €. Re-shoot the Tooth (gotta love the titles that gives ) as a landscape, with someone standing right next to it looking up. That should really put some size to it. Try to get some detail in the sky behind it if the weather plays nice for you.

divamum

pyry wrote:

My 0.02 €. Re-shoot the Tooth (gotta love the titles that gives ) as a landscape, with someone standing right next to it looking up. That should really put some size to it. Try to get some detail in the sky behind it if the weather plays nice for you.

Thanks. In fact I agree you and I wish I COULD reshoot, but no go For starters it's 3 hrs drive away, and then there's the problem that there IS no other angle without a wider lens - or at least not one I'm prepared to try: it's surrounded on 2 sides by high speed highway, and the other side is a factory with a high fence close to the site. I shot from about the only places I could

The figures are part of the sculpture, btw!!

These give some idea as to the problem.... (to the right of the 2nd picture is the entrance to the train station - more wires and non-photegenic STUFF!)





Btw, I love your updated entry - looks great!

pyry

Huh, not the best place to put a tooth I'd say.

This isn't gonna help without something bordering on a diagonal fisheye (rent/borrow one!), but I've just had a vision of someone next to the Tooth, scratching head, holding a toothbrush...

divadum wrote:

Btw, I love your updated entry - looks great!

Thanks!