>> challenge 15 - comment and critiques thread <<

rutt · June 19, 2004

ginger_55 wrote:

IHis name is/was ERNEST HAAS.
ginger

Oh, boy, Ginger, this guy was good! I love this:

and this one is likely to become the all time favorite of thousands (ok, maybe scores) of dgrin'ers:

It's easy to find examples of the greats breaking the rules, sometimes all the rules at once. What would you say about this motion shot:

Hmmm, focus on background not foreground. Why isn't the protagonist in focus? Too dark, perhaps try PS/CS shadow/highlight? Black isn't really black, perhaps threshold white/black point correction? Stuff in the water is distracting, try cloning it out. Or maybe a horizontal crop to emphasize the sense of horizontal motion and remove distracting rooftops? Why B+W? I want to see the color of the sky reflected in the puddle.

Any one of these suggestions would dimminish this image for reasons that I can probably explain, but aren't really the point here.

*Sigh* But he is HCB, and has a license to break the rules. And I am merely me, happy when I can actually manage to obey them.

Andy · June 19, 2004

love the way you guys get into this
i posted a few haas shots in ging's other thread.

i'm diggin him a lot lately

wxwax · June 19, 2004

rutt wrote:

Very cool and interesting, Sid. BUt what is it? Looks like one of my bad dreams.

Thanks, Rutt, it's outside a fish restaurant downtown. Friday night pedestrians passing in front of their huge sculpture.

wxwax · June 19, 2004

rutt wrote:

The tele makes things look cramped if you close it down because it loses natural perspective (or something like that)... The tele just compresses it.

I heard them call it 'telescopic foreshortening" on TV when explaining why the big zoom on a television camera at a baseball game makes it look like it's raining harder than it actually is.

The zoom compresses the distance. As I know you know, it can make for useful shots, when you want to mash your foreground subject against a larger background - get some distance and a long lens, and suddenly they're together!

wxwax · June 19, 2004

Nice action shot. This and the guy making the catch look good. IMHO, and it really is a humble opinion, it wants only for some dramatic light. The framing of the catch would look better with room in front of him rather than behind him, and with horizontal framing, dunno if you did that on purpose and I'm being a Philistine.

I really like what you're trying here. I think the shots where you extend yourself have more interest. My only thought is about the composition... it's almost purely up the middle. Might be stronger with a different layout. (This feels like carping, as the opportunities are limited in live action.)

I really quite like this one. It communicates feeling and place. I wish his face was more in focus, but I think I hear HCB snorting with disgust even as I type this. Again, I find the shots where you extend yourself to be more interesting than the standard action shots.

Shakey · June 19, 2004

Attempting to catch motion sometimes is giving what I think fuzzy and unfocused movement.

I am getting closer to what I want to achieve. But I don't think I am there yet I am still leaning to my cycle pic.

and

Bryan · June 19, 2004

I shot this at a wedding last night. Any good?

rutt · June 19, 2004

Bryan wrote:

I shot this at a wedding last night. Any good?

OK, I'm going out on a limb here, but all color or all B&W, please! I like the picture, but I think the selective color is very distracting. And it been done. Is it really a permenant part of the photographic vocabularly? Or just a fad? I think this might be a stunning B&W or color image. The and and bow blur is very nice.

Shakey · June 19, 2004

ginger_55 wrote:

Shakey wrote:

Attempting to catch motion sometimes is giving what I think fuzzy and unfocused movement.
________________________

I like the baseball picture a lot. How did you get on the field? Long lens? Or were you there.
ginger

Thanks Ginger

I was just off to the fielders left side of the Backstop and I shot it with a 105mm lens =168mm with the conversion factored in .

Bryan

I think it is a nice shot maybe cropped a bit to tight and I would like to see the color version before I can say more.

Bryan · June 19, 2004

rutt wrote:

OK, I'm going out on a limb here, but all color or all B&W, please! I like the picture, but I think the selective color is very distracting. And it been done. Is it really a permenant part of the photographic vocabularly? Or just a fad? I think this might be a stunning B&W or color image. The and and bow blur is very nice.

Thanks for your thoughts. here are the original and a couple other versions...

ORIGINAL - Captured in banquet hall with sunset infront of him
dRebel ISO 800, f4.5, 1/15 sec (hand held)

B/W - it just does not have the pop I was hoping for.

Color cropped and desaturated a bit.

Finally I tried taking saturation way down, interesting look.
I like it, I love the tone on the violin.

Thanks for your thoughts, they make me push and work harder.

wxwax · June 20, 2004

A day in the sun. I'd hoped for anglers casting in the sundown, but they were mysteriously absent. Then I tried for faces of runners and cyclists, so I put a big lens on. Turns out it's hard to keep in frame someone who's ten yards away, when you have a big lens. Also, two folks got irate about having their photo taken - no way to be inconspicuous with a heavyweight camera and a honking white lens on it. But most were cool.

Shirtless Runner

Young Cyclist

gubbs · June 20, 2004

Huckelberries
I've posted pictures of these guys before, but they were playing in town again yesterday....(tripod:nono)

gubbs · June 20, 2004

Shakey wrote:

I woke up this morning knowing it was motion Thursday so I got my butt in motion and after I dropped the kid off at school I went downtown.

Title: Cyclepathic Grin

My fav is Cyclepathic Grin due to the color emotion and capture of highrises in the background. Also it is my first ever attempt at a panning style shot.

Shakey, any shot that makes you feel dizzy has got to be expressing movement well ...

gubbs · June 20, 2004

ginger_55 wrote:

Driving, moving rain, shelter is sought
A Rainy Day

I really like this ginger, was it actually raining or is that a ps effect??

gubbs · June 20, 2004

Cool shot Sid, not sure what it is yet but its very dramatic. You kinda think the Fish(??) is moving!!

I know now I've seen the rest of the thread:D

gubbs · June 20, 2004

Rutt, I really enjoy all of your Baseball shots, Particularly these 2...

rutt · June 20, 2004

ginger_55 wrote:

___________________

Bryan, I like them all, the color, the blk and white and the "fad" with black and white and color. The only one I don't like is the very big one you asked about.

I'm not sure the contest rules allow us to choose a size. Andy, please clarify. But, Ginger, I think you have an issue with size. You commented that you couldn't see a smugmug L photo of mine all at once. What resolution display do you have?

rutt · June 20, 2004

Does social movement count?
Taken at the first same sex marriage in the First Unitarian Society of Newton church. It's a lot of social movement.

Shakey · June 20, 2004

Still not what I am looking for but close.

Tim

Andy · June 20, 2004

rutt wrote:

I'm not sure the contest rules allow us to choose a size. Andy, please clarify. But, Ginger, I think you have an issue with size. You commented that you couldn't see a smugmug L photo of mine all at once. What resolution display do you have?

smugmug size -L for portrait orientation, -M for landscape orientation (makes viewing easiest, allows for small monitors to see the full pic w/out scrolling). -L for landscape is of course acceptable, too... it falls in the <150KB limitation size, and 800px max on the longest side limitation.

hope this helps?

rutt · June 20, 2004

andy wrote:

smugmug size -L for portrait orientation, -M for landscape orientation (makes viewing easiest, allows for small monitors to see the full pic w/out scrolling). -L for landscape is of course acceptable, too... it falls in the <150KB limitation size, and 800px max on the longest side limitation.

hope this helps?

Doesn't exactly answer the question posed by Ginger's critiques. Can entries be smaller than 800px on the longest side? Reading between the lines in your post, I'd say, "yes". In the interest of benevolent transparency, can you please disclose your aesthestic opinion of smaller submissions? Thanks.

Andy · June 20, 2004

rutt wrote:

Doesn't exactly answer the question posed by Ginger's critiques. Can entries be smaller than 800px on the longest side? Reading between the lines in your post, I'd say, "yes". In the interest of benevolent transparency, can you please disclose your aesthestic opinion of smaller submissions? Thanks.

oh sure, i'm sorry rutt ;-)

i think that too small is no good and too big is no good ;-)

for me, i'd say that smaller than 640x480 is too small. bigger than 800x600 is too big.

i prefer giant images, but i have a 21" monitor and broadband... but we have to accomodate all comers here, so that's why the 800px max limitation...

does this help?

rutt · June 20, 2004

ginger_55 wrote:

___________________________________________

I don't know. Actually, I don't know what you mean? And I am sure my husband doesn't either. We have a 1 1/2 year old Dell computer with a 17" monitor of the same age. I have noticed articles and things about monitors not being able to display what we are insisting on putting on them, or something.
ginger

Let's help Ginger, but in a different thread. Ginger, why don't you post this as question on the accessories bb. I'll bet we can help.

ginger_55 · June 20, 2004

gubbs wrote:

I've posted pictures of these guys before, but they were playing in town again yesterday....(tripod:nono)

___________________________________

Gubbs, I think that is a lovely photo.

ginger

DavidTO · June 20, 2004

gubbs wrote:

My favorite of the lot. Great expression, and great feeling of movement around him.

wxwax · June 20, 2004

My favs so far, with absolutely no offense intended for anyone whose shot I haven't picked, ya varmints....

Ginger, you're coming on strong these days!

And that doesn't even include the ones already submitted, like these beauties:

And Surfphoto's great surfing shot, which is an attachment and can't be linked to this post.

wxwax · June 20, 2004

ginger_55 wrote:

... the vertical pictures seem to be getting bigger again. I have to scroll on all of them.

Ginger, how about you try hitting the F11 key on your keyboard? It removes all the junk from the top and bottom of your screen. Makes the screen bigger. When you want it back the way it was, just hit F11 again.

wxwax · June 20, 2004

OK, I have a couple more up my short sleeve from yesterday. In addition, I have an idea for a shot, but I don't know if I can get a store to give me permission to see if it will work. I'll try today.

Jogger vs Walker

Fast Car

Sandy · June 20, 2004

The Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood, are any of these worthy of the challenge?

dugmar · June 20, 2004

Watkins Glen, NY this weekend. I'm sorting through some more now, so there are more to come, I filled 3 256MB cards on Friday and Saturday. Comments welcome.

-Doug