SF4 - Is this better than current entry?

seastack · January 30, 2008

Not sure, may have gone too far round the bend on this one ... been looking at it too long to have any objectivity.

Is this better than what I've already entered, or just a good idea (or not)?

Current entry:

tsk1979 · January 30, 2008

Nope

seastack · January 30, 2008

tsk1979 wrote:

Nope

I always like a good no nonsense answer ... are u sure ;-))

gus · January 30, 2008

The face..not a question in my mind about it.

snapapple · January 30, 2008

This is better. Much more interesting and mysterious.

tsk1979 · January 30, 2008

seastack wrote:

I always like a good no nonsense answer ... are u sure ;-))

Definitely very sure.
A photo should hold you. this photo "going to work" is so apt. you don't even to read the title to sense "commute".
A powerful photo need not be artistic or beautiful. Sometimes simplicity works best.

DeuceFour · January 30, 2008

I see you have already submitted it but I also think number one is the more interesting of the two shots. Reminds me of a spiderweb with morning dew settled on it! Very Cool!

eoren1 · January 30, 2008

I vote for 'the face' or '#13' from your landscape post. I was going to suggest swapping that for the current entry in that thread. This new image is very good. Has a haunting quality and tells more of a story than the current entry. Perhaps it's time for a poll (current, face and #13)??
Good luck,
E

pyroPrints.com · January 30, 2008

I gotta tell ya, I'm not really crazy about them both. =c( If i had to choose I'd say the face, but considering what we've seen from you I think you can do better. Just my 2 cents.

Greensquared · January 30, 2008

I love the face. I has a beautiful painterly quality and a haunting feel as mentioned before. I find myself lingering with it longer, wishing to know more, searching for answers that will never come...

Best of luck,
Emily

seastack · January 30, 2008

Well, I did switch them out but that doesn't mean I've made up my mind, or stopped working on new ideas ... hey, I don't have jury duty until the Grand Finale, lol (seriously, this sucks ... I got summons from two counties at once which is weird and interesting since I live in only one, lol)

I appreciate all the comments ... and geesh Pyro, push me will ya! ;-))

pyroPrints.com · January 30, 2008

seastack wrote:

I appreciate all the comments ... and geesh Pyro, push me will ya! ;-))

Someone's gotta do it... plus i wanna see some more good photos

kwalsh · January 30, 2008

I definitely like the face better myself.

Tessa HD · January 30, 2008

I find the face more intriguing and mysterious, which does make a viewer linger.

DJ-S1 · January 30, 2008

Hands down, the face for me.

HoofClix · January 30, 2008

For SF4, the face works best. It would have been selected "hands" down in the last round...

The silhouette also is a striking photo. Without the title I wouldn't have guessed "commute," but a sort of desperatation, like a group of homeless milling around in the morning cold as part of a documentary or something... The details leave a lot to the imagination....

Your choice, and good luck!

seastack · January 30, 2008

Thanks for all the comments! ... good thoughts which led to an epiphany today walking down the street, literally stopped dead in my tracks and someone ran into me, lol. No time for this round but ... }:))>

pyroPrints.com · January 30, 2008

seastack wrote:

No time for this round but ... }:))>

make some time

I wanna see it =c)

I got an interesting idea as well, but i'll prolly save it for final if I qualify *crosses fingers*

quark · January 31, 2008

Not to hijack seastack's thread, but do we know if the final round is "theme-less"? I looked about but I can't find any hints.

By the way, I also prefer the face!

seastack · January 31, 2008

quark wrote:

Not to hijack seastack's thread, but do we know if the final round is "theme-less"? I looked about but I can't find any hints.

By the way, I also prefer the face!

No problem

)

I don't know but have always assumed the final would be themeless like the semis ... i can't imagine it otherwise but that would be quite a curve ball if i'm wrong. We'll know soon.

NeilL · January 31, 2008

Don't relax, seastack

Don't know of course the nature of your epiphany so can't judge the relevance to your request in this thread(?). Does it smooth your choice for this SF?

I was impressed by the commuters entry when I first saw it, and recognised connections in it to some things I saw a long time ago in books, can't be more specific at the moment. So, while it does have impact, especially the no-compromise negative space, it might not be wholly an original idea.

The face in the window is also not wholly original, I think, I am again getting reverberations with that. It's not an uncommon way to isolate an element in a frame and create mystery-impersonality, and set up a curious vibe with the viewer about who is observing whom. It shares these kinds of effects with the use of reflections of faces back to the viewer in a window or mirror.

The face does have some distinctive qualities, for all that. The way it emerges from the condensation, the brutal curtailment of the face area with black, the art media texture and coloration. For positive and negative, I feel. To me the face seems a little "forced" by the pp to get through the window. All the negative space has a net result of denying a story to the face, and the droplets are not independent enough from the face to have their own life in the image.

So, for me, there are hits and misses.

I DO like the way you are exploring, and especially wanting to get the edges of a shot working integrally with its internal contents. Both these images are very strong that way.

Thanks for your offerings.

seastack · January 31, 2008

Good post, thoughtful, thank you

)

The new unmentioned idea I had will take some significant work, yet not seem too contrived (hopefully), so I'll save it for the grand finale. And I'm still working on other options for the semi ... i never relax

)

Your comments on the image itself are well received and things I struggle with myself, hence this post. Given it's somewhat mixed reception the message seems to be from viewers ... best of the lot, almost, not quite ... still, it's an almost impressionistic image that morphs with the distance from which viewed ... i may start over and work on it some more.

As to originality, I do understand what you are saying ... but for both of these images, and frankly every image ever posted in LPS, i could likely come up with similarities to famous photographers or photographs if given long enough ... i.e., there is really nothing wholly original, only the individual interpretation by a given photographer at the given time and circumstance with (hopefully) nuances of personal style. This could be a verrrrry long discussion/debate, and has been ad naseum on may forums, but for me my basic tests for an image are ... Does it work, is it fresh (or fresh enough), and best of all, "does it say something" (and this does not have to be literal, it can simply evoke an emotion)? This may be why i've shied away from hyperfocal landscapes recently ... they were a good break, a new excercise, an excellent exploration of form and composition and I like to think the best of my landscapes evoked an otherworldy, alien feel, a "style" worth further exploration in the future in the broader context of storytelling, but landscapes by themselves become a bit boring and ... meaningless, for me. I run the risk here of offense not intended ... subject matter is all about what gets you going ... personally, i'm still exploring but certainly coming back around to my photojournalistic roots ... with new twists.

In the end i'd say that lots of folks like to say photography is all about light, and this is true as far as it goes, but really in the broadest sense photography is all about life ... which of course has run far afield from the question of originality, perhaps.

Hmmm, need to shutup now .... thanks again, love to think ... too much.

cheers,
tom

NeilL wrote:

Don't relax, seastack Don't know of course the nature of your epiphany so can't judge the relevance to your request in this thread(?). Does it smooth your choice for this SF?

I was impressed by the commuters entry when I first saw it, and recognised connections in it to some things I saw a long time ago in books, can't be more specific at the moment. So, while it does have impact, especially the no-compromise negative space, it might not be wholly an original idea.

The face in the window is also not wholly original, I think, I am again getting reverberations with that. It's not an uncommon way to isolate an element in a frame and create mystery-impersonality, and set up a curious vibe with the viewer about who is observing whom. It shares these kinds of effects with the use of reflections of faces back to the viewer in a window or mirror.

The face does have some distinctive qualities, for all that. The way it emerges from the condensation, the brutal curtailment of the face area with black, the art media texture and coloration. For positive and negative, I feel. To me the face seems a little "forced" by the pp to get through the window. All the negative space has a net result of denying a story to the face, and the droplets are not independent enough from the face to have their own life in the image.

So, for me, there are hits and misses.

I DO like the way you are exploring, and especially wanting to get the edges of a shot working integrally with its internal contents. Both these images are very strong that way.

Thanks for your offerings.

NeilL · January 31, 2008

Yeah, Tom.

I DO find some distinctive-"original" things IN some particulars of these shots, even if they on a global level have been done before.

The strong PJ values is one, the deliberate composing with negative space, the relating of the image periphery with the elements within, are others. The tensions these things are creating are somewhat new, as might be their application to your particular favored subject matter. They might not yet be at a mature stage of development.

I suspect you will have to go in the direction of more abstraction to get all this to gel and work. So if I were to suggest what might possibly be a useful exercise for you I would say compose some still life (ie no people or places) and carry it across the border into abstraction.

Can you relate to that?

seastack wrote:

Good post, thoughtful, thank you )

The new unmentioned idea I had will take some significant work, yet not seem too contrived (hopefully), so I'll save it for the grand finale. And I'm still working on other options for the semi ... i never relax )

Your comments on the image itself are well received and things I struggle with myself, hence this post. Given it's somewhat mixed reception the message seems to be from viewers ... best of the lot, almost, not quite ... still, it's an almost impressionistic image that morphs with the distance from which viewed ... i may start over and work on it some more.

As to originality, I do understand what you are saying ... but for both of these images, and frankly every image ever posted in LPS, i could likely come up with similarities to famous photographers or photographs if given long enough ... i.e., there is really nothing wholly original, only the individual interpretation by a given photographer at the given time and circumstance with (hopefully) nuances of personal style. This could be a verrrrry long discussion/debate, and has been ad naseum on may forums, but for me my basic tests for an image are ... Does it work, is it fresh (or fresh enough), and best of all, "does it say something" (and this does not have to be literal, it can simply evoke an emotion)? This may be why i've shied away from hyperfocal landscapes recently ... they were a good break, a new excercise, an excellent exploration of form and composition and I like to think the best of my landscapes evoked an otherworldy, alien feel, a "style" worth further exploration in the future in the broader context of storytelling, but landscapes by themselves become a bit boring and ... meaningless, for me. I run the risk here of offense not intended ... subject matter is all about what gets you going ... personally, i'm still exploring but certainly coming back around to my photojournalistic roots ... with new twists.

In the end i'd say that lots of folks like to say photography is all about light, and this is true as far as it goes, but really in the broadest sense photography is all about life ... which of course has run far afield from the question of originality, perhaps.

Hmmm, need to shutup now .... thanks again, love to think ... too much.

cheers,
tom

seastack · January 31, 2008

NeilL wrote:

I suspect you will have to go in the direction of more abstraction to get all this to gel and work. So if I were to suggest what might possibly be a useful exercise for you I would say compose some still life (ie no people or places) and carry it across the border into abstraction.
Can you relate to that?

Not really, a little too old camera club for me ... but I do appreciate the discussion and critique, it's been thought provoking.

NeilL · February 1, 2008

seastack wrote:

a little too old camera club for me

Haha, sorry.

You are obviously a man of independent action!

But, you know, if you are chasing something, you might have to let it take you into territory not of your choosing? You drag it back then to your camp.

Try this thought experiment: what if the people in your commuters pic were traffic cones... What would you do with the negative space, the peripheries, the form and color composition, so it could be read by a viewer not as a documentary but as a visual experience in formal terms?

It's like the technical knowledge that you have about your camera and photography is the skeleton of your craft. So, growing a formal compositional substructure is necessary to solve the problems/meet the challenges of the desired subjects your camera shoots, including originality/unoriginality.

Yes?

Llywellyn · February 1, 2008

I prefer the face, because I get of a story from it.

I've been following your posts in other threads, and there was one with the high heels hanging off the of a seat that I found incredibly brilliant. Simple and wonderful story. Not sure if that was shot within the contest timeframe, but it really stood out to me in your ferry series.

Loving what you're exploring, at any rate.

Nikolai · February 1, 2008

Face, hands down:-)

Tentacion · February 2, 2008

If I was going for artistic and different creativity...I would definently have to say the "FACE". It is sooooo mysterious, and a really totally different outtake on the MANY waterdrop compositions that have been put into play.

I would like (Personal opinion) to see just a little more depth in the eyes, to bring that composition into a "In Your Face" look. To me, an intenseness in the eyes would make it pop more...(I have a thing about eyes and lips..lol)

Very nice composition. Hey is that person related to Mona Lisa?? Seriously the colors used in that composition, remind me of that era, Did you use a Melancholoytron effect on this??

I like your silohuette comp. but just feel like there are so many elements involved that it makes the composition a bit too busy, not organized...(if this makes sense).

Good luck and best wishes!

Dee · February 2, 2008

The face
I was rather disappointed in the ferry entry and like the face much better.

SF4 - Is this better than current entry?

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