c. 35: Sloth

rutt

Sloth:

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]...sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds.
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- Thomas Aquinas

I went out to hunt for this sluggishness of mind midafternoon in the bars on Moody St, in Waltham, MA.








Sloth isn't pretty like lust is. It isn't dramatic like anger or pride. Not as ugly as gluttony. Not as interesting as envy or greed. But not hard to find, either. I didn't actually have to leave my own room, but I don't have a mirror.

brucenz

sloth, not
If these guys are sloth-like then we;'re all in trouble. Is it the law there you can't photograph people in restaurants and bars?:D

rutt

Let me have it -- bad or good


I thought this guy was really the nuts as far as sloth goes. Just look at that sluggishness of mind. But there was a flood of silence, so I guess it just didn't work for anyone. Don't worry about my feelings, I don't have any.

jeff lapoint

rutt wrote:

I thought this guy was really the nuts as far as sloth goes. Just look at that sluggishness of mind. But there was a flood of silence, so I guess it just didn't work for anyone. Don't worry about my feelings, I don't have any.

rutt,

great photos! but...i see more bliss than sloth

but the real deal is how you saw it, and the feeling you get from the image...or if you are like me, you may just have been trying to take a photo to fit a challenge. i have come to the conclusion that while my intrepretation of STA and the 7 deadlys is personal and at times subtle, a photo depicting them may need to be much more obvious/blatent in order for everyone/judges to *get* it.

either way, you are taking some sweet photos

ginger_55

brucenz wrote:

If these guys are sloth-like then we;'re all in trouble. Is it the law there you can't photograph people in restaurants and bars?:D

Bruce, bruce, bruce! Where is your entry?

Rutt, where are you?

ginger

Andy

rutt, these are good people shots but they don't say sloth to me. you can do better

rutt

ginger_55 wrote:

Rutt, where are you?

ginger

I'm here. Do you want me? Just whistle.

rutt

andy wrote:

rutt, these are good people shots but they don't say sloth to me. you can do better

I thought I was pretty brave going into those lowdown bars at midday. The guy with the Bud Light would have slugged me if he hadn't been so, err, slothful. But in retrospect, they say depression, dispair, alcolholism, not sloth. Even though I do think the fit STA's definition, that is a 1000 year old definition. Historical note: Originally, the sin was sadness not sloth. That was too vague and they changed it to sloth, but only a couple of centuries before STA.

spockling

rutt wrote:

I thought I was pretty brave going into those lowdown bars at midday. The guy with the Bud Light would have slugged me if he hadn't been so, err, slothful. But in retrospect, they say depression, dispair, alcolholism, not sloth. Even though I do think the fit STA's definition, that is a 1000 year old definition. Historical note: Originally, the sin was sadness not sloth. That was too vague and they changed it to sloth, but only a couple of centuries before STA.

Rutt, I haven't had a chance to yet, but I'm ineligible anyways, but what about the ever present city work crew where one or two are working and there's three or more holding up shovels?

Lucky Hack

The middle one is my favorite. I like the empty space in the middle it hints at the idea of sloth, but the guy on one side and his beer on the other give you the context of the empty space.

hoping this message finds you well -Ian

rutt

Lucky Hack wrote:

The middle one is my favorite. I like the empty space in the middle it hints at the idea of sloth, but the guy on one side and his beer on the other give you the context of the empty space.

hoping this message finds you well -Ian

Yeah, I agree. I like this picture a lot. This was in a very lowdown bar and this guy was pretty drunk alone in there in the middle of the day. It fit Aquinas' definition to a T, but it's not how we think of it anymore. This was depression and alcoholism. We probably think this is a form of illness, not sin. But it sure is "sluggishness of mind..." Back in Aquinas' day, they had sin and virtue, not many excues.

pathfinder

rutt wrote:

I thought this guy was really the nuts as far as sloth goes. Just look at that sluggishness of mind. But there was a flood of silence, so I guess it just didn't work for anyone. Don't worry about my feelings, I don't have any.

John, I see where you are coming from here, and I think the composition is pretty good. I think the large area of OOF yellow is too upbeat and to attractive to the eye. I don't know if a radical lab shift to change the yellow could be accomplished, but I just think the yellow. while attractive, is counter-productive to what you are trying to convey here. Do you think an earthier ochre or dark green or maye dark blue would be better for sloth than the yellow?

rutt

pathfinder wrote:

John, I see where you are coming from here, and I think the composition is pretty good. I think the large area of OOF yellow is too upbeat and to attractive to the eye. I don't know if a radical lab shift to change the yellow could be accomplished, but I just think the yellow. while attractive, is counter-productive to what you are trying to convey here. Do you think an earthier ochre or dark green or maye dark blue would be better for sloth than the yellow?

Jim, this is a really good suggestion. The yellow is very yellow, but not so magenta as to allow for total control. Really only the B curve can be manipulated freely in this area. So here is my first stab, just flatten the yellow end of the b curve and darken the entire shot:



My second attempt, I allowed myself to play with both curves and pushed the B curve up above the origin to make the whole area cool. I flattened things enough to get a more natural color in his face as well. This left a residual square where the white square is in the yellow wall, but now it looked fake, so I made a selection and blurred. Then made the whole thing much darker.



This might not be sloth, but this guy is already in hell for something.

DoctorIt

I think the problem with shots 1 and 2 is that they are too much in profile. I'm not getting enough from their faces to really tell me much. I think being there gave you more of an impression than what these photos are letting on.

and whats up with the third one? thats a smiling person? or are you just pickin on people who wear hair nets???

ginger_55

Rutt, if you want to remove the yellow, and I agree that it is distracting, try cloning it black, the same black that surrounds it. That will look more natural, IMO. The other attempts, well, they just don't work for me.

ginger

rutt

ginger_55 wrote:

Rutt, if you want to remove the yellow, and I agree that it is distracting, try cloning it black, the same black that surrounds it. That will look more natural, IMO. The other attempts, well, they just don't work for me.

ginger

Thanks, Ginger. I was liking the first of these two attempts. I really don't like to make local edits (like cloning) unless there really is something very special I'm trying to do. I like this picture, though, and maybe it's worth some more work along the lines that you and Jim suggested. But I don't think I'm going to enter it. STA would have understood, but it's obviously not a crowd pleaser.

ginger_55

Having lived with a couple of alcoholics, or more, I can understand Aquinas view.
My view is only that they are difficult to live with, and certainly not to be depended on.
I actually thought my response was going to be funny, doesn't look that way, though.

g (My entry is not popular either. I don't think it fits Aquinas, either.)