My 1st post

dave.turley · November 21, 2010

Hi,
My first ever post as a total newb here. Looking forward to sharing photos and opinions with you all. Here's a recent shot of my boy, taken to add to his publicity website. (he's a singer/songwriter).
Not sure what size was considered o.k. so I went for large! That says a lot about me.
Dave

reyvee61 · November 21, 2010

Welcome
I do like the vantage point and light.....very cool!

sara505 · November 21, 2010

reyvee61 wrote: »

Welcome
I do like the vantage point and light.....very cool!

I agree.
Love it.
I would consider cropping the bottom to about 1/4 below the top of the large white tile on the right, leaving the cool pattern, but removing the distraction of the big white tile that grabs the eye.
Great shot.
Lucky kid to have a free publicity photographer.

VayCayMom · November 21, 2010

Welcome and wow great first post photo !! Looking forward to seeing more from you.

Icebear · November 21, 2010

Very cool. I would crop out the nearest two rows of tiles. They might make for an interesting bit of art, but they take away from your son. He's the subject . . . not the floor, right?

Welcome aboard!

Darren Troy C · November 21, 2010

Awesome shot! Does he have a YouTube section? ...or somewhere that we can hear his chops?

briandelion · November 21, 2010

As an old time singer/songwriter myself, I would have been proud to have a shot like that. Great composition!

CASowers · November 21, 2010

could be a great first album cover! Really nice shot. Agree with the above on the crop at the bottom.

dave.turley · November 21, 2010

Thanks very much for all your comments and kind welcome. I sort of agree with the floor, but I'm a little undecided ....still....I'm a procrastinator.

Have a click and see the boy in action. BTW, not all the pics there are mine *tut*... http://artistecard.com/aliingle
Been here about a week, and haven't unpacked all my bits and pieces yet. Tripping over css and other complicated things as we speak! Gonna bug a lot of people here in the coming weeks with all that! Judging by this forum though, you guys are very accomodating to us newbs. (thankfully)
Regards
Dave
http://dave-turley.smugmug.com/

sara505 · November 21, 2010

dave.turley wrote: »

Thanks very much for all your comments and kind welcome. I sort of agree with the floor, but I'm a little undecided ....still....I'm a procrastinator.

Have a click and see the boy in action. BTW, not all the pics there are mine *tut*... http://artistecard.com/aliingle
Been here about a week, and haven't unpacked all my bits and pieces yet. Tripping over css and other complicated things as we speak! Gonna bug a lot of people here in the coming weeks with all that! Judging by this forum though, you guys are very accomodating to us newbs. (thankfully)
Regards
Dave
http://dave-turley.smugmug.com/

Oh yeah, this kid's going places...

I love Last Goodbye - take a listen.

reyvee61 · November 21, 2010

Great stuff, gave "Stuck on you" a spin...he has a great voice and very listen-able style!
Bravo!

Z6I · November 21, 2010

I like both the shot and the music. Prefer the crop on your son's site.
You both have "it".

Mike J · November 22, 2010

Welcome to dgrin and great first post. The composition just has so much going for it.

dave.turley · November 22, 2010

Thanks everyone, I'll pass on your words of encouragement to him, and as someone who has only had a camera in his hand for 10 months, I thank you too.
I'll keep you posted on his progress, and let you know when I'm moving in to the mansion he's promised us when he 'makes it'
Regards
Dave

Quincy T · November 22, 2010

Prodigious, both of you.

senorjax · November 22, 2010

I like the photo quite a lot; nice perspective. Your son is very talented as well, "A Moment Of Us" is my favorite on first listen.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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Do you ever watch really good players play Scrabble? They aren't like my friends and I, who get excited when we make a 2 syllable word (woohoo, I spelled flower!). They have a dictionary with every Scrabble legal word in it, many of them words we've never heard of, much less use. And they have it memorized. The whole thing. The photographic equivalent of the Scrabble dictionary is the "Basic Rules of Photography" manual, which most experienced photographers have memorized. It's a list of all the 'rules' to follow in order to take a nice image. In it you'll find, among other things, the rule of thirds, the leave breathing room in front of your subject rule, the chart of complementary colors etc. etc. and more etc. Used as guidelines, they help steer us away from potential pitfalls that detract from the image, taken as hard and fast rules they often make it difficult to create an image that expresses the feeling we are trying to convey. Photography isn’t a judged sport. It isn’t like synchronized freaking swimming with a checklist of essential elements (you have successfully exhibited 30 of the 31 essential elements of the “Basic Photography” rules, this photo scores 97%). <o:p></o:p>
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Just in case you haven’t memorized the whole book yet would you like to know the fastest way to learn it? Simple, post a photo here. You will get feedback detailing every rule you have omitted or applied improperly. It’s up to you to determine whether each one is of the “You’re right, I didn’t think of that and it would improve the image” variety, or “Yes I saw that but it didn’t express what I was feeling as well as this method does”. Here’s a couple of examples. Let’s quickly separate our composition options into 3 ranges as they pertain to musician photos. Tight shots, with the subject nearly ear to ear in the photo, and probably just a small part of their instrument or mic if it’s a live shot. If you capture an especially powerful moment it can be a real wowwww shot. Next, a relatively loose shot, such as the one you posted. Very effective in many ways, it reveals background and environment. We want to see what kind of world people of note live in and what they like. We start out knowing only of the thing that brought them to our attention, in this case music, and we fill in the blanks with things like the background in this photo. It gives their lives context. And the fact that the subject is small gives him room to grow, lots of room to grow, metaphorically. And he’s also a bit of an enigma; it makes us want to see more, see more clearly. It engages our curiosity and invites us to find out more. This is only my opinion here (well, the whole thing obviously should be taken with much caution) but my biggest peeve regarding people shots is losing good background simply to make the subject larger in the frame. This brings us to the intermediate focal range that I like to call, “life between 40mm and 60mm”. Done well it’s a best of both worlds, subject and bg both strong. Not so well, and it can be bland and numbing. It’s also the easiest default, so you can count on lots and lots of recommendations to change to this perspective if you should happen to post something else. Our choices of composition are a reflection of our personal tastes and artistic inclinations, and as such there isn’t really any “this way is better than that way or the other way ‘round”. So if someone suggests that you knock off two layers of tiles in the foreground it’s their personality talking. They aren’t really asking you to move tiles that they don’t like, they are asking you to change the feeling of the photo because they want the subject to fill 40% of the frame. Other folks would feel that this size has been done a few billion times already and it makes the subject look stuck in the corner of a cramped room. They may even try going the other direction, a set of tiles further away, for example.
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One other quick example, I promise. A big rule in the book says that when you look at a photo your eye naturally migrates to the brightest point. Look at the big white tile in fg right and you’ll see what they mean. Your eye almost squints and it’s hard to see the darker tones of the subjects face above it. The folks that have recommended getting rid of it have a valid point. They have all advocated moving your camera closer to the subject in essence, which solves one problem but may cause you to lose other aspects of the scene that you really like. It’s ok to look for other solutions, such as moving back one tile instead of forward. Or how about reversing the white and black tiles? This leaves the perspective intact, and the black tile makes the subject much sharper. And moving the white tile to the left adds some light to the left side of the image which could use a little counterpoint. If you happen to have Photoshop it’s a relatively easy process. If not, the photographers that shot some of the other website photos may be able to help. I tried it and it took less than 5 minutes.
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One last thing, then I will go away because I’ve written a few months worth of drivel here in one sitting. I think shots of all artists and their art have more to do with creating a sense of feeling and mood than other portraiture and the creators should have special dispensation to focus on emotional impact at the expense of technical perfection. See y’all in February or so.

dave.turley · November 23, 2010

Digesting.......................This may take some time.

Bend The Light · November 23, 2010

Excellent stuff...when's the CD released?
Love the image, too. Very nicely done.

Hope you are both proud of each other...you should be.

dave.turley · November 23, 2010

Thanks. He's working on his songs with the guy who produced The Arctic Monkeys and the guy from OMD who wrote 'Whole Again' for Atomic Kitten. Hence, we have high hopes.
I'll keep you updated.
Dave

zoomer · November 23, 2010

I like the photo.
Not sure it is ideal a publicity photo as he is so small in the corner.
Nice creative composition otherwise.

My 1st post

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