Street - Drive-bys

seastackseastack Registered Users Posts: 716 Major grins
edited November 6, 2007 in Street and Documentary
213878225-L.jpg
Pink Dress. South Dakota, Oct. 2007

So ... this is a little different - part of a series I'm working on of "drive by shootings" of America (I wasn't behind the wheel). Some of the images are pretty impressionistic like this one. Like it, hate it, why? please be honest :))

Comments

  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,904 moderator
    edited October 28, 2007
    I like that. The blur, colors; it comes together nicely.
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 28, 2007
    I like how the mountains mirror what imagine her stride to be. :D
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  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,694 moderator
    edited October 28, 2007
    Looks like Kodachromeiloveyou.gif
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  • Marc MuenchMarc Muench Registered Users Posts: 1,420 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    Way coolthumb.gif right amount of blurrrrr right amount of lightwings.gif and composition works as well.
  • schmooschmoo Registered Users Posts: 8,468 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    Personally, it doesn't do much for me.... :hide

    Keep in mind that I am apparently in the minority!

    I think the idea of drive bys is a cool one! I would love to see more from this series. And I get the impressionistic feel of this for sure thumb.gif

    Maybe I just ache to see a balance of blur and focus, as with most panning shots?

    My $.02 ne_nau.gif
  • kdogkdog Administrators Posts: 11,680 moderator
    edited October 29, 2007
    schmoo wrote:
    Personally, it doesn't do much for me.... :hide

    Keep in mind that I am apparently in the minority!

    I think the idea of drive bys is a cool one! I would love to see more from this series. And I get the impressionistic feel of this for sure thumb.gif

    Maybe I just ache to see a balance of blur and focus, as with most panning shots?

    My $.02 ne_nau.gif


    15524779-Ti.gif
  • seastackseastack Registered Users Posts: 716 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    Wow, thanks for all the comments ... they mirror all the sides of my own thoughts. I'm surprised at the positive feedback ... goes to prove that risks are good and you have to follow your own vision :))

    Schmoo, i really appreciate your honest input and struggled with this here as well ... the conflict between wanting to see something a certain expected way versus what turns out. I see pictures all the time when I'm driving ... glances, juxtapositions, frozen moments at 40 mph, and the nearly seen ghosts in the periphery ... shooting this way is so different than landscape work in many ways, more emotional perhaps ... wrong word, more ... instinctual. There is so little time that it's just more from the gut. Interestingly enough, this image sums up South Dakota and the Black Hills more for me than any of the other pics from my few days there. Sometimes i think we focus too much on technique and what we expect, what we think others expect of us, than on how an image makes us feel on a less intellectual and more instinctual level ... but that's just my take. Landscape photographer William Neill, who is one of the kindest people i've ever met, has been working on this in his landscape work recently with intentionally blurred images of nature ... it's very interesting.

    Thanks again, i'll pull together a body of drive-by work for here when it's a little more developed :))
  • schmooschmoo Registered Users Posts: 8,468 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    seastack wrote:
    Wow, thanks for all the comments ... they mirror all the sides of my own thoughts. I'm surprised at the positive feedback ... goes to prove that risks are good and you have to follow your own vision :))

    Schmoo, i really appreciate your honest input and struggled with this here as well ... the conflict between wanting to see something a certain expected way versus what turns out. I see pictures all the time when I'm driving ... glances, juxtapositions, frozen moments at 40 mph, and the nearly seen ghosts in the periphery ... shooting this way is so different than landscape work in many ways, more emotional perhaps ... wrong word, more ... instinctual. There is so little time that it's just more from the gut. Interestingly enough, this image sums up South Dakota and the Black Hills more for me than any of the other pics from my few days there. Sometimes i think we focus too much on technique and what we expect, what we think others expect of us, than on how an image makes us feel on a less intellectual and more instinctual level ... but that's just my take. Landscape photographer William Neill, who is one of the kindest people i've ever met, has been working on this in his landscape work recently with intentionally blurred images of nature ... it's very interesting.

    Thanks again, i'll pull together a body of drive-by work for here when it's a little more developed :))
    Cool! I definitely look forward to seeing them. thumb.gif

    I am with you in receiving photographs on an instinctual level. I always thought I was more prone to approaching it that way perhaps because of my gender, but regardless I understand that a photo doesn't have to be technically perfect to be an award-winning, gut-moving shot.

    Recently I was looking at some landscapes by Jim Brandenburg and a few of his were completely blurry as well. True at first you think "Huh?" but IMO sometimes it works because it demonstrates something about the subject, but sometimes it doesn't... to whomever is looking at it. ;)

    If absolutely nothing else, a photo like this makes you stop to consider it on more than just a passing level. Obviously this shot works for quite a number of people, regardless of how I received it! I will have to look up this William Neil. :D
  • seastackseastack Registered Users Posts: 716 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    Schmoo, you might also look at Josef Koudelka, he's featured right now on Magnum's webpage. http://www.magnumphotos.com
  • anwmn1anwmn1 Registered Users Posts: 3,469 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    No offense but it doesn't do anything for me either. ne_nau.gif

    Though I see often where a partially or even a significantly blurred image captures the esscence of the subject to me this one does not. For me there is too little subject matter with the girl- we cannot get an idea of who she is- what she is doing- or anything of significance to understand the shot. The mountian being all the way to the top of the frame and the girls lower legs being cut off limit the shot as well. The background is also so dark and blurred that it lacks any significance. This could be taken driving down any rural road in America.

    I am not a technical guy when it comes to photography at all- hell I don't even fully understand how all the functions and settings work together- I know what to do to get what I like but can't explain it on paper. I shoot by eye and more importantly feel. Though this shot may provide you with the feeling of your trip I don't think that emotion is expressed enough for the viewer.

    Just my honest thoughts.
    "The Journey of life is as much in oneself as the roads one travels"


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  • rundadarrundadar Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    Honestly? Love it!

    Now, I am not going to 'critique' and over-analyze as to 'why' and 'how'. It's real. It's emotional. It conveys 'American' to me. It works much better for me than apparently much love image you've posted recently (with the person and the dumpster and a lot of graffiti) - not that that other shot was not a good one - but this is much stronger.

    Tastes differ, of course - would be boring, otherwise :)

    Well done! Thanks for sharing.
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  • seastackseastack Registered Users Posts: 716 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    anwmn1 and rundadar thanks for the comments :)) Appreciate the feedback and i love a good discussion. I almost entered this shot in LPS but chose the alley one instead because i thought it had more universal appeal. Both were taken the same day i think.

    And rundadar, check out John Crosley's work, street from the 60's and today, huge portfolio. I think you will like, close to your work, and don't miss his discussion here.
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,694 moderator
    edited October 29, 2007
    schmoo wrote:
    .....

    Recently I was looking at some landscapes by Jim Brandenburg and a few of his were completely blurry as well. True at first you think "Huh?" but IMO sometimes it works because it demonstrates something about the subject, but sometimes it doesn't... to whomever is looking at it. ;) .....

    :D
    Funny you should mention him, Nightingale and I stopped for a morning in his gallery in Luverne, Minnesota on the way home from Glacier.

    I bought his book "Chased by the Light"

    His work is well worth a look.

    As for Seastack's image, I have a soft spot in my heart for the warmth of Kodachrome. I rarely see "Kodachrome" anymore with digital images.
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  • schmooschmoo Registered Users Posts: 8,468 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    pathfinder wrote:
    Funny you should mention him, Nightingale and I stopped for a morning in his gallery in Luverne, Minnesota on the way home from Glacier.

    I bought his book "Chased by the Light"

    His work is well worth a look.

    As for Seastack's image, I have a soft spot in my heart for the warmth of Kodachrome. I rarely see "Kodachrome" anymore with digital images.

    Jim, i'm envious of the chance to visit his gallery! Chased by the Light was one of my first exposures to landscape photography. But only a month ago or so did I rediscover him and looked at his work with photographer's knowledge.

    Sorry for the hijack. :D
  • seastackseastack Registered Users Posts: 716 Major grins
    edited October 29, 2007
    schmoo wrote:
    Sorry for the hijack. :D

    No hijack, just a good discussion :D
  • CantfeelmyfingersCantfeelmyfingers Registered Users Posts: 531 Major grins
    edited November 6, 2007
    OHHHHH ok, I didn't see this post before I commented on the other photo! For the specific series you're creating, I think this photo and the other photo I commented on are really neat stuff!
    "Take my picture, Tonight I feel beautiful..."
    -Marilyn Monroe
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