something somber from walking around with my phone

Beyond the counterpoint of mid-gray with darker outlines and dark subject with lightning-like outlines, of looking down and looking up (though the looking up is playing tricks on my eyes and making me think I’m looking down at times), of the two kinds of life and death, of the flat and the infinite, of the elemental “subjects” is the gnawing metaphor which becomes more the “subject” than the things.

 

I feel a transfer of retrospective foreboding from the right back to the left.

 

The photographic contrasts actually tie them together as does the metaphorical similarity of tone.

 

There’s a human and emotional potential even in the stasis of the fallen bird, the dynamics of the positioning (of the wings of the bird and of the bird in the frame) suggesting still a sense of flight, even if perhaps only in the form of a forgotten memory. And in the branches of the tree reaching into the moody void.

 

Each infuses the other with both narrative possibilities and emotional depth. They seem to need each other as lyrics need a melody or the sea needs a shore, the tree raising its angled branch in harmony with the wing of the bird as if gesturing that the bird has found just the right resting place. The bird the anti-icon flatly mocking the depths in the tangle of branches and the mystery of background in the pictured tree.

 

It is what it is and what it’s not.

 

________________________

 

It’s cool to come across a duo of photos for critique in which what’s become an unfortunate “standard” critique wouldn’t apply. The sense of commitment and accomplishment pretty much forestalls any thought of reworking this and presenting you with my version of it or with mundane key suggesting an alternative crop or change in tonality or contrast.

mundane key = autocorrect’s version of mundanely.

mundane key = autocorrect’s version of mundanely.

 

That's why I call it 'Autocorrupt' !

Hope you didn't strain yourself on that one ludmilla. A real asset in the critiques forum.

Well. I was going to try a critique but lacking Sam's eloquence as well as well as Inoneeye's reply to it, I've simply decided to go with the initial thought that came to me upon seeing the post. The sinister looking glow on those tree limbs produced by the lightening like halo's (don't know what else to call them) as well as the feeling of impending horror (not sure if that's the right word but it'll do) produced by the contrast (I think) in the image of the bird, not withstanding.

 

Back in the early 60's (as near as I can remember) there was a tv program called (if I remember correctly). "Tales From The Dark Side", or something like that and a made for tv movie called (again if I remember correctly) "Something Evil This Way Comes".

 

Seeing these images, immediately brought those two programs to mind.

 

Would you mind if I copied them and tried superimposing one on the other to form a composite.....Izzy

OK! Tried several different constructs, this one worked the best. Not quite as sinister or threatening as the original but fun to work with and good practice.

Procedure was pretty straight-forward. Crop the tree plus border image from the original and save it as a separate image. Select the bird to isolate it from its background. Copy and paste it as a separate layer on top of the tree and lower its opacity to 50 or 55% (didn't write it down but think I went with 50). Set the curves separately to "Linear Contrast". Sharpened both (also separately). Brought the brightness of the bottom layer (tree) up to 25. Flattened and saved it as a jpg for posting.

 

BTW correction (memory was off by 20 or so years). The tv programs I referred to in my first reply were from the 80's not the 60's, and the movies title was "Something Wicked This Way Comes" nor Something Evil This Way Comes.