Photo of the Week - #41 6/27/22

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I really like the graphic elements on the wall, the shadows, and the hint as to what is in the courtyard in the upper right hand corner. However, I think that too much of the street pavement is showing and that it distracts from the more interesting elements of the photograph. Much of the pavement as well as the mostly blank upper portion of the wall could be cropped out, giving a more square format.

There's great tension in the play of lines of the house against the hill offset by the ease of color palette, simplicity of composition, and quiet of content. The sliver of background works really well, both for color's sake alone and to hint, peepingly, at context.

 

For me, the reworking above flattens the photo too much and loses the punch of the stain on the street acting as a welcome mat to the scene. I also like including more of that oh so blue sky as the original does. (I'd be ok with cropping a little off the top but not that much.) Keeping more of the street in the foreground helps emphasize the feeling of the hill as well, which I find important.

Wow. I love this shot. Great contrast between geometric and non-geometric elements, between dominant diagonals in the middle and the minor, opposing diagonal in the upper left vignette, between the concrete forms above the middle diagonals and the amorphous stain-blob in the foreground below.

 

If I were to change anything, and I probably wouldn't, would be to crop a bit off the top of the image - there is a bit too much blank white wall and blank blue sky for my taste. That is minor and doesn't detract from my overall very positive reaction.

It took a well-tuned photographer’s eye to capture the poetry here. I particularly like the quirky tilt to the foreground, the nearly-but-not-quite-B&W impression of the main subject, the variety of frames present, and the expressive curving shadows that contrast with the rectilinear frames; and I thoroughly enjoy how the warm off-white at the top of the wall grades into the cool off-white at the base. These are the aspects of this image that, to my eye, make it stand out powerfully from other images I’ve seen of Mediterranean doorways.

 

When I sit back and look at the image, I notice that I want to soak in the features of the wall and the tilt, but that my eye keeps getting distracted by three elements: the nearest part of the road, the wiring at the upper right, and the busy and colorful upper left side. In a situation like this, my inclination is to work to strengthen the aspects of the image that set it apart and to counteract the elements that distract from those aspects. But please take my comments with a grain of salt, since many other photographers take very different approaches to their subjects.

 

I think I would enjoy what would happen if the road were cropped to remove the curving part of the white shape. This would make the cause for the tilt intriguingly cryptic—it wouldn’t be clear that the foreground is a road instead of a wall, and this uncertainty would increase the attention-grabbing power of the tilt. This change would also relegate all curviness to the plants and shadows, which would further increase their power.

 

The electrical fitting is a worry because it keeps drawing my eye out of the frame to the right. It’s not croppable from the right because that would cut off the plant shadow, and it’s not croppable from the top without removing what I think is some important height above the door…but there’s always the clone tool…

 

The glimpse of the world beyond in the upper left corner is undoubtedly a matter of personal taste. I find it distracting because the strong colors there devalue the subtle coloring of the wall, and because my eye keeps getting drawn there instead of where it wants to go. It’d be interesting to see what the image would look like if it were cropped to exclude the world beyond. That would also allow a slight crop from the top to balance the image vertically.

 

But it also strikes me that the glimpse of reality up there could be turned into a dominant theme by cropping slightly to the right of the door, and again cropping off the curvy part of the white shape in the road. This would increase the prominence of the world beyond enough that it would become an attraction rather than a distraction, at least to my eye, and the door (and the hidden inner world behind it) would become the counterbalance to the world beyond, both graphically and metaphorically. It would also turn the full expanse of white above the door into an important player.

 

In any case, this is a delightful image, caught at the perfect instant in time—I don’t think the lighting could have been conjured up to be more perfect than this.

It took a well-tuned photographer’s eye to capture the poetry here. I particularly like the quirky tilt to the foreground, the nearly-but-not-quite-B&W impression of the main subject, the variety of frames present, and the expressive curving shadows that contrast with the rectilinear frames; and I thoroughly enjoy how the warm off-white at the top of the wall grades into the cool off-white at the base. These are the aspects of this image that, to my eye, make it stand out powerfully from other images I’ve seen of Mediterranean doorways.

 

When I sit back and look at the image, I notice that I want to soak in the features of the wall and the tilt, but that my eye keeps getting distracted by three elements: the nearest part of the road, the wiring at the upper right, and the busy and colorful upper left side. In a situation like this, my inclination is to work to strengthen the aspects of the image that set it apart and to counteract the elements that distract from those aspects. But please take my comments with a grain of salt, since many other photographers take very different approaches to their subjects.

 

I think I would enjoy what would happen if the road were cropped to remove the curving part of the white shape. This would make the cause for the tilt intriguingly cryptic—it wouldn’t be clear that the foreground is a road instead of a wall, and this uncertainty would increase the attention-grabbing power of the tilt. This change would also relegate all curviness to the plants and shadows, which would further increase their power.

 

The electrical fitting is a worry because it keeps drawing my eye out of the frame to the right. It’s not croppable from the right because that would cut off the plant shadow, and it’s not croppable from the top without removing what I think is some important height above the door…but there’s always the clone tool…

 

The glimpse of the world beyond in the upper left corner is undoubtedly a matter of personal taste. I find it distracting because the strong colors there devalue the subtle coloring of the wall, and because my eye keeps getting drawn there instead of where it wants to go. It’d be interesting to see what the image would look like if it were cropped to exclude the world beyond. That would also allow a slight crop from the top to balance the image vertically.

 

But it also strikes me that the glimpse of reality up there could be turned into a dominant theme by cropping slightly to the right of the door, and again cropping off the curvy part of the white shape in the road. This would increase the prominence of the world beyond enough that it would become an attraction rather than a distraction, at least to my eye, and the door (and the hidden inner world behind it) would become the counterbalance to the world beyond, both graphically and metaphorically. It would also turn the full expanse of white above the door into an important player.

 

In any case, this is a delightful image, caught at the perfect instant in time—I don’t think the lighting could have been conjured up to be more perfect than this.

 

Leslie, would you please consider reworking the image to eliminate the curving part of the white shape? This might help me to decide whether the result is significant.

consider reworking the image

Only if you're the photographer, Michael--I only mess with others' photos if they invite me to (a policy of mine that stems from an unfortunate incident involving an art instructor, a critique session, and a paintbrush). But you can get the basic idea by taking a piece of paper and covering the bottom 21% of the image--slightly above where Glenn cropped it.

This is a very interesting and creatiive image, but if it were mine, I'd crop both top and left. As it is, my eye doesn't know where to go. If the top is cropped roughly to just below the nails, the vertical dimension works very well, IMHO--the eye doesn't have to flick back and forth from the high-constrast but uninteresting blank area down to the interesting shape on the pavement. I don't believe in "rules", but it's interesting that this comes close to the rule of thirds--1/3 is just below the door handles, and 2/3 is at the top of the shape on the pavement. Cropping from the left to a bit inside from the corner gets rid of the highly distracting top left area, which has nothing to do with the shapes that are the core of the image, and roughly centers the doorway.

This is a very interesting and creatiive image, but if it were mine, I'd crop both top and left. As it is, my eye doesn't know where to go. If the top is cropped roughly to just below the nails, the vertical dimension works very well, IMHO--the eye doesn't have to flick back and forth from the high-constrast but uninteresting blank area down to the interesting shape on the pavement. I don't believe in "rules", but it's interesting that this comes close to the rule of thirds--1/3 is just below the door handles, and 2/3 is at the top of the shape on the pavement. Cropping from the left to a bit inside from the corner gets rid of the highly distracting top left area, which has nothing to do with the shapes that are the core of the image, and roughly centers the doorway.

 

The top area contains living trees, which contrast well with the FG tree which appears to be dead.

I'm sorry but this photo doesn't do much to me at all, I like the color palette but other than that, I see it as a photo of a (graphically) nice house on a hill. I'm from Wales and in my home village, there are numerous (graphically) nice houses on hills. This may affect my judgment. Another point I learned (and constantly forget;)!) is that the 'subject is not the photo'. In other words, a 'photo' is the photographer's subjective interpretation of a given 'scene'. TBH, I don't see much 'interpretiion in this photo. I may be completely wrong!

I'm from Wales and in my home village, there are numerous (graphically) nice houses on hills. This may affect my judgment.

 

Mike, your judgment is something you own without asking anyone else - including me!

TBH, I don't see much 'interpretiion in this photo

In part, that may be the point. There are some photographers who prefer not to intercede but rather to shoot in such a way that allows a subject or scene to speak for itself, seemingly somewhat matter of factly. I actually think it takes quite a bit of savvy both to find scenes that speak photographically but also present them in such a way so they do seem to be speaking for themselves. This could have been shot any number of ways and I think all the idiosyncrasies in the scene itself as well as the framing are whispers rather than more blatant attempts at interpretation or influence. As a viewer, I get more out of dwelling on and feeling these nuances and idiosyncrasies rather than imagining them scrubbed away or projecting how I, myself, would frame or approach this. It’s a fun photo for me precisely because it’s *not* the way I typically see. There’s a liberating aspect to some of the choices.

I think my initial response was too quick and too harsh. I do like the juxtaposition between the symmetric elements and the asymmetric forms (rectangles). I also like the balance between the 2 plants and also the shadowplay. The diagonal (hill) adds interest. So I'm a lot more positive about the photo on 2nd viewing!

 

 

I'm sorry but this photo doesn't do much to me at all, I like the color palette but other than that, I see it as a photo of a (graphically) nice house on a hill. I'm from Wales and in my home village, there are numerous (graphically) nice houses on hills. This may affect my judgment. Another point I learned (and constantly forget;)!) is that the 'subject is not the photo'. In other words, a 'photo' is the photographer's subjective interpretation of a given 'scene'. TBH, I don't see much 'interpretiion in this photo. I may be completely wrong!

I think my initial response was too quick and too harsh. I do like the juxtaposition between the symmetric elements and the asymmetric forms (rectangles). I also like the balance between the 2 plants and also the shadowplay. The diagonal (hill) adds interest. So I'm a lot more positive about the photo on 2nd viewing!

 

Nice turnaround, Mike! I tend to revisit things often- I don’t always reverse my opinions- but then again the more I look, the better I tend to “see”

I like this picture although I, too, would like to see less of the bottom area. I'm curious as to what else is at the extreme right, that hint of curve and shadow is intriguing, possibly less intriguing if it were shown in full which may be why it wasn't included. The blank wall at the top adds to the picture in the same way that silences contribute to conversations.

Hi everyone and thanks for the lively discussion over this shot.

 

i shot this in quickly diminishing light as the sun dropped behind a building. Initially attracted to the shadows from the plant and branch, and the blend of symmetrical and asymmetrical components. The slope of the street was an obvious element too.

 

I admit to not putting a lot of thought into this or taking too much time to carefully compose the photo. This was shot in my Olympus EM1- I took it along on vacation but it really hadn’t left the house for several years before this trip. After shooting a bunch of film recently I thought maybe I’d slow down some with the digital but it didn’t really happen that way. I call it “running and gunning”… my shots aren’t random per se, but I see what I want to shoot and just shoot it, kind of already having imagined the composition, just in seeing the scene.

 

This photo sort of snuck up on me. I didn’t originally see it as a standout until I was sorting my photos. It has an almost Wes Anderson vibe, I think- it’s kinda of quirky and not quite balanced- there is some balance in the components but there’s plenty of imbalance too. The soft color palette is really easy on the eyes and I tried it in black & white- but like the color version way better.

 

I didn’t really crop this at all. I reset the camera to 4:3 to shoot RAW, and purposely chose the leave that left side fully intact thinking the shock of all that color would liven up the photo, which it does, considerably.

 

The change in shadow gradient is because the sun was dripping FAST! I looked up from dinner across the street and saw the shadows, all really sharp. I looked down and took a bite and looked back up and it had changed a lot. I leapt up, ran into the street, made the shot and hustled back to the table. The result is somewhat dramatic- the shadows above about 3-4 feet are all sharp still, but grow less and less sharp towards the sidewalk/street.

 

i left that street but as shot at the lower 1/3 of the pic and also purposely left all that blank wall in up there because it was important to me to have all that blue AND I thought it provides balance, even if it’s a sort of negative space.

 

Altogether, I’m quite pleased with this photo. I tend to shoot in a documentary and/or representative style… you may know I shoot a lot of “moto” content, but I’ve always photographed my holidays and their locations as well. this little island was particularly photogenic and I got a “keeper” lot of about 260 digital images out of something like 680 total shots. I shot a bunch of phone pix too and also 4 or 5 rolls of film.

 

 

You’ve all been complimentary in your discussion of this shot and I really appreciate that.

 

Oh, also- anyone is welcome to crop, clone or alter this pic if you want to shape it your way, but please post the result so everyone can see it.

thanks for the lively discussion over this shot

Congratulations on the really nice photo! And thanks for the back-story—I enjoy catching a glimpse of the context and process behind an image.

Thanks also for the invitation…I can’t resist. I think this would have been my go-to crop:

 

 

but I figured it was too far from your original intent to be worth mentioning—it turns it into a photo of shapes rather than one of place, and your original does a great job of giving the viewer a feeling for the place.