Your thoughts please

[richard palmer]

I enclose a link <A HREF=http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=109646>Thoughts</A> to some of my more recent photos, I would love some of your comments, really as a way to improve. I have chosen these for the simple reason that they all make pause and think when I look at them, and not necessarily in a way that is literally linked ot the image. I would love your thoughts......

[michael_darnton1]

I like them all. If I had any comments to make at all, it would be

that sometimes I want you to stand a tiny bit closer, and sometimes I

want the background to be considered a little more (placement, not

content). Overall they're better than the usual run of what people

put up. The one of the guy getting his arm swabbed is my favorite.

The woman in the tunnel would have been close, if her face had been

better separated from the glow--so that's printing, not picture.

[iván]

Hi, Richard:

 

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It is nice from you to post images for us to see. Thanks.

 

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My favourite is the one of the girl in black throwing a kiss to the

camera (photographer ?)

 

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I agree they are better than our average level here (I'm not talking

of Lutz's and other professionals who are way ahead of course).

 

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Great lens the Heliar !

 

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The little girl reading over the statue's book was posed, wasn't her?

It is a lovely image too but then I agree that a closer look could

have been more atractive.

 

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Good exposure / printing. Some technical detail would have been

interesting too. We can always learn . . .

 

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Thanks again and have fun !

 

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Iván

[jackflesher]

I'm finishing my second apple martini, so please take my inputs with

a grain of salt... Little girl at statue and nude whipping sheets on

bed are definite winners. Big time. Drunk with coffee and tattoo

recipient need a little more exposure, but otherwise look like great

images - can you pump them up? Confetti at wedding -- best of its

kind I've seen. Heliar shot with pretty girl posing as guy left bar

was pretty neat too. The others didn't really grab me -- not bad, but

didn't grab me.

[michael_darnton1]

Different strokes for different folks: I liked the little girl the

least because it was the most trite. Just right for Grandma.

[mark13]

Richard

 

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I like the one of the woman in bed (I think thats what it is). It

artistic without being revealing. I wish I could see things the way a

lot of you do - I turn out to be a rather mechanical photog.

[eliot]

Richard

 

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I think you have a very nice set of images. Even though I usually

prefer color, some of these images seem well suited to B & W. For a

non-professional, they are quite good, especially the guy getting his

arm swabbed in a dark environment. Looks like some kind of drug

thing.

 

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A few constructive comments: I don't like the 15mm for portraits, it

really stretches or distorts faces and other objects in the

foreground. In the photo of the girl and the statue, the man in the

right foreground is distracting. Finally, in the photo with the man

and the candelabra on the table, the lights look too flared and the

candelabra could be in better focus. I don't think the OOF effect

contributes to this image.

 

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Best wishes

[nom]

Great images Richard.

 

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I like the way you shoot. Looks like instantaneous shooting of a

photographer with a very good "eye".

 

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Did you wait for someone to pass by in front of the girl and statue?

If yes, well done, I would never think about it! If not, you are

lucky too. It makes the image natural and guides the eye to the girl.

 

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And the man's portrait is so good! Very expressive eyes.

 

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I really like the angle of the Heliar. Low priced too for a lens this

wide.

 

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Thanks for sharing your photos,

 

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Jordan.

[richard palmer]

Just to let you know, all the images are sort of grabbed, there is

absolutely nothing posed, all are full frame. My techniques is to

prefocus and pre expose and then shoot, usually refocusing. Or if it

is people that I know then I just keep taking my camera to my eye

and 'pestering' whilst still talking to them and after a while they

just forget the camera is there. The wedding shot was achieved with

careful use of the elbows.... This was part of a 3 shot where the

first image has no confetti with the man to the right of me holding

his hand out the base of the frame, this kiss shot second and a final

after kiss laughing shot. I would have put them all in but for me

they are a bit cliche. My favourite I think is the smoking man and 2

girls, this was my very first attempt at shooting from the hip, I

walked up to these people and made like I wanted to speak to them,

clicked the photo smiled and walked past...oohh what a buzz. Thanks

for all the comments.

[richard palmer]

Oh the girl and statue is a shot that I saw as walking past, this was

very lucky really cos I had not got the camera prepared. I went back

and timed my walked in the opposite direction to the man and grabbed

it on my second pass. I was in Germany at the time and did not know

how they would take it if I made the camera obvious. The first shot

would have been better as she was actually talking to the statue!

[roberto_watson_garc_a]

I also like that picture of the little girl and statue, it was also

my first impresion of your work, and also is a picture you can read

at diferent levels or relationshis in the frame, the two men´s backs,

the way this girl faces the statue, I´m not sure my grand mother

would get it.

 

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I see a lot of you Richard, those speak me of yourself, I haven´t

seen pictures speak so laud of their author here.

[lutz]

Thanx for sharing, Richard! <BR><BR>I agree with Jack and Mark as far

as my favourites are concerned. I can sense your sensitivity in both

shots, for situation and for taste. Please tell us more about the bed

sheet shot, was it planned, arranged? It looks so spontaneous, playful

and sensual, reminds me of a HCB shot but has a lot of more youth and

freshness. The wedding shot is remarkable, yes, well composed and made

just in the decisive moment, but (as most of the other shots) its

appeal is a little in between documentary and staged. Sometimes I would

prefer, as others have already said, that your attitude were a little

more pronounced: that either you stepped in, lenswise, phisically and

emotionally so your subjects are well aware of your presence, have

agreed with the situation and reveal an inner truth about themselves

(which in turn reminds me of early Talbot portraits, when exposures of

several seconds - minutes even - demanded from the portrayed persons to

really be within themselves, be at ease and relaxed) - or you stepped

out just a bit, to provide a setting, a social (and one fine day

ideally even a historical) context to the situation. That is almost

perfect in the girl picture, as the circumstances (pedestrian zone,

committed girl vs. passers-by) are tangible. While in the wedding

picture as well as in some of the others the subjects are neatly

isolated from any of the above yet not revealing a personality of their

own. That's what stops these shots from reaching me thoroughly. They're

rather illustrative than revealing and remind me of advertisement or of

very personal album snapshots, where the private notions of the

photographer make them "complete" - for him/her but not for third party

viewers.<BR><BR>

I love your obvious lust to compose and explore. And, again, the bed

sheet shot is absolutely to be envied (no hidden allusions

intended...;o)

Cheers.

[richard palmer]

Thanks for the responses, and Lutz thanks in particular, your advice

is meaningful. I have a problem with photography, in that I really

only see the composition in the viewfinder, but feel sometimes a

little intrusive or self conscious in situations where I see a

situation/environment/interaction that I am inspired by. The recent

interst in shooting form the hip is a trial, but really I currently

only see in the finder.

The bed shot was taken with a very slow film and so lasted about 1/2

a second, I knew it would not be sharp and was waiting for some

movement from my girlfriend. I loved the image and composition: the

relationship she had to the sheets, the sense of morning and

whiteness. she saw me 'eyeing' her panicked, and moved the sheets

over her immediateley. I just pulled the trigger.......nothing was

planned.

[james_collier]

I was impressed with the 15mm Heliar shots, I never really thought it

would suite street portraits like it does. I must get myself one of

those lenses.

[peter_hughes1]

These pix need Tabasco sauce.

 

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There has to be more intensity, more edge, for this type of

photography to work. Junkies? I need to see needle in the arm. Girl

blowing a kiss? A nasty tongue at the camera would be better. As for

the portraits, there's not enough happening internally. Everything is

just too casual, too uninvolved. Also, I don't particularly like

the 'prints'--they're a bit bland (like the photos)...and some subtle

toning wouldn't hurt. My advice is to find a subject about which you

feel passionately--then attack it from the inside out.

 

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http://www.ravenvision.com/peterhughes.htm

[Spearhead]

I'd agree with Peter that there is an edge that is missing from

these. In some of them, it could be helped with more effective

lighting. For example, the blond woman in France with the man behind

her is a great shot, and might be fixed with some careful work on her

face, but as it is, the light defeats it.

[richard palmer]

Thanks Peter and Jeff, for your honest thoughts, I do love a debate.

I agree with your comments in some respects and I too think I need to

find some way to engage with the subjects more in the way others have

noted, thanks for the reinforcement.

 

The thing I really love about photography is the subjectivity....I

just had a look at your web site Peter, and I'll be honest it is not

for me; no subtlety, and all a bit contrived in my subjective

opinion. So I'll take your advice but not try to corrupt it by my

indivdual opinion of your work, thanks again.

[richard palmer]

Peter,

 

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Just found your semiotics section. This is fantastice I love it, The

relationship of space and colour here is fantastic: so how come I

don't like your portraits?