Photo from Portugal

[eduardo_pacheco]

Here is a photo taken during my holidays in August, back home in

Portugal.<div></div>

[joshroot]

Sorry Eduardo, but that's a horrible scan.

[Troll]

At last -- another picture with a burned out sky, blocked up shadows, totally uninteresting content, and to make things really exciting the camera was tilted 30 degrees from the horizontal. Hey, why don't we post this on the LEICA Forum -- you know LEICA, the camera which is comitted to excellence? Naah.

[olivier_reichenbach]

Good old Bill, nice as usual, hey? Just another day at the Leica forum being nasty?

[Troll]

Nasty, no. Sarcastic, yes. This should have gone into the trash, not presented on the Leica Forum.

[olivier_reichenbach]

Well, Bill, sarcastic IS nasty when it comes to criticize other people's artistic endeavours. Believe

me, I've been in show business all my life and I know the value of a well constructed criticism as

well as the damage that can be done to someone's deep feelings by NASTY remarks.

 

And come on, «The Leica Forum»! My, my, my, you sound as if the guy had commited some

kind of blasphemy, daring present his work in this sacred enclosure, no doubt reserved to

geniuses like you. Get real.

 

Your attitude makes more for discouraging beginners or amateurs to post pctures here and get

advice and help than anything else. YOU are one of the reasons I don't. I've had my share of

nasty remarks during my career.

[dave_cheney]

No I agree with Bill, this photo is pretty ordinary. I read the leica forum to hear about people trying to keep the art of photography alive, not to see poor blury scans.

 

On the flip side, I didn't mind the composition, but the time of day and the metering for the scene were all wrong. Keep this location in mind for a better time of year.

[Troll]

The Leica Mystique has been kept alive for 75 years by its commitment to excellence. I see no reason to expect less of the Leica Forum, including the photographs posted.

[watts]

<i>The Leica Mystique has been kept alive for 75 years by its

commitment to excellence. I see no reason to expect less of the

Leica Forum, including the photographs posted.</i><br><br>I

hope Bill is being ironic. There are few things more cringe

inducing than this kind of pretentious and pompous

blathering.<br><br>Still, Bill does have a point about the image

posted here - it's not a 'keeper'. Apart from the poor quality scan,

the image posted suffers from a combination of uninteresting

lighting and less than compelling choice of framing/composition.

It's a shame because the building in the shot looks like it has

some potential. Off the top of my head I would suggest that, apart

from the lighting, the shot would have improved by getting in

much closer to crop out the less interesting parts and create a

more graphically pleasing composition. Perhaps there are

details of this building that could have been shots in their own

right? Maybe in future you might consider using B&W and

concentrate on tonality and texture? Just a few thoughts...

[olivier_reichenbach]

There, you see, Bill, there is a way to say things like Ian does: sensibly, intelligently, nicely. Now

that's what I call « excellence ». But your way of criticizing is at least as bad as you would

suggest the pic is.

 

That said, I agree with the other critiques here, the photo is not very good. Eduardo, the

problem with vacation picture-taking is that one tends to «can» memories of things seen as

quickly and as much as possible, and the memory tends to substitue itself for the artistic

impulse. In other words one goes too fast, one doesn't think, one doesn't feel. One takes

photos, instead of creating them. I'm back from a five weeks vacation in Paris and Corsica with

about 800 photos. On the lot I'd say no more than 20-25 are keepers, the ones where I feel the

artistic instinct really took over. I think only these would perhaps say something to other people.

The rest? They're not « bad », but they wouldn't say much to you or anybody, except for

documentary purposes. That's what it's all about: photography as an art form is a way to tell

other people a story about reality that is not reality itself. You show a feeling, a vision, a

question, an anxiety, a joy, a mystery. You don't show reality as it is.

 

That said, even Mozart has composed not very good music fast and on command. Granted, his

bad music is better than most, but still...

[nesrani]

"They're not « bad », but they wouldn't say much to you or anybody, except for documentary purposes."

 

Funny how "documentary" is so often assigned a subordinate role. Bad pictures are fine for documentary purposes... Maybe "evidential" would be more appropriate.

[olivier_reichenbach]

Sorry, Rob, I don't quite get your point. If you read me as saying that the other pics were bad

THEREFORE good only for documentary, that's not what I meant. Actually, I even said they

were not « bad ». What I meant is that documentary is a way of showing things as they are ,

which I do consider an art form in itself (heck, you have to «see» things in the first place, and that

already takes an artistic flair. So many people go through life without seing a thing) but different

from the art of showing things not as we see them but as we dream them or interpret them,

transform them. You know, let's take Paris. You have HCB (now matter how controversial), and

you have postcards.

 

Now, maybe documentary isn't the right word, but «evidential»? ;-)

[Troll]

Oliver, would you have me describe Florence Foster Jenkins' voice as "Unique," rather than to say outright that it's terrible, and that she can't sing? Now Flossie may have been a neat old broad, and a great artist (she filled Carnege Hall) but she was a very bad singer.

[olivier_reichenbach]

Well, Bill, about Florence Foster Jenkins: some people say she died of a broken heart after that

Carnegie Hall recital, others that she pulled a big joke on audiences all her life. Either way that

would prove my point, not yours. ;-)

[Troll]

Okay, then I'll say it. Eduardo's photograph is unique. How's that?

[eduardo_pacheco]

OK, I admit it, this is a terrible scan. Whatever the weak points of the photo, the original slide is much, much better, and the shadows are not blocked up nor is the sky burned out. This Jenoptik scanner isn't very good at all, especially for colour.

[olivier_reichenbach]

You really don't get it, hey, Bill? It's not WHAT you say, it's HOW you say it. There.

 

Now enough of that. Let's get constructive.