New web site

[norman_riley]

Here is a new web site featuring small and mostly large format, black

and white portraits, landscapes, and architectural studies. Please

have a look. Thanks. NR

[norman_riley]

It would help if I included the URL: http://normanrileyphotogaphy.com/

[RobertChura]

Well,maybe if you left a link or a url it would help

[louie_powell1]

Norman -

 

The link is broken.

[norman_riley]

I can photograph (I think), but I'm not too smart about computers. Tell me how to activate the link and I'll do it. The URL is correct, however. Thanks.

[norman_riley]

Nope. It's http://normanrileyphotography.com/

My sincere apologies. (I still don'know how to activate the link, so would still appreciate directions on that, but I guarantee the URL listed here is correct. It was previously misspelled.) NR

[photomark]

For convenience: <A HREF="http://normanrileyphotography.com/">http://

normanrileyphotography.com/</a>. Beautiful work Norman.

[jerald_brodkey]

Nice images. Where did the practice of looking at photographs upside down begin? Are there other forms of art where this is done?

[norman_riley]

Mark, you're a true life saver: many thanks for the link and your compliment!

 

Jerald, I study them upside down because that is, of course, how they're composed. I rarely crop, so viewing the prints upside down proved a convenient way of re-tracing my steps to analyze successes and errors in composition. For me, the hardest adjustment to make when I started large format work was getting used to looking at the image upside down. Looking at the prints upside down was useful as an exercise to help overcome that difficulty, and is still helpful today in understanding the successes and failures of different compositions.

[steve_hamley]

Norman,

 

Nice work. You have a good eye for B&W composition.

 

Thanks!

 

Steve

[mark_minard]

Norman,

 

The work of a man with a restless eye - fantastic stuff.

 

Mark

[jstream]

Nice work. Well visualized, well crafted. Good to see in this day and age.

 

Will

[wieslaw1]

"...Where did the practice of looking at photographs upside down begin? Are

there other forms of art where this is done?..."

 

Kandinsky - that is how the abstract painting has began.

[norman_riley]

Wieslaw,

 

You're the second person to ask me this question. As I said in my posted response to Jerald Brodkey's similar question above, this practice helps me to better analyze and understand the things that are right and wrong in my compositions. There is nothing more to it than that. It's simply a method I use to study and improve upon my compositions. I do not claim to be the first to resort to this practice, and I do not know whether it is something performed in other circles. I can assure you, however, that I intend no kinship with so-called abstract painting. As a general rule of thumb, I dislike such paintings. I often find that they look better upside down, sideways, or backward in comparison to the orientations presented by the "artists." I photograph, in part, because I have no talent for painting. I assume abstract painters do what they do because they have no talent for photography, or true painting for that matter. I do not advocate that others follow my method(s). I simply meant to reveal something about my approach to photography, and in this particular instance, a minor detail about the period I went through when I looked at my photographs instead of making new ones.

 

To all of you who have been so kind in your responses to my pictures, I am most grateful. Thank you. I certainly did not expect to receive such praises from so many individuals more talented than I am.

 

Norm

[brandon hale]

Very Very Nice, Your people images to me at least, are the very best on your web site! You seem to be able to capture mood which is a very hard thing to do, Bravo.

 

Brandon

[jim_shanesy]

Hats off, ladies and gentlemen. An artist!

[Troll]

One of the early auxillary viewfinders for Leica, (VDOOM), could be adjusted to provide upside down images. Cartier-Bresson always used it this way to improve his composition.

[carsten_ranke]

Impressive ! Especially your thrilling portraits, the best I´ve seen for a long time.

[alpshiker]

Very nice work, Norman! I especially like the way you photograph people. Some of the best portraits I have seen.

[norman_riley]

My sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who has taken the time to look at my new site and comment on the photographs appearing there. All of this attention to the portraits, which are from 35 mm negatives, however, is beginning to make me think I've enrolled in the wrong forum! Also, I am beginning to think that I need to redesign the home page and perhaps some of the succesive pages, and add additional information to the technical notes section providing a more complete explanation of how I obtained some of the results seen (e.g., why the portraits made with IR film are devoid of the veins and black, hollow eyes typical of most IR-made portraits, and if possible, why those photographs in particular seem to express and occasionally elicit emotion). In addition, it has been suggested that I should provide more autobiographical information. I am undecided on this point. Although I am happy to discuss photography, I am not too keen on the idea of talking about myself. I'm aware that several people have added to their own sites, a link to my web site, and I am hoping other photographers will permit me to do the same. I've been told that this is a way of propagating one's site across various search engines and negating the need to pay exhorbitant registration fees for search engine directory listings, but I do not know whether that is actually true. Nevertheless, if any reader of this message is interested in a reciprocal link, please contact me. NR