WW-2 Memorial

Taken last Fall at 17mm. I shot many angles and focal lengths, but

seemed drawn to this side to give the viewer an idea what this place

is like. With many images from Washington DC, I hope to be marketing

over there soon. Any opinions are always appreciated.

Hi Vince! I haven't been to D.C. for many years, so I have never seen this location in person; I have only seen photographs from other members (for example).

Your photograph of it, however, does look like it presents a very good view. I think the composition is good, with the monument's columns on one side and the American flag waving on the other. The time of day here is a tough one but I feel that the subject handles it well enough. The water has a nice transparent color and the cloud-filled sky is a great backdrop for the fountain. The multitude of colorful visitors add additional life and perspective to the shot. Clone out the speck in the extreme lower right corner. Regards.

Hi Vincent.. Beautiful Image.. perhaps just a bit more contrast would get rid of the glare.

Actually shooting this in the bright daylight was not really even seriously considered. I focused more on the dusk shots which perhaps are more dramatic during my three visits to this memorial. Still needing to finish editing some of those. I was quite surprised when I found the waters here were actually colorful with my polarizer. This was at the very end of my two week shooting trip which primarily was centered on the Blue Ridge mountains of Shenandoah National Park during Fall colors. So I was down to my last roll of Velvia 50 and a little burned out. Nevertheless, I was able to get something out of this location that I feel worked. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

Vikram, I used a polarizer and did not notice any unusual glare. However I did change monitors, so if you see something significant, feel free to help me out. If I bumped up the contrast any more, I feel like I might start to lose the whites. I guess I could clone the little leaf out Walt, but I sort of like it in there... being October and all. It is a leaf, right??

Vincent - my opinion is that you just ought to live here if you're going to market your images here! :-)

Having worked at shooting this place myself, the first thing that popped into my head was that you must have used quite a wide angle lens. I see that you had a 17-35mm. It must have been cranked down to 17, because I haven't been able to get so much into the shot with my 28mm.

I like that this image makes the fountain/pool look huge and the arch and columns look so small and far away. What would have happened if you had placed the horizon about 30% lower in the frame? You might have caught the top of the water ... and not had so much flat green water dominating the bottom of the frame.

Let me know when you'll be selling here and where ... I'll send everyone I know to buy your stuff! :-)

Regards!

As always breathtaking...Good to have you back Vincent!! The colors and exposure is perfect. My only suggestion would have been to included the top of the fountain. Perhaps it was not possible, but either way this is superb.

The contrast seems perfect on my monitor at work. I guess it was just my ebook with the porblem.

Thanks for sharing your opinions. Regarding cutting off the top of the fountain; Even like it is now, I almost feel I've given the fountain possibly too much importance here. There is already more sky in the scene than I would like, but it seems to work just enough because I have (just about) all of the fountain in the image, plus it allows for a more colorful image. At least enough of the spray is in the scene -in my mind- to avoid the feeling of being chopped. If you scroll up you can see how much a mid-stream crop-chop would take away from this. You can easily recognize that you are at least near the end of the spray, so I think. There was no other way to get more spray without minimizing the rest of the scene unless I brought a ladder... And I was already warned about using a tripod without the rubber tips on an earlier trip. I literally had to place empty film containers on the bottom of my tripod legs to continue shooting. Doubt, I could get away with a ladder over there...

 

Yes Lou Anne I shot this from each side of the memorial at 17mm to get as much of the scene and fountain in as possible. The dusk shots were much closer-in however. Marketing in DC is going to be challenging since I do live (and plan to continue...heh) 5000 miles away. However, I already have some leads on distributing companies in that area. I've shown a few vendors over there our end-products and am reasonably certain they'd do just as well with DC images as our Hawaiian market with Hawaiian images has. Thanks again for taking the time. It always helps.

 

PS- The Photo.net ratings system for me Walter has become totally meaningless and is a sad result of MIS-management. So, nothing is new...

hmm. not too bad, but I would back off on the blue levels just a bit. BTW you should be so lucky with the ratings you're getting. I now appear to be a solid 3/3 most of the time. I'm having a great deal of trouble transitioning to insect and zoo photography.

Ecxellent contrast. congrats !

It is pretty plain to see that asthetically, this photograph is superbly executed. The highlights, shadows, colors and exposure are excellent. The dominant object (the fountain) placed using the rule of the thirds make for an eye catching composition.

 

This image (obviously underrated) displays a nice composition with a difficult subject, and is technically greatly handled, this is evident and clear as pristile water.

 

I thought about some kind of huge insect with lots of legs in thumb 8^), saludos

 

Sorry Vincent I like most of the work that you show but this image just does not do it for me. It may be a matter of personal taste but I will be honest this is not one of your best images. While it may not be worthy of 1s and 2s it is below the standard of many of your other images. While some of the low ratings may be from bogus accounts some are probably from genuine people who just did not rate this very highly.

Vincent, Sidestepping the ratings issue totally I'd like to address the only area I see that could use some improvement, that being the composition. Since major elements near, touching, or crossing the frame create visual tension, I think I would have left a little room over the top of the fountain geyser. That's it! Best, LM.

For me I would have liked to see some more sky above the fountain and I would also like to see the right hand part of the fountain in the frame. This would move the fountain down and over to the left which would help to fill the empty space in the bottom left of the image. At the moment I see a large area of empty space in the bottome lefthand side of the image.

Vincent, this is great. Your attention to the composition and color are as usual most professional. I'd have to agree on the leaf, though - only as it doesn't add, imho, for marketability. Total nit, of course.

 

That you're succeeding in the biz is testament - to blazes with the low-ballers. This is an image of a site that marks one of the bloodiest wars in our country's history. You captured it well, and many, many people will undoubtedly select it for purchase - not only for its "message" in a postcard, for example, but for its photographic quality.

With the scene like that i'd be trying to reduce some of the cast on the stone depending on how much visible it is in print (it's warmed up with the filter but the blue component still elevated). Regards,

 

LM, your visits are always appreciated. I am sure you know that. Like mentioned above however, I still believe to capture the very top of the fountain, I would have to give away even more of the memorial to the blue sky. However, I do agree that it is an issue to most here. So, I will look over that series again one day soon. Thanks a ton.

Vincent, Your point about giving away some of the monument for sky area is a valid one. To persist with my critique line, perhaps a higher camera viewpoint would help. Do you have a pair of stilts? :-) Best, LM.

Pawel, help me out here. Are you seeing too much blue in the concrete itself? Is anybody else noticing the same? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

Yep Lenny, stilts or a ladder, or a 14 mm lens (which would have pushed the background even further away). That is why to me, it works very well even with the tips of the fountain cut off. If I stepped back any further then more concrete would have entered into the foreground. That did not add anything valuable to the scene from my point of view. Like I mentioned earlier, the daytime shot has no great value compared to nightime when the lights go on. I am still very pleased with this image and believe it shows the WW2 memorial in a nice, clean and surprisingly colorful manner. Mahalos!

 

Most people will not notice, i think. I checked now and color picker confirms slight cast. Here is what it looks like when neutralized somewhere around point 2 (around point 1 there is still some cast left after neutralizing point 2). i'd be curious to find out if anybody can notice the difference. Regards,

Most folks like images with the colors a bit saturated. I've done it on photo.net and noticed that if some BRIGHT colors are in there especially primary ones, folks are attracted regardless of content. A good experiment would be to submit a series of similar images with different levels of saturation and watch the attention they get.

Thanks Pawel. I will look the big file over carefully at 100 percent.

 

John, colors DO sell. Many Photo.net purists roll their eyes however and think it's all photoshop manipulation.

Very good shot Vince, good focus and exposure, love the color, 6/6

excellent exposure time and composition, fountain is well going with sky colours, I like the perspective and wide angle especially. 6/5