Calder Closeup #2

More fun with shadows.

This is a wonderful picture, Carl, for me one of the very best pictures you have ever posted on this site - to me, it's even better than your 2 POWs. How sad to see it had only 5 ratings as I arrived and was considered "average" only. We have apparently entered the erra where great pictures can no longer be seen on the site.

 

Now I'll explain why I love this so much...

 

Firstly, you achieved perfect balance in the composition. 2) I love the strong colors. 3) One of the 2 shapes (the red one) is curved, whereas the blue one is made of strait lines. 4) Yet there is a unifying factor, which at the same time adds depth to the photo: the shadows.

 

Really, I feel here you drew with light in a very original manner. Congrats !

Well, I'm surprised, frankly, but thank you.

 

Marc, we both know that subjects sell, not light and composition in and of themselves. :-(

 

I uploaded it to coincide with the current POW to give an example of how shadows of architectural details can be used as a subject (which I think was the stated intention of the maker.) I used PS curves to increase the contrast but I think the blues are a bit too juiced as a result, and am inclined to tone them down a bit.

 

(I know. You like vivid colors even more than I do and will want me to leave it alone.)

I think you can keep the colors saturated - fine by me in this case, or you can tone them down, or you could even go b&white ! I don't think it would matter all that much, frankly. What's so strong here is subject (yep, me thinks so ! :-) and composition + graphics. You'll keep all of that no matter what the colors are like. I hope you ove this picture enough to submit it in some photo competitions some day: I rekon you may have good surprises with it. Cheers, and thanks for your precious comment on that picture. I've replied. Regards.

This is radical, and it works better than the other Calder picture showing side by side. It's totally allusive - I can see the shadow of the other Calder piece cast over what I take to be another Calder sculpture. But is it so? I like the ambiguity here. This is a true abstract picture. It's so abstract that it's a pity it should get the abstract tag attached to. Kudos.

It is much stronger than the next. Wasn't it the reason why it was uploaded first. Regards,

I didn't have a strong preference for one over the other. The shadows on the right are from the roof structure. The one in the center is from the support structure shown in the other upload. There are roughly half a dozen large red shapes suspended from the roof in a typical mobile arrangement. The whole thing moves, slowly but constantly, so you try to anticipate the composition you want and wait for it to get into position.

"I didn't have a strong preference for one over the other."

 

I'm with Pawel, here: I think you should, really, start to prefer this one. The other one has nice light for sure, but that's it. There's so much more here in terms of abstraction quality, colors, and in terms of composition - imho. Regards.

Hi, Carl. I came back here to see this again - and I still love it ! -, but also to let you see this : http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=4994969

 

I thought you'd be interested to see this, and I wanted to have your opinion about the picture as well as the crop I suggested. Sorry for jumping in like this. I'll delete this post once you'll have seen it. Cheers.

Actually, I'm glad you came back to this one because it's an interesting case study in tastes and aesthetics. I submitted this to my critique group and nobody liked it, consistent with the response here.

 

You're unique.

 

I went back to this and desaturated the blue a bit. I should mention that this is another example of google making unpredictable page selections. This is displayed prominently in an image search under my name, clearly because it's in your very popular favorites pages. Couldn't you have picked "Dream Catcher"? :-)

:-))) Well, thanks Carl. Not sure whether I should take it as a compliment or exactly the contrary, but... it doesn't bother me much... Of course it's very much a matter of taste here... By the way, can I have a link to "Dream Catcher" ?

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3921431

 

I have another version from another shoot which I'll post soon.