Come Together

I am wondering if it wouldn't be wiser and even more interesting to have a "photographer" of the week rather than a photo of the week. Why not recognize a body of work rather than a single shot? The elves could choose a photographer and create a 5-10 shot folder for us to view. Just an idea... maybe one that has been previously expressed.

 

I too think that Mr. Stiller has a great batch of photos uploaded. This isn't what I would call his best though it is a good shot.

 

Congrats tho... and keep posting.

The color and exposure is great.

 

I find the image lacking any punch, though. I think it lacks expression and emotionally, I am left with zero affect. The caption "Come Together" would truly fit if, for example, the figure had their hand reaching out to the glass with the whale reciprocating some contact.

 

Volker, your portfolio shows that you have an eye for color; there are some nice shots in there. Keep it up.

It's a nice shot and congratulations to Volker on the POW.

 

I just happened to come across this shot yesterday, and it tells the same story - just much better. The dolphin and the person actually seem to have eye contact in this picture, so there is a real connection, which is missing in Volkers shot where they just happen to be in the same room.

You have done a nice job shooting this photo but from the same

spot at the same aguarium (including National Geographic) this picture

has been done over and over and over again --- DR

I think the shot has excellent composition and use of colour. Only thing that I'd change is I'd like to have a smaller person on the right (and perhaps move him slightly to the left). Btw., I think the proposed competing shots would be binned at the light table. The boy is dead center, and there is no light to speak of. The shot with the pointing finger is just too obvious "advertising to people with IQ < 80". Nothing personal.

Lovely Portfolio Volker, congratulations. I love the colors and textures in your photos. Like many others, I think the POW is seldom the best example of a photographer's work. I would also like to see Photographer of the Week with a sample of images.

I admire your candid response to the POW accolades.

Show us more of your work (at a better scan resolution).

Take these comments as helpful or rubbish as you see fit.

The excessive digitally-added framing here bothers me. This image already has nice graphical elements, including an internal framing device created by the reciprocal curved dark spaces at top and bottom and the dark edge at right. I'd rather see it presented straight, or with one simple border of some kind.

I also do not care for the caption. Its a bit on the preachy side. Are these two coming together? When I look at this photo, the feeling I get is that I dont know whether there is any communication or understanding between these two organisms and that I cant really know, because Im a human, not a whale. Theres something slightly unfathomable about the interaction. I dont need a caption trying to suggest an overall meaning for this situation; Id rather just look at the image and experience the little mystery it depicts.

Finally, like some others who have posted above I wish there were a larger version to look at (from a better scan, too, maybe). That, however, is not really a comment on the photo as such.

All that being said, I like this image a lot, and I dont think it deserves the gratuitously nasty slams it has been handed.

As far as it being derivative, I do not doubt that many, many similar photos have been taken in aquariums all over the world, and I do not doubt that many photos have been taken of people silhouetted against this very aquarium display with this very whale looking out. But, there have also been many, many photos shot of Half Dome, the nude female body, _____ (add your favorite cliché subject here), etc. This gets us, I suppose, into the whole question about what originality is in photography. All I can say is that I think that Volkers shot is different in a number of respects from either of the two others that have been mentioned above (the boy in front of what is apparently this same aquarium display and whale, and the man pointing at a dolphin), and that I like Volkers more than those two. I think that Ilkka Nissilas pithy critique of those other two shots was right on the money.

That sure looks like a nice aquarium. But the whale's a little stand-offish. Here in New York, our aquarium is a dump, but like everybody else, the Belugas are more in-your-face:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1105078&size=md

 

Sure, the picture's poorly focused, incompetently framed and carelessly processed, but the fella sure is cute...

Man, I'm sure glad my photography blows, and gives me no chance of ever having a POW selection. Some of these folks are brutal.

 

Volker,

 

I like the way you've composed the shot, and think the title suits it well, as it looks to me like the whale is swimming toward the man. I wold like to see some variations of the frame in size and color, but the white doesn't look bad. Very nice portfolio, by the way.

 

Congrats,

Bill

It certainly isn't the best photograph I have ever seen, but to call it "poorly focused, incompetently framed and carelessly processed" seems to be a little more than constructive criticism, it seems to be excessive moaning about something else. What are you so angry about Beau?

 

Having seen this image when it was originally posted, I can say that it caught my eye. I like the curvature of the tank and the blue of the water. The relationship between the two mammals seems lacking, but if he waited for the whale to get closer to the man, there would have been too much empty space in the tank. The man does seem disinterested in the whole thing though.

 

It's a good image, not great, but good.

Scott, I think Beau was referring to his own photo with these comments.

Uh, Scott, I think Beau Brashares was talking about his own photo (the one he posted the URL for), not Volker's. At least, I hope he was.

Sorry for the ambiguity. Volker's photo is technically masterful; it has all the things that mine doesn't. The only "criticism" I had for his shot was that his whale wasn't as cooperative as one would have liked.

To add to my earlier comment on having seen varations of this shot before...I now think that this may be a very good example of the POW. My reasoning? It's stirred up opinion, made people think, got them talking; all things a good photo should do...jim

By "original" photo, do you guys mean the one with the kid silhouetted in front of the whale? I like Volker's photo better. The compostion/framing are more interesting. I like the fact that there is little or no detail in the man -- he is an anonymous, solitary figure staring at a captive animal. The composition adds to the feeling of solitude, so to me, it works.

Nicely composed. The upper and lower edges of the window direct the eye to the man, and then stop before running off the page. The rule of thirds is roughly adhered to and it is a sound design device.

Some suggest the the whale might have appeared larger. The story I get here is that this whale thinks humans should be considered from a distance. There was concern about this shot being derived from the aquarium promo shot. While the promo piece shows the impressive size of the animal and how close you can get, it is dead centered and and low contrast. Not, in my opinion, the equal of Mr. Stillers shot.

I hesitate to heap more onto to the "seen it before" pile, but I just happened across two images from another photo.netter, and was struck by the similarity, particularly of the second one linked below:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1105078

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1105095

I'll start by saying that I feel Volker's shot is much more

interesting compositionally than the other similar images it's

been compared to.

 

The connection I see between the man and whale in Volker's

shot is more subtle than the dolphin at the glass. More of an

"eyes meeting from across the room" feeling. As if the whale has

just noticed the man at the glass.

 

While the official Vancouver Aquarium shot does give you a good

idea of the size of the animal, that's about all I get from that shot.

From a marketing standpoint I can see why the aquarium would

prefer that type of shot, but I already know whales are big. I prefer

Volker's.

Surely this is a "used" idea, but in my opinion it tells a story about evolution. The curvature of the tank focuses on the black silhouette of the man and vertically frames him on the right saying "this is the (actual) end of evolution". The Beluga drifting towards him reminds us of our genealogy (Well, whales are no ancestors of mankind, however all life on earth originated from water somehow). The title could also have been "Looking Back (in history)" or "Genesis".

Typicall Photo net criteria, choice and taste. I guess I keep coming again to read some of the users very intresting comments

As I look at my portfolio and the portfolios of others, it's hard to imagine that much of the material hasn't been dealt with before. Is a picture of a person derivative because there have been pictures of people before? If that is too general, is a picture of a person derivative if that person has been photographed before? If any work that is predated by other, similar work, is derivative. Then my advice is, sell your cameras.

I agree that virtually all work on photo.net is directly derivative of other work. I think you can look at the early careers of all artists (except perhaps a handful of super-geniuses) and find that, consciously or not, they are aping styles and even specific images made by other artists.

 

Most people here on photo.net are artists in an early phase of their artistic development, and -- maybe without realizing it -- they tag certain of their own images as "good ones" because they recall similar successful images by other artists. After a lot of mimicry, originality eventually emerges for the gifted. (Just so I'm not misinterpreted, I believe that I am in the WAY early stage of my development, and I can only hope that something interesting crawls out of me eventually.)

 

So I don't think it's much of a knock here to call something derivative or unoriginal (which is why I've never quite known how to deal with the "Originality" rating and, except where there is a clear reason to deviate, I generally make it the same as my aesthetics rating).

 

Of course, you can still knock something for being a COPY. This image is definitely not a copy, though -- the promotional shot it is compared to shares the idea of placing a person in front of the whale, but little else. There aren't too many other ways to photograph that particular whale anyway.

Such a peaceful vision and shot. Thank you.

Thanks, everybody, for your comments and your critique. I really appreciate it and I hope that this photo served as invitation to look at the rest of my photos.

 

It certainly generated an interesting discussion and that has made me think about my photographic philosophy. If nothing else, I have to thank you guys for that. I dont want to address everything that has been said here, but just post a few of my thoughts.

 

I realized that for me beauty is more important than realism. Some people might cringe when they read this, but photo journalism is just not for me. I leave that to others. Some people might find my use of color excessive. I dont.

 

I try to capture the beauty of things and I try to capture it technically as good as possible. That is the reason why I wouldnt have picked this photo as POW. It is technically flawed. I attached a bigger version to point out the flaws. All is due to the slow film I used. Although I got permission from the aquarium people to use a tripod (it was a slow day during the week) the exposure time was so slow that the man is blurred because he wasnt standing perfectly still. And the whale was moving of course. So basically, none of the subjects are in tack sharp focus as at least the man should have been and I would have liked. Due to the slow film speed I couldnt use a polarizer and so the reflections of the dim lights in the room spoil the image a bit.

 

The only reason I posted this photo on photo.net is that for some reason I like it despite the technical flaws. Maybe it is the loneliness of the two creatures. Maybe it is the fact that they are quite close to each other but still a whole world apart. I choose the title not because these creatures are happily together (I am not sure whether a captive whale in an aquarium can be happy but that is another matter that should be discussed some place else) but to express the human longing for a mutual understanding for a coming together. Maybe it is cheesy, maybe it is preachy. That is for you guys to decide.

 

Let me thank each and everyone of you again for the comments, critique, and all the nice emails I received during this week. It feels good to know that people care about what I do, whether they like it or not.

Thanks for your upload and supporting information, both technical and

logistical . . . . an excellent example for everyone, not just past

and future POWs. .