Woman photographing the Art Museum

When a shot comes so close to perfect symmetry, being a just little off, seems to miss the mark. It's as if this picture wants to be about the human interaction with architecture but it misses that too, for me. While I am a great admirer of Tim's photography this feels remote and the body language of the woman does not make a strong statement. It seems, to me, Tim found a nice spot with respect to someone else's architectural art (much of the appeal of this) and waited for something human to happen. But he didn't capture something truly breath-taking or wonderful or revealing.

A number of wider interior views of the museum can be seen in the link below which might assist in the discussion:

 

Milwaukee Art Museum

Magical, Tim. Can't keep my eyes off the perfect placed composition of lines. Without the person's figure in there it's probably just "a photo". Now it's an art, though maybe - for me - it might be a little be tighter composed by excluding the lower darker part of the floor in order to complement with the darker part of the top.

Excellent photo Tim. Also emblematic (conversion to?) black and white work which you seem so darned good at!

 

I like the central, lone figure in the large empty, geometric space. Awesome.

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YEA...

 

constructive..

 

ok.

 

I like this photo, I like it a bit more than a lot of the other POW because:

 

1: I like black and white photos more in general.

2: it is an architectural shot, one with good geomentry and nice shades, and thrown in for a sense of life or story is a biological element.. the girl

3: the girl looks like she may be good lookin,, so you get the curiousity about the girl.

4:the lines and contrast all help point out the main subject (the girl).

 

5: the photograph with all the previous elements mentioned evokes a sense of curiousity of what what going on. many good photos IMO do this, they tell a story,, or hint at one at least.

 

so,, i think it is a good photo,, good job! and congradulations on getting POW.

For comparison, I tried cropping out some of the areas that were not symmetrical. I gave it a .35 degree rotation to the right so that the line in the center is perfectly vertical. I don't know if it is an improvement, but it does show what slight shifts in balance there are in the original. In the original the foreground lines in the granite oppose the symmetry. Sometimes these slight "imperfections" make a more powerful statement.

 

(My version seems to be more face like. Now she is now being devoured by a large smiley face with braces and no eyes--had to throw that in)

I've set Tim's photo as my screen background so it will be up there all week to see. My first impression is not always all there is for me. I want this to have a chance to grow on me and to see it from different points of view.

All of the lines and color tones work great, howerever, as Bill Tate has mentioned - for me the figure needs to be one pane to the viewers right to make a 7/7. Even the shine and ripple to the floor works!

This is a shot that anyone could have taken with any kind of camera and it would have turned out well. I was talking to a docent (usually retired people that love art who volunteer to show people around the museum) and I saw the girl taking the photo. Very seldom is there a solitary figure in the atrium on a nice day so I cranked off a few shots while I chatted with the docent. I centered the young woman so I could crop later if I felt like it. I go to the Calatrava often (I live less than two miles away) and wander around seeing if there is something new to shoot. A couple of weeks ago a production company was shooting a new Lipitor commercial so I shot them shooting the commercial. The Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum is a beautiful piece of work and the building is what makes the images. I am not good at architectural stuff so I try to put people in somewhere and use the museum as a back drop. If any one of you would shoot this museum, you would come up with better photos than I have. I don't consider myself an artist or good photographer by any means but I know that no one in the whole wide world gets as much joy and satisfaction as I do walking around with my camera and snapping away at what ever strike my fancy. I saw Bob's photo here years ago and was influenced by it. I think he shot it right after the addition opened and it started a flood of images from me and thousands of others from around the world. Mick Jagger was snapping away last Fall when he was in Milwaukee for a concert, wish I would have been there.

I was so happy to recognize the POW! Tim has so many great shots of this museum - check them out! I figure they need to give him a place on the Museum Board of Directors because he must spend a lot of time there. Tim sure does have a variety of interesting images shot at the museum and it's time well spent. Congratulations, Tim, from one of your biggest fans!

The balance in this photo is not an obvious one. It is not based off of the environment-that would have been too easy. The eye of the photographer balances the centerline of the building with the human in the photo-they are equally off the center of the photograph, giving it balance and symmetry. Had the woman not been in the photograph, I would agree with those who talked about symmetry and this photo needing more. The building and the person equally draw your attention being opposites, black and white in tonality (more or less, I didn't put my eyedropper on it to make sure it was a true 255:)

Nice photo Tim! Congratulations on the POW. This is a pleasing photo, with just enough light so it's not a complete profile. This reminds me a bit of one of the photos Matt Alofs took when he visited Milwaukee last year before moving to Korea. Great building to shoot in/around!

Simply for the sake of visualizing a little better the interesting suggestions made above, here are Tim's POW (left), and a more symetrical version of this POW, quikly produced using PShop (right). What do you think ? Is the more symetrical version more boring, too rigid, or is it better...?

I've taken the liberty of cropping, adjusting shadow/highlight, and dodging and burning to draw attention to the window reflections.

I'm curious, Carl... did you mean the reflections ON the windows, or the reflections OF the windows on the ground ? An why would you want to draw attention to the window reflections in the first place ? They aren't the main subject, are they ?

I was immediately reminded of a Francisca Rivera POW from back in February. A small human

figure to counterbalance huge, sleek architecture. In both cases the juxtaposition is beautiful

and intriguing. When I went back to look at Francisca's shot, I was surprised to realize that in

both photos, the architecture is by Calatrava.

 

Tim, you have an amazing portfolio. Technically excellent but what's more important, your

images are engaging because they have stories to tell.

Both . . .

 

The main subject is obvious. I'm just making the background a bit more interesting and placing her in what for me is a somewhat more comfortable position compositionally.

 

I think a purely symmetrical composition would have worked only if she was somewhat larger and positioned more to the right.

 

I would also have preferred not to have her head merge with the window rail, but that's minor.

 

Bottom line . . Tim got the shot he wanted and can do with it what he pleases. There are several options.

Tim, I am surprised there was you and the lady! The place always seems packed when I visit. I would encourage all to visit this museum and just spend some time sitting in the main hall. The light shifts and changes with the day and puts on quite a show all by itself, both inside and outside! It is an architectural wonder! You have poked me into burning another day there!

Such a clean graphic shot.. Tim you are so humble.. I love much of your work. You have a great sense of timing, light and drama.

 

I think it looks like she is standing in a shallow pool of water and the ripples accentuate that.

 

I do want to remind people when commenting on the photo - to add a critique please...when commenting on Tim's photo. Otherwise - pop Tim a quick email if you want to talk about the museum etc..

Hi Tim. This photo is amazing, its light, tones and the added interest of "I wonder what she see's". These are the things that imho make great photo's.Then I read your thread saying "anyone with any camera could have got this shot", truth is, not just anyone with any camera got this shot, YOU DID. So firstly thank you for the photo and thank you mostly for a very refreshing and inspiring attitude towards something I'm becoming more passionate about.

 

Cheers C.R.

"I think a purely symmetrical composition would have worked only if she was somewhat larger and positioned more to the right." - Carl Root

 

"I think that having the symmetry a little off helps bring the attention to her and her actions." - Mike S.

 

I agree strongly with these 2 statements.

In my opinion the details of image are well captured and the white balance is correct,in my opinion the image needs a litle bit of contrast.I don't know if the intention was having the women positioned a litle bit descentring...,perhaps because was a instantaneous image;at anycase this location gives a certain tension to the image.Greetings

Love the symmetry as is in the original. Needs a possible very slight CW rotation, it seems. I'm also thinking of having the subject more to the right. In any event it's a good shot & congrats Tim on POW

"This is a shot that anyone could have taken with any kind of camera and it would have turned out well."

 

Wow, I was going to tear into you on this one. I thought it was just another snob trying to reduce a great shot to something "any "person" (the original word I had in here was apparently infalamatory) with a point and shoot" could do. Then I saw who the comment was from.

 

Yup, anyone could have taken this shot. If they recognized the view, had a clear room to do it in, had someone to stand there and pose, had the vision to frame it so well. Actually, anyone could take any photo if you think about it.

 

OK, I really like this shot (can you tell?). At first I thought it was a mirror image in Photoshop. But I still liked it. I was going to comment on how wicked a PS job it was.

 

I especially like the subtle asymetry. The woman just off center, the room not quite symmetrical. I don't know, it helps my eye wander around a bit more. Along similar lines, I'd never crop this shot. Make it wider if anything. The magic of it is the room.

 

Great light (how many people would have blown out the highlights to get more light on the model or else made her a sillouete?) great room, great shapes. I'm really surprised it didn't score above 6/6.

 

Really nice job.