Woman photographing the Art Museum

Tim, most of your work is remarkable,this one included. even I think as well that her position more to the right and a bit crop on the bottom will enhance the composition, I still think that your work in that museum is one of a kind, and evoc the will to visit that place.

Congratulation, you very rightfully deserve it.

Long live asymmetry, the whole mood of this photo would be obliterated had it been 'bang on', in fact it would have been quite tediously boring. I applaud Tim for his composition here, he has stated that he thinks anyone with a P&S could have taken this, but they didn't and he did. Bravo.

One of the first things I noticed about this photo was that the composition is a little off. This immediately registered in the rule-following part of my brain as a violation of a "rule" I think Mathieu Landry expressed very well. I like to think of it as "Just a little off center is probably the worst place for a subject." Of course, the rule-breaking part of my brain insists on inserting "probably" in the rule, and when I try to look beyond following or breaking the rules, I find that the slightly off composition actually doesn't bother me in this case. Perhaps having the center of the architecture a little right while the subject is a little left results in relaxed sort of balance.

 

That said, when I came across Carl Root's crop, I felt an "Aaaahhhh" of relief. The original composition may be more interesting in a can-I-get-away-with-this sort of way, but I personally feel much more comfortable looking at Carl's version. Of course, "comfort" isn't necessarily the primary goal for a photographer, but it's worth noting that had I come across Carl's version first, my gut reaction would not have been to question the composition, and my mind would have been free to contemplate what I consider a more interesting question posed by this photo: Where the heck do they put the art in this space?

This shot borrows almost all of its power from the architecture, and as a photo it's a little bit generic in the "this setting looks cool, let's wait for a random person to walk into the frame" kind of way. Most of us are guilty of making such images from time to time, and Tim certainly can't be blamed that this picture, rather than one of the vastly more creative ones in his folder, got picked for scrutiny. In any event, it demonstrates a good eye for composition and it's very well made in a technical sense.

Very interesting photo Tim! However, I don't know why but I find the top portion of the image a bit distracting, the same goes to the beam crossing the subject's head.

The reflection OTOH is just great!

- steve

Tim:

 

Compelling photo. Here is what I see. Foreground and background disolving... and the solitary figure floating upon a floor turned to gentle waves. Loss of boundaries makes the photo.

 

Best regards,

 

- Fred

Tim, the sense of openness here is nothing short of awe-inspiring. With all due respect to the architect, you have added your own great touch to the architectonics of this one.

 

It is almost as good as your ultimate Magnum Opus (attached), in my opinion.

 

--Lannie

Thanks for all of your comments and recomendations! My wife says I have ADD (attention deficit disorder) and I think she is correct because I can't sit still and always want to move on to something else when I should be trying to improve what I have already done. Right now I am thinking about getting a couple of eggs and putting them on the sidewalk tomorrow afternoon and seeing if they cook. It was a 100 flippin degrees today.

Agree with Steve Chong about the top of the shot being somewhat distracting. There, it becomes less about vision and more about the lighting systems up there (which are the distraction). Like the environment around the figure very much.

Essentially a nice photo, but I do have to comment on a couple of things that I have

mentioned before on POW photos. This is the tangencies that, in my opinion, can

adversely affect a photo. First, it is the beam riding on the woman's head. It is not that

the beam is there, it is just that it has been brought to the foreground by the tangency and

starts to feel like it is pinning her in place. Second, when I first looked at this I thought a

woman was knocking on a window beam--the kind of illusion you see with people

pretending to hold up the leaning tower of Pisa. Both of these tangencies bring the

background foreward and affect the reading of the photo, making it a bit more

claustrophobic than airy as it might have been otherwise.

 

I think an interesting series could be made of such tangencies, but as a single photo, it

can suffer. That said, sometimes a quick response to a moment results in these sorts of

things and we just have to decide for ourselves if what was captured is worth the

distraction--essentially, if/since I could go back there and rephotograph this, would I

want/be happy with this result?

I'll follow Kent and Beau in being a contrarian about this one, just for the sake of discussion, if nothing else.

 

Formally, it's a deeply appealing image, a single near-silhouetted human figure set against a stunning, monumental piece of architecture. Technically, more perfect symmetry would enhance it, as several people have shown, and Mona's right that it's flawed by the way the woman merges with the beams in the window.

 

Going beyond the technical nit-picking, I think the image doesn't offer much in the way of an interesting scene. Without the caption, I'm not sure we'd know what the woman was doing; her pose isn't particularly eye-catching or moving. We can't see what she's photographing, what her emotions are, and so forth. So there's no human interaction, nor do we really see the nature of her interaction with the architecture, the environment.

 

By comparison, I can connect more with the silhouetted figure in the Bob Hixon photo that Marc linked to.

 

Tim has other images of groups of people in the same hall that formally may be less striking than this one, but in terms of content I think are more interesting.

 

Playing devil's advocate here. I'm an admirer of Tim's stuff.

It has been said that space is the final frontier. But all photographers know this to be untrue; it was conquered years ago, and the capture of space on film can be achieved by anyone with a camera. Capturing altered fluxes of time and state of mind are rather more challenging, however.

 

This photograph uses a large, clean space to produce an airy, peaceful image, in which the woman apparently has all the time in the world to make her picture. She is unrushed, unhurried, and completely relaxed about the whole thing.

 

This sense of extended, easy time comes through the image as you know that the scene did not last just a moment, but existed some time before and after the shot was taken, and then was carried away by the woman with her own capture in the camera. The effect is exacerbated by the fact that the apparently perturbed liquid floor is actually solid and perpetuous in its current form.

 

Personally, I don't use the rule book as a metric of photographic goodness, and I regard the placement of the subject to be just perfect. I know it bucks the trend, but I actually prefer to see tension generated by things looking or moving out, rather than in, to a scene - when it is done as well as this.

What so extraordinary from this picture? Tim got this before, which I think is much better anyway.

 

Move your cursor to http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4260090

To be blunt, this is a rather common picture of photographer that have visited the MAM. I have seen many shown and am not certain that this brings anything to the table over any I have seen. Yes, it is well executed, but very common. I'm not trynig to be harsh, I just am not wowed by a picture that is everywhere. No offense intended Tim.

Tim's hommage to the Spanish archetect Santiago Calatrava is admirable and full of

understanding for the principles of design Calatrava strives for. The use of open space

with interior design dependent on reflection to complete the effect is a Calatrava

trademark. Tim's series on the Milwaukee Art Museum are all excellent compositions

portraying the design features in their wholeness or as details within themselves. The eye

effect was meaningful to Calatrava and Tim captured the desired effect. By placing his

contribution to the scene in the middle of the "eye" Tim had the opportunity to enhance

the illussion by creating a human iris, which also would have been meaningful in relation

to the setting of the Art Museum. Instead we see a profile of a girl , perfectly fit into the

surrounding archetecture. She appears to be taking a picture of something unimportant

enough to be left out of our vision ( which is Tim.s vision). She seems almost posing in a

way that makes her a part of the architecture . This of course is the architects dream of

how we will feel in their spaces. People co-existing with architecture within an aestheticly

stimulating atmosphere is, I think , the message here. It doesn't matter that she is taking a

picture. What matters is that she is 'at one' with the moment ( which was Tim's moment as

well). The symmetry is interesting for it's lack of symmetry. The elements that are out create

an overall balance. My overall impression is probably in agreement with what Tim stated

earlier ( his first sentence of his first post on this POW). However, I really do believe that he

has connected more deeply and personally with this subject than the average tourist.

I do think this is a super photo. What's special about it? For one, the woman is silhouetted beautifully right within one frame of the window. For two, the break of her clothing between top and bottom, black and white, is exactly on line with the window - either an amazing coincidence or great capture of what was probably a moving target except for one fleeting moment. For three, her shimmerly reflection in the floor is sweet. That plus a great picture of the building as a backdrop.

The strong points of this photo is the peacefullnes and stillnes that it instills there is a sense of architectual continuity and a sense of repose as already as been referred the reflections on the Floor adds a sense of Liquidity to the composition and balance .

 

The woman however gives dignity to a composition which without her would have been whitish stale pic without any anchor. The overall sense of balance is not disturbed by the woman being slightly off centre if she was in the centre as already has been shown the composition would have been boring ..this is my opinion at least ..Congrats Tim.

This is a great shot, IMO. The windows behind the woman could serve as a mirror image of the area above the inverted arch, where the lighting instruments are, then there's the actual mirror image of the woman and windows on the floor. I think these two elements gives the shot overall flow. I also like the woman a bit off center, like on the original post. As far as symmetry is concerned (or I should say if the photographer has issues with the woman being centered), both sides of the photo could be cropped off to emphasize the vertical, which might shift emphasis of the figure being at the lower third of the shot rather than centered. Just a thought. Oh...while I listed my experience as 'professional' in my profile, I am a newspaper writer who is apt enough to take my own shots, which should not be confused with art...or photojournalism for that matter!

I like this shot a great deal from a technical perspective. Esthetically, though, it doesn't work for me. The synergy of the image is disrupted by the fact the woman is holding a camera, and again by the absence of her subject.

The museum's geometry is stunning and the depth of the detail makes this photo extremely interesting. I am not sure if the girl is a useful addition since it somewhat distracts the viewer from the rich geometry. This photo could of been geared towards an abstract if an individual was placed in the center of the photo and somehow extended their upper and lower limbs like the Vitruvian man of Da Vinci and essentially blending in with the geometry and creating a theme such as 'the geometry of the human body'. Of course this was not possible on the specific day but could be a future theme for the photographer to attempt.

Cool Capture.

Tim, with your appreciation for light and shadows, do you feel extended dynamic range on a D70 would have enhanced or ruined this wonderful shot. I can only imagine that the woman may have been less of a silhouette (not necessarily an advantage). I also doubt that outside images breaking through window glare would create a more desirable impact (although providing a more realistic image as seen by human eyes).

I agree with Fred's comment above - loss of boundaries makes the photo.

upside down 'Da Vinci' cup, women curve with backside round shape, hospital safe environment... evoke to me maternity, art pregnancy... pondering!

reversal or negative pregnancy... something is going to come out of that picture, surely!

This photo catches the eye, just as the image itself must have caught the photographer's eye before he took the shot. Technically, the photograph is well-done (though I prefer the more aligned edits that people have made), too. However, I think the "art" in this photo comes from the "art" of the architecture (obviously an achievement in its own right), not from any "art" in the picture itself. in my opinion, for a photograph of great architecture to be an achievement in its own right, something more than a simple "capture" is needed; and I don't think Mr. Holte has quite done that in this case. Some of Gil Garcetti's Disney Hall shots get at this idea -- photographs focused on architecture that are themselves works of art themselves -- in my opinion.

 

In this case, I would severely crop the picture down by removing the inverse arch above her head, the "dry" floor at the front of the photograph, and a great deal of the "wet" floor below her feet, and by pushing the woman to the right of the frame and setting her down at ground level. I think these changes help to focus on the arch above the woman's head, highlight the splash of light along the floor, and emphasize the windows (the shape of which, along with the lines of light they provide, help highlight the expanse of the place while implying the balance and symmetry inherent in the architecture). This cropping also emphasizes the humanity of the woman and minimizes the chill that permeates full frame, creating a better balance between the two. I think this is another case where less would be more -- but that is ust my opinion. It is still a beautiful shot and very well done. Kudos to Mr. Holte.

forget to say 2 things to my above remarks:

first congrats Tim for being POWed again!

and forgot to say how much this image convey the loneliness of (most) woman before delivering (to be read in context with my previous comment)

This is a fine shot Tim. I've followed your work at this museum for some time with great interest.

 

It is a spectacular place. My first visit there was in 2001, and I was without a camera. It wasn't until a year later that I was able to get back there and shoot. You are very lucky to live so close to this wonderful subject.

 

As for this photo, the only thing that I wish could be changed is how the girl sits within the window frame. Having her head touching the frame is a distraction for me. If she were slightly lower and to the right a bit within that frame she would be in a more comfortable position. At Least for me. I didn't have time to read this entire thread, so this may have been brought up already.

 

Otherwise a very nice job.