Tropical Portrait

Paradise isn't on any map... but you can find it here.

 

Comments and critiques welcome

What's the story of this photo? I found it a bit obvious, tough it's perfectly taken.

This work has no soul. I find myself asking as to where it touches me. My heart, my concious eye? Non. The emotion is lost in production values and louder it speaks than the artistry. A play with grand costumes and design but bland dialogue. Is this a paradise? Is this what you attempt to convey? I seek your pardon but I am left feeling empty and confusion supresses me like storm clouds gathering on an empty canvess. It is you, the gentleman artist, who must explore our emotion with your brush, but you have not painted with your heart, you have painted with your eye. Your eye can see but it is your heart that feels.

---- Paradise isn't on any map... but you can find it here.----

 

Shucks, maybe my little caption is a wee bit grandiose. ;-)

 

>>>>left feeling empty and confusion supresses me like storm clouds gathering on an empty canvess<<<<

 

WHOA!!! Hang in there bro...

this was just one I liked out of a dozen rolls on a commercial job for a resort. ;-) Of course I may be a bit biased by the fact that she was very beautiful and heck... I can think of worse ways to spend a sunset. ;-)

 

Perhaps you point me in the direction of some shots with 'soul' as a reference point to work from/towards or heck.. go crazy and post one of your own! ;-)

I'm always partial to portraits with soft backlit greens... Love them as I believe they provide one of natures best backdrops. Soul... hmmm.. I got quite a kick out of that comment. Anyway, she is full of expression... She looks a bit haughty.. but perhaps she was playing with different expressions.. Whatever.. it is effective in any case. Great color, great expression. I'd have only made one tiny change which is the leaf on the left which I would have moved. Other than than one very small insignificant detail...I like this image very much!

I've been looking at this image for a few days now, trying to decide what i think of it. I knew I liked it but wasn't sure why (just because she's hot?). I finally decided that it's because of the placement of elements in the frame, and the contrasting colors - yellow, green, aqua, maroon. It's obviously a formal, commercial image, which might turn some people off - but it's so well executed it transcends its category and becomes simply nice to look at. And the way her upper lip is slightly pulled up into almost (but not quite) a sneer - well, that's the finishing touch!

I Agree with Doug about the composition and the colors, except for one little thing... I would rather have the shoulder included in the frame. The roudness of it would add to the " sexy " feeling you are aiming at. One disagreement with both Mary and Doug, though... the expression, and the lips... no go for me, at all... I liked your other shot so much better for the expression and I like this one so much better for the composition. So, a montage in PS ? :-)

 

cheers

Marc,

Ah, good catch with the shoulder issue. I still have about 4-5 rolls of 35mm of her that I have yet to scan. I believe there are some fuller shots as well. On the lips... I guess I am just plain biased here.. I'd take 'em any way they came! ;-)

Leaving out the shoulder represents a good compromise; I imagine that's why you left it out in the first place. Certainly it would add to the image; but, unless you are going to change the format (from rectangular to square), it will take away much more than it adds, by changing the size of the elements that are in the frame right now, and possibly their proportions. The face - and especially the lips - here has power; that power is enhanced by its size and placement within the frame. Diminish it and you diminish the power. Diminish the power and what do you have? Less than you started out with.