Walking with the birds

I have to admit that I really like this picture and you deserve all the positive feedback you have been receiving. Looks like it was shot with a Peleng 8mm. I'm looking into getting that lens soon for shots like this. GOOD JOB!!!

Excellent idea! Excellent shot... and much more

Freekin Amazing... Bravo!

Awesome!

fresh idea, nice montage

wonderful idea and shut...

 

congts...

awesome - congrats

WOW! This is amazing! I love everything about it but obviously the persepective is the best part.

Excellent composition

great timing and nice wide aperture !

hey! excellent way of thinking.Simply great.....

great timing and copositioin. Only one critic I'm jalous

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Wow. It makes you dizzy if you look at it long enough. I think that's because there's no visual frame of reference, and that's probably the strength of this photo (well, one of them). You experience flight, just as the subject in the photo did. Enlarge it to gargantuan proportions and hang it on the wall in a gallery, and you'll have people tipping over as they look at it. I'm noticing also that the bottom of the shoes is well-illuminated, which adds greatly to the photo. Fill flash? Never mind that I wouldn't have thought of taking this original photo myself - I wouldn't have thought of using flash, either, for the bottom of the feet, which would be the darkest area of the photo. Hats off to Alex for this work of art.

I'm not sure I like it (aesthetically), but the tech is perfect and the composition is very original, so...congratulations! :-)

 

Mauro

Just fantastic! No words!

Excellent work. Congrad.

I love this photo. Very nice composition. Very creative.

This seems to be an original shot, but the first question that comes to my mind is just how much photoshopping went into this one. Were the birds captured in the same frame as the runner, or were they shopped in later? I cannot really offer an evaluation of this as a "catch" unless I know that it records an actual event. If it was not an authentic capture, then I have no interest in it. If it was an authentic capture, and if both birds and runner were in the same frame, then I am much more impressed.

 

Either way, it strikes me as more of a novelty shot than anything of lasting significance. This is good work in its own way, but it does not inspire me, and it certainly does not overwhelm me with its aesthetic impact.

 

If it turns out that the birds were present when the photo of the runner was made, then I will look more favorably upon it. Sometimes the degree of manipulation really does make a difference in terms of the "wow" factor. If this turns out to be a montage, then the "wow" factor disappears, and one is left with. . . what?

 

--Lannie

In general, I agree with Lannie about the manipulation aspect. It doesn't detract from the quality of the image though I'm less inclined to appreciate something if it's been heavily manipulated. That's not a condemnation, just my opinion and style. :)

It's a well put together image (I'm assuming merger of two photos because of the angle of the birds vs. the person), and has a great commercial feel.

It initially made me smile and appreciate it until my mind started noticing the merger of two photos.

Still, in the end, has a great impact and will cause people to look at it over and over.. well done.

In my opinion this is not about montage. If it is then it wouldn't be here. The light is too natural from all over. The idea and the process of creation is brilliant! After all it has a commercial notion. This photo would sell any kind of sneakers. (I'll not mention here the sport brands.) Because in the foreground it's clearly expressed the sneaker.

But I wonder where did Alex put the camera, in some hole or on the flat ground?

Maybe it's not about the staged photo. Maybe Alex captured some race putting the camera on the ground. So the photo has been created spontaneously.

Either way, it's brilliant. 7/7.

As I look at this photo, I am reminded of a campaign that Nike did in the mid 90's, all shot very similar to this (I am VERY familiar with that campaign!)

 

In any case, this is a much more relaxed version of those images and i like it in black and white. This has the feeling of being much more of a reaction to what was happening than having been a planned shot. This is not a qualitative statment, just an observation--a little more spontaneous might be a better way to say it.

 

But digressing to a discussion of manipulation or not and thus the merits of an image seems a bit problematic for me. If the photo looks manipulated, even if it is not, that seems to be a more valid critical position than one where it is manipulated, but looks natural and believable. My eye and my visually stimulated emotions really have no bias except to the elements it sees and experiences. It is mental perturbations we engage in due to our biases about manipulation that start this whole type of debate. I guess, in an analysis of an image, I think it is always better to critique what is in front of us rather than a mentally created reality, which truly is not about the success of the image at hand.

 

As to the image, I do like the spontaneity and play, but otherwise just am left a little flat as I do not feel the photo is saying anything--where's the beef?

Awesome, Awesome photo!!!!! I'm not sure about the left foot thought. I like how it shows some movement, but in the same sense, I wish it was clear just like the birds.

Bravo! Great point of view. Very creative with the birds. Reminds me of when I was growing

up. The freedom of running and the atmosphere. It is a very free spirited shot. I really enjoy

looking at it. Thanks

Mona--

I'm with those who would like to know how this image was created. You seem to be discounting process which, to me, is important. If I looked at Jackson Pollock's work without an understanding of process or place in art history, I would not have the same appreciation of it. Because of process, I don't look at a Pollock and a Matisse the same way.

Photography can have an intimate relationship with the world. True, as photographers, we each have a unique way of realizing a vision and are not limited simply to trying to closely represent the world we see. My reactions to a photograph are due to many factors that go beyond just the image. Images don't exist in a vacuum. I am conscious of lighting when hanging my photos because that affects the viewer. If someone didn't know Queen Elizabeth, for example, the austerity and appropriateness in the way Annie Liebovitz photographed her would not have the same meaning as it does for someone who didn't know it was a portrait of the Queen of England. (I just saw Annie's show here in San Francisco and when you know something about the subjects of her portraits, you do get something quite different out of the uncanny ability she has to bring their nature and personality out through pose, environment, lighting, and the handling of each of them. Knowing something about these people is beyond the image itself, yet has a great effect.)

My experience of this photograph would change drastically if I found out it was a composite. Part of the thrill of photography, for me, is its feeling of having captured a moment, as in the "decisive moment." If I learn that moment is a construction, it doesn't transport me as would an actual capture of a moment.