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I like Gordon's work as I like his experiments with his different cameras.
This technic of motion blur while driving adds many times something very primal /pristine to the artistic touch.As is written in the bible( free translation)...the chaos is shaped and water and sky are separeted .

In this one the trees are the separating line between the diagonal wavelets of the FG and the winding lines of the sky ,the softness of the whole with the green touch has a painting quality. I know that it is not the first time Gordon's work is chosen for POTW..So my congratulation Gordon, I hope to see you more active at PN.

Usually I hate stuff like this. For some reason I rather like this shot. Not love it. But like it. I suppose I would put it on the wall if someone gave me a print. If this appeared on the cover of a book, however, I might just glance at it.

Okay. What I like.

First and very importantly I like the title. It tells you where, what and how. Titles are important. They really influence how a viewer will approach an image.

Next I like the consistency of form. There is a really beautiful weave throughout the image. It all hangs together very well. This creates the all important single effect that an image should have to be successful. There are no loose ends in this image.

Then I really like the overall structure of the image. It is very well balanced. This is particularly remarkable considering the expanse of sky. The weaves in the sky are especially richly textured and this nicely counterpoints the other elements of the image.

It's a drive-by shot. One has to admit that sometimes drive-by shots work.

There is an overall feeling of speed in this image (not surprisingly). It is not a breakneck gotta reach the finish line feeling of speed. Rather it is a speed that is lacy, jazzy and elegant.

What this image delivers is modest. I am not wild with enthusiasm over it. My applause are moderate and polite. But they are steady.

I've been following Gordon's work almost from when he first appeared on this site. I've watched his work evolve into what it is today. And through his work and his comments and critiques of my own work, he has often helped my work evolve a bit.

For me, in addition to the initial impression of this shot, there's a message here...and that's that a photographer should never stop learning, never get locked into one style or genre.

Regarding this photograph, as someone else mentions, it's impressionistic. It's a glimpse out of a vehicle window, but at a speed the human eye doesn't see. It flows freely in either direction. I like it that Gordon lets the viewers know that this is not some effect he's created in Photoshop, too. I like the photograph initially, but it isn't one I'd return to for further study. I can appreciate the technique, but it's a technique used by lots of people...Gordon just happens to do it a bit better than others.

There's something about it I like. I think it's the fact that what appears to be PS work was all captured naturally. At first I thought a fractalius plug-in may have been used. In a time where so much of the PS affects are used & many times overdone, this natural capture is refreshing

I normally don't like this effect, either, but in this instance, it has a very artistic feel to it. The rest of the folder has some hits and very few "misses," so this idea served well. I've tried shooting from the car window on occasion, but strive for a decent image that is sharp - it will make me rethink trying so hard to get a "normal" image and instead go for an artistic rendering.

very expressive... made me feel like i am traveling... brilliant idea

Congratulations, Gordon. Well deserved. Anyone who wanted to could point a camera out of a moving vehicle and take a fuzzy "drive by" shot. Very few capture crisp focus on a particular area - THE area that helps tell the story. Without the sharp focus on a few trees and their reflection (toward the right), this would be another fuzzy drive by. It isn't. It's a work of art, as are all the photos in your portfolio.

And I greatly I admire your ability to identify interesting niches where you can stretch your capabilities and make your work stand out from the rest. Drive By's and Dogs in Cars are probably my 2 favorites.

Cheers ~
Alberta

About the picture, what can I say, great tones and textures!
About the technique, I think there are few of us who didn't play around with long exposures, but this (and the whole "Drive-by" folder - where from, IMO, the "the fairest of them all" is the Autumn) proves what fine pieces of art can result when you take the play in serious. Thank you for sharing it Gordon, thanks to the elves for revealing it. You really inspired me with this POW.

imho, it requires a magic aesthetic gift of vision to create from nature the sorts of work in photography that the impressionists and expressionists painters aspired to do; it's about the blending of colors and light in such a way that it looks like an easy smearing fest, when in reality it's as precise and harmonious a composition of beauty that can be imagined, and it is meticulously rendered in every detailed blending, as Gordon has so beautifully rendered here. it takes a beautiful mind with imaginative finesse to glean such a emotional abstract and satisfying image from nature. my regret is not having found your work til the POW, Gordon; this image is meticulously imagined and beautiful, and it's made my day. and if you don't mind, i'd like to share a recent work by a sister member and friend Josefiina B, who on occasion of attempting these abstracts, also delights my eyes...
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=14088973. you have beautiful eyes, Gordon. ;-} dp

Excellent series!
If you don't mind my asking, Gordon, what sort of shutter speeds are you using for these images?
Thanks,
Dave E.

I’ve followed Gordon’s work going on three years now and have always felt he to be a photographer who sees the world with the eyes of a painter, not only for the lavish celebration of color everywhere, but also in terms of the scale his images offers which hardly appear contained in the limitations a photograph allows. Even after all this time, and even if I know better, I still hear myself thinking of the pictures as photographs of actual (large) canvasses and as I revisit the rich content in folders such as Motion Studies, Drive by Shooting, or the sweet melancholy of Trapped Between Windows, the illusion remains.

high fives all around to the elves for laying POW on an artist I much respect, a man with a varied and expansive vision and the technical skill to support his rich imagination.

Well said, Carlos. That pretty much echoes my feelings. Congratulations, Gordon. Is this number 2 or 3?

It has a very beautiful impact from its nice colors and its motion blur.

This is beautiful and original work, Gordon. I applaud the elves on this one, but I wonder how they overlooked Darwin: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7401958

In any case, this nth Photo of the Week for you at least brought some new viewers to your wonderful portfolio. What a remarkably diverse collection! I do love the abstracts, though, including this one.

--Lannie

I always find it interesting when pencil, pastel and paint people go to extraordinary lengths to copy life in photographic detail and when digital image or film, precision instrument users go to the same lengths to be 'painterly'. Can someone elucidate me?

McCoull, I think you'll find great variations in all artistic media, and you've just selected two endpoints. Many pencil, pastel, and paint people are anything but "photographic," while many (really, most) photographers produce a photographic look as opposed to "painterly" look, whether through camera movement or software. It's just different people in different media trying different things in their artistic endeavors, and at the extremes they may tend to appear to overlap.

Much like a long-absent voice falling on ravenous ears.............instantly recognizable. That your hand is evident in it might be considered by some to be an unwelcome moniker, but IMHO good art is instantly recognizable and provokes us to think, to cry, to look, to listen and presents the world a little differently. This is the strength of your imagery. All while being instantly recognizable.

Gordon,
The fact to test something new or different applying new ideas or techniques is good in it self. I think, that the attraction and the continuous motivation in this kind of images is always the surprise, always new and different at same time is like a breath of fresh air when we have a look to the camera’s display.Always evaluating the relation between the shutter speed and the motion of the camera ,in this case the car speed ;-) . Well, my congratulations for this result. Best regards

Very successful, both as an exercise and as an artistic rendering. I recently discovered how difficult this is to do. While my husband was driving I must have shot 50 shots of bright yellow canola fields in Alberta, Canada. I kept trying different things and just wasn't able to achieve anything like I had in my mind's eye. I love this effect, if done well. I looked at your other examples in your portfiolio, and although some are more successful than others, there are many lovely ones there as well. I have had a few successful attempts at this effect in the past. I guess I would say that the more you practice at it, the more you get a sense of what type of shot will work best with this effect. So I'll be watching (and learning) by watching your future attempts.

Yes. Start by listening to yourself. It is you, not the photographer, who has reduced this photograph to "painterly" in your description of it. Most of the other viewers seem to see and recognize just how photographic this photo is, just how much it explores what a camera and a good eye together can achieve. Sure, it may be "painterly" and that is significant, but it is much more than that . . . if you look without prejudice. When I look at it, "painterly" may come to mind but only peripherally and secondarily. It seems eminently photographic to me. That's often why I love Gordon's work. Because they ARE and HAVE TO BE photographs. Gordon is so in touch with the medium that it can sometimes be scary even as it's beautiful. He's also in touch with who he is as a photographer and with how he wants his photographs to LOOK.

Cool image but I think I prefer his winter scenes after taking a look at the full portfolio. Great stuff in it!

Now I learned another way to blur images,and I mean it .
if you haven't told us ,I would never guess it for long.
I liked that natural blur both the motion and the trees have created ,and I should say the speed of the car must be high for this effect to occur otherwise the trees would obscure the view.

I liked the feeling of the impressionist that this blur have created.

Thanks for your comment Fred G.. However its not me that refers to this type of image as 'painterly' or 'impressionistic', its a theme running through much of the correspondence and you use it yourself.
I asked a question about appropriate methods and tools to create images.
Personally I think this type of photograph has novelty value but to state it as 'art' or compare it to impressionism seems to be stretching it a bit.
Ansel Adams once described 'art' as "Something said about something felt". I can't see what emotion the photographer felt except perhaps travel sickness :-) but that's just me. Clearly many others do and that's great.

A superb conception and idea, artful and pleasant. The grey tones and background blended with the trees, makes this a very pleasing image. Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

I am sorry but I can not find my post here, I am not sure if the system did not take it, I like the creative effect and blurring idea behind it, superbly made and presented, all of the best my friend Gordon.