I'm not alone

Hey Marius,
Poza e superba, fireste ca noi nu vom atinge niciodata perfectiunea, pe aia care core comenteaza de doru lelii, da-i in pizda ma-sii :)

gordon,
i was refering to your comment "over cooked". i took this to mean digital manipulation. please forgive me if that was not the case. i did not intend to rant. one needs the skill set to take good photographs and make good prints. that is for sure. i am always a bit taken back when someone views anothers work through there own prism of what they think is technically sound. i am glad to just view the image. it does not need to pass or fail. i like to see how an image makes me feel or how it may relate to my own memories or experience. i don't want to rule out someones work on something technical........like say to many of out of focus motion blur shots of abstract lines and shapes.

is that a little better aim? by the way, i am very fond of your work. you have some great stuff.

 
Scott
Much better aim I would say and thanks for the follow up.  By overcooked I was referring to my feeling that, for my taste, too much of the standard sort of  manipulation was employed. I have nothing against manipulation. The route travelled to arrive at the end result matters little to me,  it is the end result which I judge. As you have stated we have far too much nonsensical debate about whether a digital manipulation is a photograph.  I agree with your assessment I do however feel it would be better directed at one of the many people around here who regularly state that digitally manipulated images are not photographs, an assertion which I have never made.To me this photo is a hodgepodge of  elements with less care regarding scale than I would have liked to see. What was intended to be deep strikes me as shallow and cliche. On that level the photo falls down. As regards photoshop skills  the degree of success seems on par with most of the stuff I see around here.
Since this is a critique forum,  the purpose of writing here is  to express our feelings about the image and back up those feeling with some amount of explanation. I completely respect your right to the  opinion that a photo does not need to pass or fail, however within the context of this forum, discussion regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the image is the point of the forum. That is,  as I understand it,  what critique is about.  Outside of this forum we have the whole of PN for praise.
 
 

well said and fair enough.

It's fantastic, It makes me an emotion, difficult to explain, but the whole image is beautiful!It looks like a painting, nearly not real!

Really congrats. Francesca

I very much like this image but it doesn't work in some respects. The 'mist on the water' effect is a little odd - it appears to have been cloned from clouds - and the boat doesn't quite match the mood of the rest of the lighting.

I'd be interested to know how many elements this image is made from. On the basis that less is more, you may have been able to get just as dramatic an image with fewer elements.

But it's still a nice image....

 

I love the lighting in this image at the different places. This is so awesome. Thanks for sharing this picture with us. Hope to see more.

I look at many images and for someone to capture/create something to make me pause and delve deeper isn't that common. My hat off to this person. The concept can create so many different meanings and the combo of techniques is great. This would definitely be of commercial use for inspirational/motivational publications. Great job!

Anyone know where that lake is?

I do say Bravo on a nice photographic composite. It is very much like a painting. However, it does not speak to me personally, as I gravitate toward more realistic scenes. I also take issue with the Elves' comment that "This photograph was chosen..." To me and many others in the photographic arts, this is not a photograph per se. It is a photographic composite with lots of art and painting added. In a gallery, I would be tempted to call it "mixed media" (photograph + digital compositing and painting). Keep in mind that I also call Jerry Uelsmann's work composites--and it's all in the darkroom! I know it's just semantics, but "a photograph" has very real meaning to me and this doesn't qualify.

Regarding any comments made about post production: Like the great Ansel Adams said: "The negative is the score - the print is the performance". It's all part of the artistry. I like it very much. Now, if it were a photojournalistic piece...

I'm with Colleen. I can't tell whether the horizon is tilted or not. Like her, I am seeing the land wrapping around to the right of the lake. And anyway, is it really worthy of comment in an image with so many unusual elements, to get picky about this aspect. I am surprised that someone has not pointed out that the umbrella is a trifle 'soft'. Sheesh! Now I do think the comments about perspective, planes, scale etc are interesting and should we try creating a similar image then these would be worthy of some attention to detail and whether or not we intend to make them surreal.
I wonder if there was a forum that pointed out to Salvador Dali that pocket watches are not made of bendy rubber and to Picasso that people are not made of cubes and triangles?
A very interesting image Marius and some very interesting comments.

What a great image for meditation, sitting on the bench at a museum, becoming Waldon Pond or for just sloughing off the dust of the day.

 

The title, however, ruined the entire experience of a great photo for me, no matter how it was made. It removed any bit of tranquility or possible irony, turning a 10++ event into naught. The birds and the skiff were not important details, until the title was added, and then they were utterly superfluous. Let the viewer process his or her own feelings about solitude; it's a great picture for doing so, but the title makes it didactic and preachy. I looked at some of this photographer's other images and have come to the same conclusion: he would do better with "Untitled"; otherwise use the medium of writing alone. ee cummings, Wm Blake, and a few others could mix words and art. This artist is not yet able to do so, without destroying his admirable photographic virtues.

I think it's a beautiful, haunting work of art. To me, the person in the foreground is lonely, looking at the couple in the canoe. The title suggests that the person is in denial.
As far as the comments on the use of Photoshop, I wonder if some are hung up on the process, rather than enjoying the end result. I wonder if, for them, process is what really counts.

 

The true test of a good photo, in my humble opinion, is if it tells a story. To me I see an old widow towards the end of her life remembering days gone by. How she and her lover used to row around the lake. To me the boat is only in her memory.

 

The dark border really pulls you into and complements the mood of the photo.

 

It looks like a lot of time went into this. I assume that it is a composite of several photos? If so I would consider it more a work of art then a photograph.

 

Very nice.

This looks contrived to me.

I thought the idea of shooting an image was to capture a moment in time that was unique and never to be seen in exactly the same way again.

If you created this using software then you have made an interesting image but not a photograph.

For any work of art, I do appreciate the process as well as the end result. In this case, however, the end result bears little resemblance to a "photograph", in my opinion. To me, it appears to be a digital painting that has photographs as one of the raw materials. As such, the end result presents itself as a painting in my book, not a photograph.

Impressive at first, but disappointing after finding out it is computer art and not a photograph. Reminds me of the old “Star Trek” episodes and the new sci-fi flicks. Too much computer generated visual effects without the human and aliens conflicts and humor.

…I am not a bricklayer captain..

And the title did not help either. Sorry.

Excellent!

 

Reminds me of

Roy Andersson's movie work in terms of feelings

and

Jan Saudek's photographic work in terms of color scheme

beautiful... I just love it!

Looks way too surreal to be considered a photograph - in my opinion. Too overcooked by photoshop, almost Salvidore Dali -ish. Could have remained a simple, uncluttered, fine art type of motif that looked 'real' . As a genuine, photographic image, it could have left me pondering about the person on the bench and merging with whatever their meditation could have been. The motif was strong enough to carry itself without the fruit salad. It looks so artsy-artifical, why bother going out to photograph anyway. Save yourself the trip and just create it in photoshop with any concoction of images you could muster..To me this appears to more about the artist showing off their photoshop talents rather than their photography skills

This is a magical combination between photography and fine art. I love the colours which are trully beautiful.

Brilliant in scope...and emotionally stimulating.

I am jealous...!

TC