Bridport Jetty Version III

John,

Your new scan with some touch-up using PS seems brighter and cleaner. It's cleaner in a sense that a subtle misty layer of something was removed from the original post. I like both of them and they do have a slightly different interpretation.

 

The new scan also added 2 features which are not present in the original:

there's a sort of halo effect around the 2 poles in the foregroundthere are semi-concentric circles in the sky emanating from the horizon upwards

Did anyone else see these?

The new scan doesn't look quite right either, I suspect those halos may have appeared during the USM stage, but I'm not really sure.

 

My prints of this neg are too large to scan at 12x16. I will go into the darkroom and make an 8x10 print to scan. Check back in 24 hours.

He wishes he was Michel Kenna, but the image still sings. I spent a week at a workshop in '96 with Mr. Kenna and we shot the same type subjects up and down the coast near Delray Beach in Florida... all of our prints looked like Kenna's iconographic images of the sea. This image by Mr. McLaine is a clean, still study in tones and form. It is interesting to be aware of the digital involvement. That scares those of us who like to spend time in the smelly dark.

Very nice photograph. Reminds me somewhat of a photo taken underneath a pier by Wynn Bullock. If I place a card with a rectangular cut-out over the image and place the horizon exactly in the middle or up or down makes no difference to me. My eye is not drawn to the horizon but rather to the vertical lines of the posts. I think that the photo would look better if the dark strip at the bottom were cropped out. Having the shaddows extend to the bottom of the photo would enhance the mystery of the image. Place a card over the bottom black region and see what you think.

You ask if we would have done the same picture as you did. Yes 99% would have done the exact same photo (almost), and so you need to to something different next time!

It reminds me of a backdrop for one of those techie teenie-bopper music videos. All we need is the scantily clad girl yowling like a cat in heat about how her man left her for the postman down the street, and MTV here we come! LOL

 

Seriously though, this picture looks surreal. One quality that strikes me is the lack of clouds in the sky. This lack of clouds gives a strong sense of silence, like God just yelled for the world to stop moving for a split second, and it did.

 

I don't know why everyone gets so hung up on the placement of the horizon. Most of the time, the horizon is least what I'm looking at. The use of proportions works in this image. Good stuff. :D

Agfa RC multi-contrast, glossy, 8x10". 40Magenta. Shiraz.

This is the centre section, printed at an enlargement ratio that would produce a 24"x30" print from the full frame. I did this mostly to have a better look at Trevor Hopkins' seagull. The exposure for this picture was in the order of 10 seconds or so, so the seagull did a pretty good job of keeping still.

Shiraz! You print with Shiraz? I suppose Agfa papers respond favorably to the sulfites...hmmmm? Interesting. What's it going for down under...about $4 US per gallon, like here in the states? Just curious.

Eureka!!! John....You've done it chap! Your rich, your rich...Well not really but congratulations just the same. I love all the discussions that your fine image has inspired (especially the cross hairs superimposed). All good stuff.

 

One thing that Marc brought up about the dark band at the bottom left me to think for a while and this is my take on it. I like the way this dark ink bleeds out from the pier shadows. It just may be this weighty darkness that helps balance the somewhat horizontally centered composition. Rules or no rules, this composition works. This dark band is repeated by its diminutive cousin just below the horizon line that separates water from sky. Of course the dark bands counterpoint the verticallity and anchors the divergent pier lines. I'm not sure the rescan with the lighter tone has the same power that your original post demonstrates. Just my observation. Anyway John, thanks for sharing your good work. Brad

Ten second exposure. . . . Well, that goes a ways towards explaining the tranquil water, more so than the filters, I imagine. Great idea, and something to try.

Can we be heirs to the 20th century without acknowledging the contributions of at very least Freud not to speak of Jung to what images bring up in us that make a difference or better a breakthroug however nuanced in our lives?Water depths is the unconscious.Onirically.That's why it holds us in some strange awe...that may not commune with our everyday rules....compositional or otherwise.

Lannie, the filters were purely intended to enable a long exposure, (after sunset for soft even light). They're not grads, just straight NDs, so they don't affect the tonal distribution.

 

Cheers,

Somehow it seems like we've been here before. Or somewhere like it. I think the photograph is a pleasant interpretation of a common theme. Perhaps we should have compulsary exercises just like figure skating. I'm sure the printed negative is outstanding in the right hands but once again this really does not do much except give me eye-strain. I appreciate the introduction to John's other photos including the ones he mentioned as his personal choices. John appears to be as good at telling stories as he is at taking photographs.

 

I really enjoyed the bullseye superimposed on the image. It reminded me of an aid to composition mentioned be Galen Rowell in one of his books and that is to place objects in the viewfinder somewhere along the edge of the center spot meter circle. I wonder how many cameras no longer have this feature? Anyway, if your subject line is anyware along the edge of the circle it is most certainly not centered and therefore avoids the embarrasement of centering things that other people do not think you should be centering. Perhaps someone should rename the "rules" of photography and refer to them as guidelines instead. At least the horizon is level and that's more important to me than being centered or not. Interesting comments about the post-exposure proccess, thanks.

This works for me because it is so very simple John. The rule of thirds is never something to be overly concerned about in my opinion. But just in case, one advantage to using 35mm, is that you can bracket and adjust extensively. Todays drum scanners are so good and the printers so sharp that 35mm can easliy go up to 24x36 without much loss in image quality. My question would be did you take a lot of different images from this exact spot? While the 6x7 is indeed a large neg, I still feel you lose much in the tradeoff...mainly the ability to take many different images and focal lengths, angles and anything else that can increase the opportunity to capture a truly winning shot. This is a very good shot, but were there other angles that may have improved this...even if only just a bit?? Am curious to hear your viewpoint on this matter. I have struggled and debated the medium vs 35 formats considerably for years now before sticking with 35. Oh, just for the record...a border never hurts either...in style or out of style! here is a darker one just for comparing. Congrats on the selection!

Congratulations John on a most deserved POW. Technicalities aside, I think Trevor best expressed my feelings about this image, and many others in your outstanding portfolio: it calms the soul. As powerful & majestic as the imagery is, it also conveys a peaceful, tranquil stillness. Thank you for sharing them with us.

I tried three vantage points. This one (in the water between the piles), back on the shore with the 105mm lens, and in the water but off to the side for a diagonal off-centre composition. I took maybe 12 frames in total from the three positions, of which perhaps 9 are capable of producing a fine print, of 3 or 4 different composition variations. The off-centre viewpoint did not please me as much as the centre-line negatives.

 

This was as deep as I could go while still getting a stable tripod placement, any deeper and I may have lost the camera to waves and subsidence. I have replaced all the bolts in my tripod with stainless steel bolts for corrosion resistance in seawater.

This is sooo great. Simple, beautiful.

Good contrast.!!

 

Nature construction~!

 

Nice photo. John

Thanks for the response John...I hear you loud and clear on going in as far as possible. Very well done!

its a way to god???

 

 

A nice perspective and, with depth...

Very Nice.....................Excellent

I thought I'd got away with the little splash the camera got while taking this one, but it died last month and is in for service. I'm picturing the interior as completely corroded out, but maybe it will turn out to be not so bad.

fantastic management of light. It's unique!