single photos The Haunted Wood

Graeme- I expect to see this in the Members Exhibition next year.

Great shot and when you get down from Kal I'll show you some really nice scenery.Love the textures and this may sway you back to mono.

Mike Lyons.

P.S I've just put through my first lot of 5x4-Great stuff.

Cheers mate.

I believe that one of the reasons this composition works is that it is a square.

The sinuous wood guides the eye continuously around the image bordered

by the square. A rectangle wouldn't work as well because the vertical

elements in the photo wouldn't work as well in keeping the eye from

wandering to the left or right. I wish more people would use a square.

I also think that the even balance between darks and lights is necessary to

make the pic more abstract; helping with eye movement.

Because of all the eye movement, I find the image disturbing. Not in a bad

sense, just that you want to rest somewhere and it doesn't allow that.

I think it's a good image.

Fantastic image and tonal range. the tonal range is what really sets it apart from other wood images.

 

I'd like to know - how did you meter this? did you use a grey card? or did you do a minimum density reading? if you did minimum density, what part did you take as your zone 3?

 

I'm in awe of images like this - thanks for sharing.

I definately love this picture. its a good choice for photo of the week. Reminds me of haunted woods that I used to dream about as a child. Something that you would think would be terrifying to a child, but something about both the idea, and this actual image is very inviting to me. It keeps my attention because of the curves, and my need to search for the forms I see in it. Its almost like a darker side of looking for images in clouds. I appreciate it very much.

Amazing image -- when I first looked at it, I immediately associated it with the famous triptych by Heironymous Bosch, one of the areas densely filled with tortured souls in Hell. Here the wood has faces and the faces have twisted, mangled and torn bodies attached -- and the dark areas push those tormented elements to the foreground.

 

And as a former 6x6 user, the square composition doesn't bother me at all; it seems natural, especially for a subject that doesn't really have either a vertical or horizontal aspect.

 

If I can make images like this in another twenty years, it will have been worth returning to photography after leaving it for the last twenty-five years.

Hello all,

 

I think this picture represents the true meaning of photography. Photgraphy should test your imagination and make you think in your way, not like naked women and beutifull flower shot.

 

RGDS

http://www.gallerydhaka.com

Wonderful! I would love to see this full-sized, since I know that so much is always lost upon resizing and uploading. (I still like your lightning pictures better, though.)

I am an amateur photographer at best. What this picture reminds me of is the importance of simplicity in photography. The quality and complexity of the wood in this picture is quite remarkable and the technical expertise is immediately evident. However, what really captures and holds my attention is the discipline of the photographer and his willingness to focus on such a small part of the world. As an amateur, I am often overwhelmed by the scene and make the mistake of trying to capture too much of the surrounding environment in my pictures. This picture reminds me of the importance of paying attention to the detail and recognizing the photographic beauty that surrounds us everyday. Thank you for giving me the motivation to be more observant and precise with my photography.

I love photographs like this.Really inspaired me to try the same kind of idea.Really like the lighting on the wood.

Absolutely beautiful image. And how appropriate that you took it with a wood view camera.

 

Greeting from the other side of the country (Rockhampton, Qld).

This reminds me of Fangorn, the scary wood in Lord of the Rings. Excellent pic.

This photo reminds me some of the work by Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.To me,it's very good in every aspect. I think the print must be much better than what we see on the monitor, particularly, Zones IV,V and VI. I think this one really deserves to be POW.

The Texture. Now, it may just be me, or it may be that I just got off work, but Im sitting here, Im staring at it for a few minutes, admiring the texture. And I grab my red R2 filter, which I had been playing with yesterday and look at the picture again. Try this. it makes it pop out 3 dimentionally. kinda freaky. Now that, is a cool picture.

I actually lowered my contrast to look at this image (had it turned up fairly high) and liked it even more when I could see into the shadows. Very nicely done.

I'm taking a little different approach to your Haunted Wood image. First the bad news...this subject has been done over and over. I call it a YAWP - Yet Another Wood Picture. It doesn't score particularly high on my imaginative scale.

 

On the other hand, this is one of the best YAWPs in recent memory. Technically, it is marvelous and has a lot of impact. The contrasting tectures and haunting figures in the wood are absolutely stunning. So, maybe I've just contradicted myself. It is a cliched subject, but you've managed to make it unique. Great job.

Graeme, this image looks much better when viewed on a decent monitor. As mentioned previously this is not an uncommon subject for photography but thats not saying much these days with the plethora of images we are constantly being carpet-bombed with. On my less than stellar monitor at the office this looks like a bad Xerox copy with little or no gray graduation. On my monitor at home it looks pretty good. If anything, this reminds me of old Disney animated movies where some protagonist goes walking through the spooky woods and eyes appear to stare out of the darkness. I think we have all probably seen something like this rendered in an animation or a painting.

 

My own general preference is to show a subject like this in context with its surroundings like the Jeffery Pine on top of Sentinel Dome at Yosemite or the Bristle Cone Pines in the White Mountains. That said I think this is a pretty good abstract and appears to be popular with the general public so I hope you are able to produce some good prints in the digital darkroom. I prefer spirits over ghosts because they seem much more noble for some reason.

Isn't this a bit like seeing faces in clouds, i.e. much ado about nothing? Just a thought...

Back Shooter,

It's a lazy and wet Sunday morning here, so I'll come out to play with you.

Yes, this discussion is "much ado about nothing", as is nearly every discussion on the internet. A bunch of people talking about inconsequential issues always qualifies as "much ado". But those discussions give people pleasure and a way to perhaps examine their own feelings on any particular subject.

To a termite, my picture represents a free lunch, and to a dog it's an ornate urinal. It only draws the attention of people because of the passing resemblance of parts of it to faces. Indeed, I've intentionally guided people to find those faces by using a suggestive title. The picture works because of our inate ability to search for and recognise faces in the scenes about us. Ever heard of the face of Jesus in a bowl of baked beans or The Virgin Mary in a plate of scrambled eggs? Our brains are hard-wired to recognise faces. (We even see them in a colon, a minus sign and a right bracket :-) ). If the "faces" weren't hiding in the wood, it would indeed be YAWP. Turn it on it's side and it has no more impact than any other image posted here.

People like the shot, and it has given them pleasure to examine the depths for more hidden details. For those two reasons, it qualifies as a good image. When people stop and think about an image, the image works.

If you feel like you are not in the lime-light enough, Mr Shooter, might I suggest that you try to capture those faces in the clouds, then bring them to a life of fame and glory by posting the image on photo.net? You do have a camera, don't you? :)

Cheers,

Graeme

 

Re: "... Much ado about nothing..."

 

You're partly right. The photographer has created much ado with his photo of "nothing." In my mind, that's the whole point of this particular POW - and the mark of a wonderful photographer.

Graeme, you'll have to forgive me.

 

I was under the impression that the POW was intended to provoke a discussion, rather than the distended panegyric that has obtained in this case. My suggestion has nothing to do with me 'seeking the limelight', as you put it. I don't maintain a gallery on photonet.

 

To be honest, the picture is an accurate representation of your website and the photos displayed on it: a kind of technical prowess, but without much evidence of visual understanding, and threadbare design skills.

 

How nice that you and others see faces in the gnarly wood. But the photo is not a particularly interesting exposition of this idea.

 

You can take criticism at least two ways: either that you might need to examine your approach for improvement, or that no improvement is possible...

Thanks Back Shooter. I really appreciate constructive criticism. If you would like to offer some on how you think I should improve visual understanding and design skills, I'm all ears. By no means am I putting myself forward as an expert on these skills, so your thoughts might be valuable. Contact me off list if you feel less threatened that way.

If you have no advice to offer, then I'll continue to think that your nom de plume is entirely appropriate.

GH

Good work and well said Graeme.

Graeme,

 

I've had an opportunity to view your online gallery more thoroughly, and I appreciate your invitiation to proffer constructive criticism (incidentally I do not find this idea in the least threatening -- nor should any photographer with serious aspirations).

 

Now to your portfolio... with some exceptions, the majority of photos you have posted in the various galleries have a more or less thoughtless, snapshot -ish quality, in the sense they appear to be the work of someone present at a visual phenomenon with a camera -- not much effort has gone into developing a vision to distinguish this work from that of countless tourists and amateur photographers.

 

Since your subjects are preponderantly natural landscapes, I would point you to the photos of Freeman Patterson (who has shot similar subjects in Africa) as well as his excellent, instructive writings on this very subject.

 

As for seeing faces in things other than faces... Arcimboldo.

 

Of all your galleries, I like the monochrome the best. You are better able to handle a restricted color palette, including shots where strong color is present, but you encounter great difficulty composing complex color mixtures, where you fall back on visual cliches and at times, sheer chaos. Too often, you seem to want to throw everything including the kitchen sink into a given shot, rather than showing us selectively what it is you find interesting about your subject. To put it another way, there is too often a lack of visual organization and hierarchy.

 

This is funny in the context of the above... your shot "Chaos" is actually one of your best photos -- because it is so highly organized. It shows the acutely organized natural structure of a single tree, as the dominant pictorial element (!), in the context of its equally highly organized environment.

 

I wonder if you have other such shots which you have perhaps overlooked, because they don't have the drama and impact you perhaps feel are exemplified by other subjects (e.g. lightening and sunset pictures) you have chosen to post on your website. Selection in photography can happen at any point after you have snapped the shutter.

 

My final remarks are about the design of your website. 'Gilding the lily' is the phrase that springs to mind. The typography and buttons bear no relationship in scale or treatment as design elements to... anything, really (certainly not to your photos). They appear to be completely random, again typical of someone who has acquired a certain facility for messing about with photoshop but doesn't understand visual communication or even the rudiments of graphic design.

 

Don't feel bad, many photographers and visual artists are equally guilty of this misconception, that they can practice design without any training, effort or thought. I certainly was, until I applied for a formal, university-level study of visual communication and learned the hard way that there are no shortcuts to this very exacting discipline. If you don't have the time or the inclination, then find a professional designer to help you out.

Hi Back,

 

I'll contact you shortly off list, since we are now moving away from discussions about the PoW. Such off-topic discussions can become tedious for those not directly involved.

 

Regards,

Graeme

A wise decision. Best of luck to you.