Tenderness

I'll glad to read your comments about this artwork

Regards,

Hugo

Great image, love the rich colours and subtle lighting. Nicely composed and so interesting, like the two birds on the rock a nice touch. Best regards Ken.

Beautiful. A very touching image well composed. Looks like a painting at first. Good job. Jerry

Very well done.

tender and touching- well done!

I'm really very glad to read your feedbacks, I think this is a very emotional artwork, 

You really are welcome !!

 

Regards,

Hugo

Excellent scene, lovely tones and mood.

You're welcome, thanks :)

I think it's ingenious how the photo.net Elves can pick out a picture that is so perfectly neutral that I cannot think of anything to say, good or bad except that the attached title, 'Untouchable tenderness' is just ridiculous.

And why did Hugo retouch out the umbrella's handle?

I think I find the pair of birds -- because they have not much to do with the rest of the picture -- more interesting than the pair of people.

it's not an umbrella, it's a two person hat (2phat), which matches the couple's 1930s attire very well*. i love the

smokey-beast-on-the-water touch.

 

a great photo that i would've loved to have taken.

 

* the 2phat was invented in 1925.

... until women got tired of the 2phat and invented the beehive hairdo -- basically a bomb shelter for the head. Note that this is also when men started calling their wives "honey."

I assume English is not the author's first language, as the title is indeed rather silly since the protagonists are most definitely touching. Not sure why the umbrella is suspended in mid air: a rather careless editing I must say. Otherwise Hugo has worked very hard on the image (vignetting, dodging and burning (is the sky cloned from another shot?), to quite nice effect, but overall I am not sure the subject was really worth the treatment.

It would be nice to hear from Mr. Romano regarding this image. To me, it looks as though the couple were shot walking down a sidewalk and were dropped into a different background. Both appear to be in mid-stride. Her weight is on her left foot and her right foot appears to be slightly off the ground. Perhaps the umbrella handle disappeared along the way. Just a theory.

It is a pretty inoffensive selection, but does it deserve such mocking?
If silliness is a sign of non-native speaking, well.....

For me, this photo has a very strong emotional impact. It reflects back to me the undying tenderness I feel for the people I’ve loved, a tenderness that is untouchable by the passage of time or by the loss of those people. The image conveys to me a feeling of melancholy, of loss, but also of gentle perseverance, quiet strength, and acceptance. For me, the title reflects the emotional content very well—my initial emotional response came before I saw the title, and the title eloquently expressed what I had reacted to.

In trying to figure out what made me respond strongly to the photo, I realized that almost every element in the photo supports the message I received: the subdued colors, the dark tones, the warmth of the white balance used, the composition. The overall treatment of the post-processing instantly moves the image out of the realm of realism and invites me to read it as a surrealistic allegory, and that turns the image into a puzzle to be solved. At that point I adopt the assumption that each element in the image is presented as it is by the choice of the artist; I’m no longer concerned about whether the elements were manipulated; and it’s my task to figure out what the artist might have had in mind when they made the choices they did. That’s fun.

I also find the way that the artist has used light and color to guide me through the image is intriguing. Most aspects of the overall composition point to the distant viewing platform as the center of interest—it’s the major feature in the light portion of this dark-toned and strongly vignetted image, and the landscape lines (and even the people’s shadows) lead me there. In addition, the fact that all I see of the (human) couple is their dark-toned backs invites me to search for what they may be looking at, and their own dark shapes then become part of the frame for the center of interest. Wherever I enter the image, I quickly end up at the distant structure. What eventually draws my eye back to the (human) couple is the red umbrella, and at that point the people and the distant, misty, glowing structure become more strongly connected, and we’re right in the middle of allegory territory. The artist shows us this couple, interacting so tenderly, walking out of the viewers’ lives and toward…what? And the other couple? They are a third focus of interest because they’re well defined both by contrast against their background and because they are the last sharp feature before the misty distance—more fertile ground for allegory.

There is one aspect of the photo that I find slightly distracting, but not enough to reduce my appreciation for the image. I had initially read the image as having a tilted horizon, then realized that it was more likely that I was seeing lens distortion. It may be useful to do a bit of transforming on the right side to level the structure’s roofline and to place the tree reflections vertically under the trees.

I like the color palette. It has a feeling of peace and familiarity and rest. The solemnity of Japanese gardens. A parallel of the comfort of two people who are in a tender and serene space. The red umbrella is a great statement of buoyancy in lives well lived.

To begin, I agree entirely with Leslie's comments about the image's emotionality. In that regard, I think the term "untouchable" is not being used literally here. Perhaps the image conveys the sort of love between two people that is both emotional and spiritual. That's how I look at my 47+ years of marriage to one and only one woman.

I really like the gentle colors (except for the more saturated red of the umbrella) and the range of tones; as Gerry noted, these elements seem to be suitable companions to the Japanese gardens. Personally I am impressed by how the light filtering through clouds are delicately reflected on the water's surface.

 

I'm not a fan of this photo montage digital 'art' style of work at the best of times but even less so when done this poorly. The elements have been smashed together with little regard for continuity of light or shadows. The background pagoda is inexplicably bathed in bright morning light under an overcast sky with a dark foreground where the figures cast no shadows. Some elements are too sharp others too soft to make any sense of, in terms of focus and focal length. Even the scale feels wrong. The vignette is heavy and artificial and make what should only be cloying into something claustrophobic.

I love the 2phat and now want to have one to wear.

Anyone who has visited traditional Japanese gardens with their pavilions, lakes, ornamental trees and bushes, their stone artifacts and rocks, know this feeling of time standing still and general quietness, that invites for contemplation and meditation. Late in the afternoon, like here, when light becomes soft with the sun hidden behind threatening clouds, the spell of such places becomes even stronger and maybe even more "untouchable" without any single specifics to explain it.
In this photo, where the viewer is invited to step into the scenario together with an elderly couple dress in clothes, which fit well into the colors of the garden view, there is indeed some kind of tenderness to share.
I’m therefore far from using harsh words for criticising the scene. I find it quite compelling.
When it comes to the two-person-umbrella/hat in a beautiful oriental red, it is just perfect : makes you smile.

You folks here are kidding, right?

I mean it would've been better off not to mention the missing umbrella handle than to have someone explain it away as a two person umbrella hat from the 1920's which makes it more comical than just a post processing mistake.

And how does Hugo Romano know about such an umbrella? I've never heard of it. I searched online entering a number of variations to the two person umbrella hat from the 1920's and nothing comes up, not one image in a Google image search showing this umbrella.

Even if by chance these two elderly folks happen to be wearing one, how in the heck does one keep the other from straying away and having the hat come off seeing they'ld have to walk in unison to keep the thing on.

This has got to be the strangest if not emotionally disturbing/conflicting POTW critique I've ever read.

Tim, the 2phat was just word-play. They are kidding. If Jack Sprat and his wife had a 2phat, they'd have to split it and would end up with a splat.

"This has got to be the strangest if not emotionally disturbing/conflicting POTW critique I've ever read."
And....

Yes, I believe that was the point.

You guys really need to bone up on your sense of humor on the internet, but in the sense of being aware that it doesn't come across so well when writing in an academician literal style like a college professor with too much tenure.

Seriously, Shirley, you gest. Get it?...

...And don't call me Shirley.

I think the line is:
Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious...and don't call me Shirley. :)