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Definitely I like it: nicely distorted and with beautiful colours. I don't know about the fingers over her mouth? Maybe, I'd like it more if she was correcting something in her hair by hand - a normal gesture of a lady in front of a "mirror". Regards. Blago

I, also, really like this one. The distortion is severe enough to be very eye-catching without looking grotesque or manipulated. I'm OK with the hand over the mouth. It's as if the woman were saying, "Oh, my...look at me now", in reaction to the distortion. The green color in the backgound is very pleasing and is plain enough so that the viewer's attention is focused on the image of the woman. A first class submission, PT!

I like it too very much. Athough it is a distorted image it is not grotesque, quite the contrary, pleasant to see, a very elegant solution.

I agree with the others about colors and eye catching. What I don't like so much is the fact that the subject is too centered, so the composition can be improved IMO. Still, a nice shot PT.

 

Regards,

Calin

I think Calen has a point about not centering the subject. And while I like the elongated fingers, I think Blagoy's idea to not have her hands in front of her face is a good idea.

 

The colors and texture in this photo are fantastic. I've never cared for abstract photography. But thanks to Picture This, I'm learning a new appreciation for it. You see, I was born without an artistic gene, much like those folks of days past who didn't understand Impressionistic paintings. :-)

Excellent, excellent, excellent. One of my favorite PT submissions of all time!! I think there is nothing wrong with how the subject is centered (very many excellent portraits are). The cropped version emphasises the distortion a little too much and removes some of the emotion from the image. With the crop offered by PT there is more of a sense of vulnerability and smallness within ones world. The texture of the reflective surface as well as the background play off eachother beautifully. I like the closed eyes, I like the fingers (though maybe the fingernails being bitten would also be interesting). The one problem I have with the shot is the brightness of the white spot in the upper right corner. If it were a little more muted as the rest of the white I think it would help a bit.

 

Now PT, please tell us more about the shot. What did you use as the reflective surface? What is the background?

Thanks for all the kind comments! PT is flattered.

 

I was expecting the comment on centered subject, but I deliberately did it this way, for the reasons Thomas mentioned.

 

The location and reflective object are seen in the shot attached. It's a chrome chimney, on a first floor deck (you can see the planks). Around it is either off-white wall or the green of the woods surrounding the house.

 

The cylindrical chape of the chimney provides for a fascinating combination of ultra-wide lens effect and a nice bokeh-like distortion. The green-white reflections are the white brick wall and the woods around. PT too thinks this is a wonderful blend and PT is going to take another 10000 shots at this location, with different subjects (Ooh! PT head filling up with ideas here!).

 

Though the cylindrical chimney poses a practical problem - because of the wide-eye effect it's really hard, as a photographer, not to be in the shot, somewhere.

 

When this assignment is over I'll post a couple more shots of this model/location in my personal folders.

 

Thanks for the comments.

So PT is there a horizontal flip going on here?

No horizontal flip in this one. The model was sitting on her knees at the rightmost side of the chimney. So the white/brown brick reflection on the right is the floor of the deck, not the brick! The reflection on the left is the woods, to the left/back of the deck.

 

Reason why model was on her knees is that higher up on the chimney there is an ugly seal which I wanted to avoid. Reason why she was not sitting more right in front of the chimney, or more to the left was reflections of other stuff on the deck (including PT). Final remark would be that she was *really* close to the chimney. I guess here nose. Hands were about 2/3 inches from the chimney. Any further and you get ugly reflections of other stuff on the deck in the shot.

 

PT is posting some more shots of the same session below.

The one above shows you how difficult it is to get a decent shot with this wide perspective. I did not like this one because the model itself was in it. Also the light was very difficult. In this one I was on the floor, camera pointing up, trying not to get myself in the shot. Relection is all woods here.

This one is better. You can actually see the edge of the chimney here (left). The grey-brown reflection on the right is the floor of the deck.

This one is my second favorite from this shoot. Position was about the same as the previous one, and the shot was desaturated. I was a bit torn between the shot posted and this one. I am not sure whether we can post multiple shots for the same shooting in the same assignment category?

 

Anyway, here I really like the dreamy look of the whole shot. Comments welcome!

 

-- Chimney PT

Yes, I like your 2nd choice too, but it is not nearly as good as #1. The nose becomes too distorted and the wisp of hair is too distracting.

like the original and the laughing shot ... maeant to comment earlier but distracted by others. nice to see the story behind the shot

 

ps is this the absynth lady from a prev shot??

Yes, it's the same girl as in the Absynthe shot. This PT likes blurry shots (darn, that's a giveaway!).

 

This one has been archived, so PT is attaching it again. It was shot for an assignment "green" (Oct 2003). It's a portrait taken through a bottle of absynthe.

 

Enjoy!

Thanks PT for showing us a range of shots that you took using reflections on this drain pipe. I find it interesting to see how different they are from each other.

 

To be totally honest, I'm not particularly fond of the original version, but I can't really express why in a way that could be useful to PT. Sorry. The nearest I can get to it is that the hand and nose remind me of the way kids deform their noses up (by flattening them on a window for ex) to look like pigs ... sorry, not a useful photographic comment...

 

Of all the photos shown, my preference would go to the B&W version (although I do find the nose too dominant, the hair is good and what I like about it is there's blur but also some definition too) and secondly the laughing one with the green background (simple joy, clearly shown, but less of the bright shoulder might be better).

 

Others seem to be very fond of this, so I guess it's just a personal thing - nothing "wrong" with the photo.

 

PS We'll all have to watch out as both Peter and Liv seem to have such a good eye for recognising the models (this one and Damien).

I like it, PT. It is visually vague and yet speaks quite clearly to the emotions. The distortion reminds me of the emotional aspect of Being - as compared to the rationalist's desire for sharpness and everything to be squared away much like a visual balance sheet. Through lack of the obvious, one has to interpret this image artistically, that's an excellent way of speaking from the soul.

I like the original image and crop. Simple, and elegantly grotesque.