Universe In A Puddle

Wow Lutz this is a truly magical image - all yor photos are fantastic - exactly what I like, thank you so much for your comments, I am really proud that you have added me to your list of interesting people - you rock!

Striking and unusual!!!

That is cool

I like the reflection here.. great work.. superb idea !=))

 

Cheers

 

Patrick J

superb, very original!

Great idea!!

Very original and interesting!

Thanks a lot everybody for your enthusiastic response! I'm happy that you could relate so well to my vision.

Picture This is a small community of photographers on Photo.net who are dedicated to improving their photographic and critique skills by shooting images to assignment and providing structured critiques.

 

We have chosen this image for critique as we feel it fits one of our current themes - 'Night'. Members have been invited to visit this image and express their opinions about its aesthetic, artistic and technical merits.

 

Best regards

 

PT Focalizers

A little more space is needed at left imo, there appears to be a slightly transparent border... perhaps if this was removed it would allow a little more "room" for the puddle to "breathe".

 

Really an original shot of the moon, though I've seen the "puddle" concept before - this is done very well.

 

5/6. Regards,

As if the moon has fallen down in the deep black water (say Lago di Como :-)) leaving behind a trail of bright water drops or Earth has jumped up in the deep night sky followed by a "cloud" of star dust. Magical, striking, unusual, and cool, as said above. I'd add - a brilliant illustration to the Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" song: "The lunatic is in my head..." This lunatic mood provoked by the image is what makes it original. A little more space to the left, as Matt proposed, is, maybe, better. Beautiful work, Lutz. Regards. Blago

 

Rich image of night, clear but dreamy. Opens a window in the imagination through which one may dream. The simplicity is striking. The puddle holds the form of a continent on a map.

One needs to be sharp to see these on the ground - well captured.

I've looked at this one a fair bit and like the idea but do find the execution lets is down a bit.

 

As mentioned already, it could do with some more space on the LHS to do justice to the outline of the puddle. The centred position of the moon also spoils the image somewhat and there are a lot of dark areas that don't have anything to keep me interested, the upshot is to keep drawing me to the moon like a moth when i really want to explore the 'stars'. I wonder if a square format/crop, with the moon off centre, might have worked better to balance the image and avoid this? The exposure is good and catches the starlight effect well, although you obviously lose detail in the moon because of this (at least I assume it is the moon and not a torchlight - lack of detail you see!!). As you shot this on film, I wonder if there is detail there that might be recovered in PS? If not, then i think you have made the best compromise possible with the exposure.

 

Overall, it is a great idea but I think could be improved by a different composition and if, possible, more highlight detail.

 

Cheers

Thanks for considering my picture for your initiative. I didn't know about you and have learned quite a bit now by examining "your profile"... ;-) I love constructive criticism and like to add mine whenever time allows for it. I basically hang around the Leica Forum, though. I know, that's a bit restrictive as far as quality pics goes ;-), but we have a community there, well, sort of - so, there's a chance that criticism is well received and digested.

As far as the "Puddle" is concerned, let me add a few hints. There's little I could have done (nor wanted to do) as far as details in the highlights are concerned - neither as far as the "moon" nor as the "stars" go. The picture should actually have qualified for a "Day For Night" theme: what you are looking at is the sun and its reflections as caused by pebbles and the structure of the tarmac around the puddle. I think the exposure is pretty spot on, mostly by relying on the built in meter and sensing that it would "fail" well enough...;-)

As far as composition is concerned, I can in a way see your point. We are so much used to reading pictures as we do books, i.e. from left to right, that the frame seems to be cutting off the first "letter" of the sentence, so to speak. Well, this is due to the fact that I decided that turning the picture by 180 degrees would give a better effect ("opening the sky" by inverting the perspective). The way it was originally composed in shooting would have left the usual space to the left. BTW, since this is just a quick and dirty scan on a Kodak Photo CD from a framed slide, there's a good chance that I might find some more space on the original film.

All in all, this picture is the product of the playful approach to photography which I pursued at age 17. Sometimes I wish I could get it back somehow. I find digital P&S an interesting tool to regain that sort of naivety necessary.

Have fun!

I can't add much in the way of constructive critique to what others have said already. But I do like this very much - a very creative way of seeing/showing a puddle!

I am very late to this, therefore I can't add something sensible, I like it very much. I have learned a lot from the comments.