landscape A Raven in the Window

This was taken in the ruins of an old burned out house. This is another

combined image and again not sure what catagory to put it in.

 

Thanks for looking.

Excellent capture Linda. Love the colors and textures. Well done....sincerely, Gail

Very good capture, Linda. Would have cropped a bit tighter - but that is mho only.

Usually your work is so outstanding that I can't offer one possible iota of constructive criticism. However, on this one I have a few suggestions. First.....it's an amazing shot....very serendipitous and cooperative of this raven to land right there for you! :-) I love that corner and the diagonal line running under the window over to the corner. And although I like this in color (that bit of orange especially) and the texture of the stone wall, when I tried this in black and white the raven jumped out more prominently. And I guess that's what I'd most like to see. Right now the raven could be more distinguishable from the background IMO. So I also think a tighter crop might work better. This reminds me of a picture taken by a friend of mine....Barry Lively (a new member here at PN). He took a picture of an old camper trailer with the windows broken out, and a cardinal decided to perch on the window.....similar to this. Here's the link: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=10784917

I really love this, but I think I could love it even more with a few tweaks. :-)

I'm still trying to pronounce "Serendipitous" after Christals comment : - )

 

But seriously I like the dark broody nature of the image. After being an avid reader of Edgar Alan Poe when I was in my more impressionable years, Ravens have always reminded me of "Tales Beyond The Grave" and such like, they are like an embodiment of impending doom, a dark sinister sentinel of the after life. But hey thats just my imagination working overtime. I like the image and the rough textured setting of the walls, I think Christals Idea of B & W could actually accentuate what I described above, I'd like to see it too.

Nice work Linda!

 

Kind Regards

 

Alf

Alf.......Ser-en-dip-i-tous..... :-) (a big smile). Had to tell you that I was a huge Poe fan in my younger days as well.....haven't read anything by him in years, but I once had to memorize 'The Raven'....Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore". Can't help but think of that seeing this picture. And Linda, the first time I saw a raven was at the Tower of London, and they were monstrous! We have huge crows around here, but they look like babies by comparison.

 

Having lived in western Canada for over thirty years I have come to think of the Raven as a powerful totem, a protector and spirit guide, more so than Poe's raven. In Haida mythology the raven brought the Sun to mankind, and in so doing became a symbol of light.

 

Haida Creation Story:

 

"One of the most famous stories that the Haida tell is the story of Raven. The story begins during a time when there was only water and the sky above. There was no earth, only a single reef that came out of the water. All of the great beings lived on top of this reef. The greatest of the beings lived on highest point of the reef. Next to him were all the others stretched in a row. Finally at the end was the weakest of the great beings. The great flying being, Raven, flew above but couldn't find a place to land. He decided that he would travel to the sky country instead.

 

In the sky country, there was a town that was set up in five rows. In the town, the chief's daughter had a baby. During the night, Raven entered the chief's house, scooped the baby out of its skin and took its place, becoming Raven Child. Then Raven Child began to get hungry, so he took an eye from everyone in the first row of the village and ate them all. He did this for four more nights with each of the other rows in the village. A woman made of stone saw everything that was happening, and she told the sky people about it. The chief of the town called everyone together and sang a song for Raven Child. One of the people was holding Raven Child in his cradle and dropped him. He fell down though the sky and drifted on the water.

 

Suddenly Raven Child heard a voice say, "Your grandfather is going to let you in." He stepped out onto a two-headed totem pole made of stone and he found he could climb up and down it. He climbed down and found a house at the bottom. He entered the house and found a man that looked like a seagull. The man said to Raven Child, "Put this speckled stone in the water first and the black one next. After you do this, bite off a piece of each and spit it out. You will see them unite and become one." Raven Child did as he was told. When the two pieces came together they began to appear as trees. He put them in the water and they stretched and became the land called Haida Gwaii.

 

After this, Raven Child was able to make many things. When the great waters had gone down, Raven Child summoned four groups of human beings. One of the groups of human beings was the Haida.

 

We learn from this oral tradition that the Haida believe in a world that lives above them, an earth world in the middle, and a world below the earth. The story also tells us that the trees and land are sacred to the Haida. The Raven is also sacred. He is a trickster who is greedy and mischievous, but who also teaches humans how to live a good life. The Raven has supernatural powers and uses them to obtain important things for humans. He stole the sun, moon and stars for humans, as well as giving them fresh water, salmon and fire. When the Haida look at their country, they understand the story of Raven. His creation is all around them."

 

from Library and Archives Canada

 

Reading your comments I realized how I look at ravens quite differently now than I did when I was growing up in the east. I thought you might find the Raven Creation Story interesting.

 

Gail, thank you!

 

El, thank you too!

 

Christal, you are very generous. Thank you so much for your thoughts, I always appreciate constructive critiques. I also really appreciate that you took the time and had the interest to experiment with this. I tried this in black and white. I liked it, but I prefer this one and the touchs of orange/red with black. It could be a matter of personal taste. These just happen to be traditional Haida colours. It wasn't thinking about this at all until I started think about the Haida raven and the Poe raven. This was not supposed to be in anyway Haida-like but I am influenced. I love Haida art. I also tried cropping this tighter and you may be right about this. I took close to a hundred images of this basement, also birds, wild horses and other surroundings on Sunday. I think I will play around with some of them a bit more. BTW, this is a combined image. The ravens really weren't co-operating with me. I placed him there. I know that there are a lot of different opinions about combining images, photoshop vs. pure photography. My background is in graphic art so I don't have a problem with manipulation at all. But I know some do, and I respect that. I like to be up front about it, I don't want to seem decietful in any way. I did mention this when I posted it. I am going to take a look at your friend Barry's work, and thank you for telling me about him. Take care.

 

Alf, yes "serendipitous" is a mouthful, but once you get the hang of it, it is fun to say. Thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate you taking the time. I will definitely have to do a little more work with this. Best wishes.

 

 

 

 

Linda,

 

Amazing creative image. I love it. Take care, Patsy

Quoth the Raven, Nevermore, nevermore.

 

 

But I hope there's more. Always more. I think Christal's comment is a good one, although I could envision that any attempt to digitally alter the scene as it is would eradicate the subtlety. Perhaps it's best to leave serendipity unaltered.

Thanks for commenting.

 

First of all....thank you for the Haida story. It spurred me to look up more about the tribe on the Internet. Thanks! And I'm sorry I didn't see up front that you had combined the image....I usually read that info, but I guess I missed it this time. I'm amazed by your PS work, and combined images never bother me (to the contrary, I stand in admiration of those of you who do them so well). BTW, last night at my photo club Becky Brill had wonderful things to say about you. I agree!

The low light, the dark tones, the rough texture of the wall of the burned house, and the raven create Linda an impressive mixture with impact.

………It is a well spotted and creatively presented subject. …..my best regards and many thanks for your kind comment.

 

A powerful image Linda - full of symbolism. I enjoyed your story too!

 

We have both crows and ravens here in Michigan, and I must say this looks more like a crow to me. Ravens here are much scruffier looking about the head and neck, with heavier bills. Perhaps this is just a well groomed specimen :).

 

Best, David

Christal, so you and Becky belong to the same photo club, that is interesting. Thank you for the compliments, you are very kind.

 

Karolos, thank you! I am glad you like it.

 

David, I am often wrong, but I do think this is a raven. Ravens are about 4 times the size of a crow, they have a much larger wingspan. Raven's have a bluish purple tint when the sun hits their feathers. Crows make a sort of squaking "caw" call, while raven makes a deep croaking sound. Crows are comfortable living in urban areas while ravens like the wilderness. The most telling feature for me is the beak. The raven's beak is thicker and it curves down at the tip, a crow has a narrow pointy beak. I attached two poor images where you can really see the difference.

 

 

Thank you all for commenting. It is good to hear from you.

 

Best wishes.

 

 

 

Beautiful shot,well composed and I love your story Linda.

Linda - I checked my field guides, and you're no doubt right that it's a raven, based on the bill size and the down turned shape. It looks like it may have the shaggy throat feathers as well, just not very visible here. Sorry for the ornithological distraction!

 

David

Birte, thank you for stopping by.

 

David, it is easy to confuse them at glance and especially when they are up in tree or flying around. We have a large and varied bird population here and I love watching and photographing them when I can. I don't have the best lens for that right now but sometimes I am lucky. Thanks again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a beautiful capture . The Raven in this small window , Surrounded by textures ................... Just wonderful . Very well composed

I love it. The textures, the richness of the lighting, the cracks, the gesture the raven seems to make with his profile against that really glowing background we see through the window. To me, much of the essence of the photo would be lost in black and white, especially the orange glow on the walls and the stronger spots of orange that punctuate the cracks on the left.

 

Christal suggested that a tighter crop would make the raven stand out. Though that might be the case, I think your wider shot has the potential to make the raven stand out even more strongly. I'm opinionated, for sure, so I'll say that if there were one overall criticism I'd make of many, many photographs, it's that they are often cropped tightly in order to bring out the subject and that usually makes a photo less interesting, even if more focused. Bringing out a subject like this within a larger context or environment seems so much more compelling to me and gives a sense of world and of space that is I find more intriguing to look at. As long as I'm doling out opinions, I'd say if you felt the raven was getting a little lost or could be brought out more, and I think Christal has a point here, I'd try deepening the value of the entire foreground wall . . . it could be a bit mysterious without losing its glow. I think, then, the raven would pop a bit and the wall beyond the window back there would glow even more than it already does, even its levels could be upped slightly against a deepening of the foreground. Might not be what you had in mind and might change this too much for your taste and for what you wanted to achieve, but I think it would be a more compelling solution than cropping any part of this away.

Terrific image - congrats - interesting also to read all of the comments.

thank you for your thoughts on this. This is the basement of a very old house, I’d guess 60 – 80 years, that had burned down. I don’t have the history which really added to the mystery for me. There was such a heavy atmosphere of sadness here. The orange/red goo that was seeping out of the walls looked like something toxic, or spattered blood and this was the main reason I didn't go for black in white in the final analysis. I have played around with this quite a bit and tried different crops. This is the one I liked the best at the time. I think I will come back to it later and try a fresh approach using your excellent suggestion. I know exactly what you are talking about from your work, how you often have your main subject as part of a larger environment. You have had some amazing results with this. Thanks again.

Thank you! It's good to hear from you.