Hanging Out the Red

It's been suggested that we shoot locally to improve our work.

This color splash was captured in a neighborhood park while

Bernie - my border collie - and I went for a walk. At this moment,

stopping by the trees was to record this image. As always I

appreciate your comments. Thanks in advance for taking your

time to view and comment on this image. Best to you all. Larry

Larry, this is an interesting photograph but one that is very difficult to critique. Lacking a specific point of interest makes the entire image the point of interest and therefore it seems to be more of an abstract or design photograph rather than a nature photograph. If there is a statement it is not about a specific element of the woods but rather about the complexity of the woods in the fall. There is a very nice play of lights and darks and of colors against each other. So I believe it is a photograph that would be very successful matted and framed. Among the things that I look for in a photograph are elements to do not add to the statement of the image, things that should not have been included within the frame. In carefully examining this photograph I do not find a single element that should be removed to strengthen the image. Personal opinion, beautifully done.

Gary,  

I agree with you.  Thanks for your honest critique.  I took this with a new high end point and shoot on a walk with my dog.  The splash of red and contrast of colors caught my eye.  But, you are right; there's no focal point or theme.  I am glad I posted this because your comment evokes critical thinking about image taking.  Thanks again, Larry

Larry, thank you for the reply. I am pleased to see someone else that is enjoying a point and shoot. I have a fairly nice arsenal of cameras and lenses but I greatly enjoy shooting with my pocket P&S.

It is not easy to make an interesting photograph without a focal point but I honestly believe that you have achieved it extremely well in this image. Actually, before I wrote the critique I browsed your portfolio. You have five or six image along this same line—the leaves in this same folder and Splash and I forget the name of the other one in your flowers folder. Actually even your pumpkins in this folder qualify. The pumpkins I personally do not find as successful but I find them interesting because they give an insight into the way that you see photographs.

I can appreciate Gary's well observed comments and agree with them for the most part. What I found about the larger view is that it lost some of the afore mentioned abstract qualities and become very 3 dimensional, in fact to such a degree that it gave me great sense of being there amongst that very colourful vegetation, not an unpleasant sensation I have to add. 

As for point and shoot camera's, I usually find them too small and light for my bulky awkward fingers to control properly, but with all the equipment I carry with my D700 I find I miss a lot of spontanous opportunity for a good photo, so any suggestion for a P & S that has a good image control and doesn't get lost in my hands would be appreciated?

Nice work Larry!

Best Regards

Alf

Alf and Gary,  

My, I am learning from this innocent post.  Gary, thanks for perusing my portfolio.  Thank you both.

Alf, about the p&s, the size business is a reality, but you may want to look at the Panasonic Lumix Lx5.   It's a nice little camera. It shoots in Camera Raw.  It's fully adjustable with regard to mode, aperture, shutter speed, iso, etc.  Also, it has a Leica lens that opens to the equivalent of 24mm in 35mm terms and zooms to a medium length.  Minimum lens opening is f/8.0.  This must be due to the type of lens and the p&s construction.  It doesn't seem to be an issue.  The sensor is a bit larger than on some comparable cameras.  I find it quite sharp.  The grip on the right side helps to compensate for its smallness and lightness, but this is no heavy DSLR. The downsides I've noticed are that it does not have a case (I use a felt cloth bag for lightness.)  Also, because it's off the common brands like Nikon and Canon, it is not compatible with camera raw below version 6.0 or 6.1.  or CS5. It is compatible with Camera Raw in CS5. It does come with its own editing program, but I prefer sticking to Photoshop. Also, my Epson 3000 storage reader is not able to display the images, although they are backed up to the drive, so images are not lost.  I don't know about UK prices, but it sells for about $365 US at B&H, down from an original list of nearly $500 US.

Thanks again.   Larry

That is very useful and practical information, it sounds quite impressive and not overly expensive. Sincere Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post it. It definately sounds worthy of further investigation.

Best Regards

Alf

Very high quality discourse on this image and I am not planning to add any more. There are a few of us looking for P&Shoot cameras but my quest is to have one more for the social times (birthday party, etc) so I suppose pretty much any 'decent' P&S will do. I have been looking at Sony.

Larry thanks for your recent comments.

I just learned recently that the name associated with these red leaves which are plentiful around where I live is "sumac".  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac

Hi Tony,  Thanks for your comment.  Yes, sumac is quite common here. It grows like a weed and spreads all over, but is beautiful in the fall. My guess is that it's also common in southern Quebec as we are at about the same latitude.   Best wishes for the holidays and New Year.  Larry

Love the red color with the yellow background.  Well composed.  Best regards,