looking back 2

Another attempt at working with light and self portraits...Comments

welcome.

Like this shot - a little dark for me but a great idea. I like the overall tone. Regards Steve

Steve...I wanted to keep the lighting moody, as it would be in an old oil pinting. Thanks for your comment and opinion....

Technically not great - but your ideas are really fantastic.

 

Brian...any suggestions on the technical aspect?

original and interesting.

Sorry I had missed your earlier message about the effect you wanted to achieve- my apologies.

 

The question is - or the reality is that there is a GREAT photo to be captured from this idea/concept. This is a good photo.

 

But it is not a great photo.

attractive photo. interesting concept. well done.

If I were shooting it - I'd remove the jewelry - lower you / or raise you, to either cover or expose fully, the rose .... and have you wear a top and earrings similar to the painting ...

Disque...thanks for stopping by.

 

Brian...In your mind, what would make it a great photo? I have some ideas, but am interested in hearing yours.

 

Allen...thank you for taking time to comment.

 

Ken...thank you. I was going to ask you specifically to give me your opinion, because I respect your ability to shoot still lifes. It was a whim, and a progression from standing in front of it, to reaching up to it, to deciding the shirt I was wearing was distracting. I agree that raising me higher might work (although I didn't mind the rose in my hair....), and removing the jewelry. I don't own the top any longer, and I think the earrings are in my crate coming from the US...it might be worth exploring the subject more.

 

I did decide to shoot "up" to give more of a sense of the height of the picture.

I understand the Landscape format but think it would be intersting to see this in portrait format with the painting much higher so you are really reaching up to it. Shot back far enough to catch the full frame on the painting and perhaps as low as to your waist. I like the effect of you having no shirt. It seems to portray a feeling that the inner you is envious of the beauty captured in the portrait and is struggling to achieve that beauty in life. -Anthony

Not true by the way! :)

Linda, I am not sure that I would agree that this is not a great photograph because it does the one thing that I feel that a great photograph must do; it communicates. I had grasped the message of the title long before I looked at the title.

 

Please do not take offense, but at first glance, because of the length and the part in your hair the sex of the subject is not absolutely clear. It can almost be read as either so I don't know that sexual identity if paramount because without the title it gives some additional mystery to the message.

 

It is not clear from the image and would possibly be difficult to portray whether or not the subject is the lady in the painting, which also gives some ambiguity to the image without the title. I wish I could positively identify what it is about the image that conveyed the "looking back" message prior to my reading the title. Maybe it comes from the wedding ring.

 

I am debating perspective. I would have been tempted to correct the verticals, but that changes the viewpoint. It would be a debate as to whether the lower viewpoint or a more straight on viewpoint would be most effective. There again, correcting perspective might have cut into the essential elements, which I would not want to do. A debate point.

 

I like the warm darkness. It is like the veil that comes between reality and fond remembrance, not always as easy to see through as clearly as we would sometimes like.

 

As far as approaching the image using the same clothing and earrings, that I do not agree with because it removes two important elements. First it removes the sense of a passage of time. In the same clothing the painting could have been finished and hung today. Secondly, nudity, or the implied nudity here, in this type of image always seems to convey a sense of the baring of ones soul, an honesty, a stripping away of the subterfuge as in searching for a truth that I think is an essential element of this image. We want to know what the subject is seeing in the painting. Is it a loss of an earlier youth or beauty, a lost love, a departed friend, lover, family member or is it a search for self, confirmation of being.

 

What I love most about this image is the glint on the wedding ring. That is so conspicuous that it definitely puts marriage as an important element but still leaving the mystery of how marriage ties into the subjects thoughts about the painting.

 

Can you tell that I love this image? The only thing that would improve this image, IMO, is if you were older, fatter, or more wrinkled; none of which I would wish on you. So, consider redoing this image in about fifty years. Cheers, Gary

 

Anthony and Gary....THANK YOU. I do do appreciate detailed comments of how an image 1) affects the viwer and 2) can be improved in some way. In reality, this portrait was painted 2 years ago, when I first visited Australia, and now I am back here to live. My husband Roger, arranged to have the painting done, and so yes, the wedding ring is important to the story...not only in that respect, but the fact that we met (through PN) and married has turned my whole world upside down in those past two years....

 

What was started as an excercise in self portraiture, became an instinctual statement of where I am....and who I am becoming. A rebirthing.

 

The jewelry...the wedding ring is important for the above reasons. The simple bracelet is a gift. It says "friend" on it and was given to me by one of my dearest. Friends left behind in New England, are also part of this story....

 

PS The artist of the portrait is Dudley Drew, a very talented Australian painter...

Thanks for the story behind this image, Linda. I really like it ... and really like that I can see your face in the portrait, and know that it's you. You did achieve that painting dark mood that you were looking for.

Okay, I know that Gary debated changing the verticals. But I was tempted beyond my control. I'm not real good with photoshop ... but this looks a bit easier for me. I think that if it weren't for the lines in the wall, it wouldn't bother me....

... my next thought ... or just get rid of the lines. That way you keep the perspective.

 

And now, I need to go eat breakfast, or you'll see 15 more changes to your already great image. :-)

Well this one has stimu;ated a lot of discussion! My main comment would be to make the composition assymetric. This would tend to emphsise the connection between the present and past Lindas. But it might not be what you were aiming for in some other direction sch as the rebirth idea.

Love the concept here for sure and the original. I like the idea of doing this again when your hair is grey and you are all wrinkled. Nice painting, by the way, and very thoughtful of Roger to have it done.

Clever idea, and the tonality of and old master is also clever, only thing I would really change is adjustment so that skin tones would not be the same as the wall, (very minor adjustment).

Thank you all for your opinions, and revisions, and suggestions. Photography is so subjective and personal and even more so for a self portrait. This has been a great learning experience for me, in many ways.

 

Addressing some specifics...

Lou Ann re: your revisions...I think the straightened lines are more to my liking than the elimination. I like the original upward orientation better, though.

 

Colin...the assymmetry is a valid point, from a compositional viewpoint. But I guess I am trying to achieve balance in my life (smile)

 

Kim....thoughtful is only one of the many fine qualities that Roger possesses...

 

John....I see your point. Care to visit with a paint brush?

 

 

Thanks. Happy New Year to you and Roger as well. May 2007 be your best year ever! Regards, Howard

 

BTW: Great photo.

i love this portrait. the painting is so romantic, and in it you appear to be dreaming of future adventures. and here you are looking back to that day. since your face is not visible, we have to take our clues about what you might be thinking from what we can see. there seems to be some tension in the arms, and they are beyond the frame of the portrait, not holding it. i wonder what that means....

growing...:-)