BUMPER CROP

?

interesting treatment. i'd be curious to see the original. i like the combination of items on the fence. a flag, a cross and a wreath. i keep thinking i want to stop and shoot some roadside markers, but never do it.

What I'm hearing is you don't like the processing. It's okay, I don't know if I do.

okay David. i have been trying to figure out what i do think about the processing here. i love it on the sky and memorial. it adds to the bizarre nature of this sort of thing. i think what troubles me is that the green kind of overpowers everything. (i know- i usually love anything green) i want to look at the marker, but the cornfield keeps pulling me away from it. if that is your intention, it works. thank you for challenging me to articulate this.

Perhaps it should have been cropped in such a way as to give more prominence to the monument. Don't know. Perhaps it just isn't worth the effort from the git go. This might be one of those things that just isn't going to translate well into a photo. Thanks for taking your time to think on this one for me.

I hope you don't give up on this one. I think there is a starkness and a scale that you've captured that can be worked with. The things that I see in this image that are striking are the relative vastness and simplicity of the surroundings, the isolation or loneliness of the monument, and the oddity of the way everything comes together. I don't see that your processing speaks to, enhances, or suggests any of those things. It does make everything feel unnatural, but not seemingly in any way in tune with a message or vision. I think, for instance, of how well your treatment of After Space Colonization harmonized with the image.

Perhaps I'll go back and revisit this from the start. In retrospect I can see that if I had had a wide angle it would have worked really well here to get in close and make the monument more prominent and still get some fields and sky.

To be frank I like the original better but I respect the intention behind the processing...but I am tempted to think that in order to achieved the dersired result and respect your intention it would have been better (it can be my taste only I confess) to shoot an original at another time of the day in low light and process it less...but again David you know I respect your way and just give my sincere but personal opinion...

No problem. You've got lots of company on this. I just didn't think it had enough interest as it was, so I tried to spice it up. I won't be back that way for quite some time (if ever) so reshooting is not a possibility. These roadside monuments are a dime a dozen in the U.S., but I like the little piece of fence it was on and the fields were kind of pretty. And I'm always interested in the peculiar blend of patriotism and religion, which too often (IMHO) are so intermixed as to be indistinguishable. But maybe it just isn't going to work. We all have plenty of images that don't turn out. Thanks for the opinion. It is greatly appreciated.

Well that's excatly what I like in the topic, it's social content as you mention....

 

"interested in the peculiar blend of patriotism and religion, which too often (IMHO) are so intermixed as to be indistinguishable"...

 

it's just that I think the over- or complex processing makes the message less audible where simplicity let it shout by itself so increadibly for the viewer to put his own feeling...

Very well stated. Thank you.

I think the treatment is OK. Not spectacular, but OK. I think it's the brown sky that makes it "OK" to my taste (in other words, I'm not sold on the brown sky). I wish the photo was brigher - it's quite dark. It's an interesting combination of objects. Good vision, though. Cheers, Micheal

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Basically I would have to say it was a failure. The concepts I tried to portray are still valid, it's just that I was not very successful in passing along those ideas in a manner that excited anybody. But, on the bright side, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Eh, mate?

Dave. And as a bonus it brought you lively discussions.