Boat Braces in Color

These interesting colored pieces of wood are mounted atop long metal

poles, then placed against boat hulls to stand boats upright for work

inside a boatyard in a California harbor. They are called 'boat

braces' and are shown here exactly as workmen left them after

launching a boat and putting the braces aside. Your ratings and

critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

I very much like the combination of colors and textures. The background at the top I find a little distracting and my preference would be to try to clone the chairs? out.

Except in the most extreme cases, I don't clone -- I save that for emergencies and the very rare case where a stray bit of info sends a 7/7 into a 3/3 or some such.

 

Here, this is a boatyard and it's full of boatyard things.

 

I imagine that this is the sort of photo one sees in, say, a Nikon brochure, where they are trying to show the vast range of captures one can take with one of their cameras -- 'look, it says, this guy who takes 'street' photos, also can take wonderful colours with boat braces'.

 

But I don't clone things out -- one reason I'm usually a tight cropper.

 

I learned a while ago, while preparing my Presentation, 'Photographers: Watch Your Background (have you seen it - it's the longest on Photo.net and still isn't finished?), that sometimes contextual information is called for, and sometimes it absolutely is demanded.

 

In this case, few know what these 'things' are in the foreground, however pleasing they are and their arrangement (I could have made it better by 're-arranging them -- what some people call 'groundskeeping' but then I also don't 'make' or 'arrange' my 'captures' or they wouldn't be 'captures' -- they would be 'still life arrangements' -- products of my imagination rather than scenes or things I 'recognized, which is what this is).

 

I kept in the above benches/braces/tool stands to add context, to show that this was a boat yard and not somebody's back yard, and thus to say to others who might look that this indeed was taken in a different place -- someplace not familiar to many others, but one certain people could figure out.

 

Cloning or too tight cropping would have made that more difficult or even impossible.

 

Those are my reasons, and I'm stickin' to 'em.

 

It's not my greatest photo, but I like it nonetheless.

 

If I had the freedom to scour the boatyard for all these coloured plywood boat braces and to arrange them myself, I am sure I could come up with a stunning arrangement, but then I'm not into Japanese art -- the art of 'arranging'.

 

I'm in the 'art' of 'finding' and 'presenting' my 'finds', as 'found' -- and almost a purist that way (who knows what I'd do if someone were paying me big bucks to come home with stunning captures -- and how 'ethical' I'd be then . . . . ;~))

 

Thanks for your personal solution and the intelligent comment.

 

John (Crosley)

Very clean image, great composition.

Not my 'usual' . . . . but I like the Rennaissance ideal . . . .

 

John (Crosley)

Looks like the triangles in the background are getting ready to fight the rectangles in the foreground. ;)

 

There is something captivating about the layout of the braces here. Perhaps it is the overlapping way in which they are stacked up, touching each other like a group of teammates hugging each other. After all there is a hint of intimacy here suggested by the semicircling formation. On second thought, maybe the appeal originates from the well captured colors and textures that pack such a punch.

I may have been, however briefly, in that boatyard 30 or more times and never saw boat braces placed together in any attractive way, so when I did, I resolved to 'shoot' them.

 

It was the overlapping of the nearest to the farthest, together with the colors and textures (sort of a rank order, from tallest and nearest to farthest away) that attracted me.

 

I don't think I made a 'world class' composition out of it, but somehow it's (as I said above) got very good color and is the sort of photo that if if you were selling cameras and put out a 'camera company magazine' to showcase interesting and unusual work' you'd probably want to show a work like this -- or maybe I just delude myself.

 

I do rather well with color, when I wish to, although I don't bother too much. I do love color, however, and if I didn't shoot people so well, would be shooting birds and color subjects more.

 

I do like how the D300 renders strong yet subtle colors, even when I post an Adobe color space photo in an sRGB forum, as here (without changing the color space, which I never do . . . shame on me -- being no purist).

 

This one made the changeover rather well, I think. Athough the braces are not 'wet' they do look 'saturated' as though they've recently been 'rained on', don't they?

 

That's the sign of good color saturation (and a good camera sensor and good lens).

 

It's different from anything I've posted lately (but look at earier posts in this folder), and I'm happy to have taken it.

 

I do suggest, Adan W. that you've revealed your bias toward anthropomorphizing things a little in your analysis here. I just see it as several objects -- and don't draw such parallels -- perhaps I should, and I'd then be a better cinematographer and/or literature student.

 

Best to you, and thanks for the thought-provoking comment (as much as discussing 'boat brace' aesthetics can be thought provoking . . . compared to, say a touching photo of 'Nina 82, survivor of the Battle of Stalingrad' . . . .

 

;~)

 

John (Crosley)

There are, Adan, certain patterns that are more or less pleasing to the eye than others.

 

One of those is the 'S' curve because it engages the eye and draws the eye along the path of the 'S'. Generally, the more a photo causes the eye to linger, the more it engages the eye and is seen to be successful.

 

One may imagine a river winding to the sea or anywhere for that matter, as engaging the eye that way, or a road, or any subject such as, say, railway tracks (if properly compressed by a strong telephoto since tracks generally don't make abrupt turns).

 

Another common, and less discussed compositional device is the 'C' curve which performs much the same function, although with a little less appeal.

 

This, surprise, is a 'C' curve, but turned sideways -- shown on the horizontal rather than from the foreground to the background -- the vertical.

 

So, rather than being some novel compositional device, it's just a slightly more novel use of a traditional compositional device -- the 'C' curve, just turned sideways.

 

I think that's why it has such subtle compositional appeal - and that is aided by the relative darkness of the foreground progressing to the brightness in the middle/background boat braces, emphasized by the relative height of the foreground (dark) braces and contrasted by the overlapping of the background braces -- one is very aware that there is a diminution of the farthest away braces, but it's not an exact progression, as the third brade is highere than the second.

 

And, this is a wide angle shot, from up close, rather than a framed telephoto shot - that helps engage the viewer. (Nikkor 17~55 f 2.8)

 

Aha!

 

I finally understand now how to articulate my own photograph, and the compositional devices I used to create this work.

 

Thank you, Adan W. for starting me on the journey to understanding (if not spiritual, at least compositionally for this photo.)

 

It's more complex than I had guessed, and thus pleasing for more reasons than one might comprehend on first glance.

 

John (Crosley)

Delude yourself? Never. Far from it. I can truly see this picture promoting the virtues of a great camera. Thank you for your insightful remarks John. You are a true asset to PN.