Trompe L'Oeil

Trompe L'Oeil means in French 'mistake of the eye'. See if you can

decipher the story of this street capture taken recently and figure out

what is 'real' and what is not. 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

excellent, bravo

It's a different concept.

 

I'm glad you 'got' it or at least appreciated.

 

It was bound to be disliked by some Luddites (know nothings) because it breaks certain so-called 'rules', but for me it's very successful.

 

Maybe 'gonzo' photography?

 

John (Crosley)

Very interesting usage of a seen effect

A car in the street, a car in the mirror, some cars painted on the side of the street in a very clever and original composition, congratulations John, Regards -wm

Wow!

 

You got it correctly and really perfectly understood it, exactly as I saw it, and saw my reason for my posting it, without my having to 'explain' it or comment on it at all, though it's a trifle obscure for this venue.

 

Not that it takes a 'genius' in photography to 'understand' such a photograph, but sometimes more complex photos on Photo.net go wanting while sometimes more simple (but expressive) photos get raves.

 

One can wonder sometimes about why, but it's criticisms and critiques like yours, and suddenly finding your hitherto unfamiliar name in these comments, a rare treat for me.

 

Thank you for the endorsement for this photo AND for letting me know.

 

It's a one of a kind, of course -- there will be no others -- but it's my kind of photo.

 

(I can't foresee a series of photos, for instance, in which my vehicle plays a part in the photo, but here it seemed ''perfect' and was far preferred to just taking a photo of a building wall with mural, which I never would have posted, or the same wall with passerby, which I also took but did not consider posting, though interesting.

 

I''m glad you have enjoyed it.

 

John (Crosley)

Of course, being appreciators of this photo, you both noticed how the lines of the mirror are extended into the street by extension lines -- the long shadow lines and/or the criss-cross of the lines marking the parking space across the street, and how the extension of the lines drawn along the top and bottom of the mirror intersect with the opposite curb line to perform a 'zig' and even define a triangle.

 

Now I'm not an aficionado of finding geometry everywhere, but I especially DO look for triangles within compositions, because I find them particularly dynamic. I notice many photographers (myself included, even here) will place a line's beginning at a corner of the frame -- just as I'm placed the mirror's corner the frame's corner, which begins the process of bisecting on a diagonal the entire rectangle of the frame. It adds dynamism of one can extend that line partially or wholly across the frame.

 

It is not required or always desirable, but sometimes it can greatly aid a composition, and I think it starts to accomplish that purpose here.

 

I think this is one 'composition' in which things just 'hold together' almost as if by magic and where I get the inspiration to take such a hitherto unthought of or unexpected photo, no one knows (least of all me, until I'm sitting right there with my magic camera.

 

Looking through the viewfinder (or even looking, knowing I will have a viewfinder in my hands in a minute or so) seems to unlock some hidden part of my psyche that I'm trying to get in better touch with -- so I can explain how a photo like this comes into being. Of course, there's the 3/4 rater who just doesn't understand that this is even a photo, but that's for another day . . . some people just don't 'get things' sometimes.

 

That's their prerogative.

 

I post not for the rates, but for the joy of taking a photo like this and having even a few (like you two) understand and appreciate such a photo -- (as well as others like you).

 

[don't get me wrong, I LOVE high rates, but if I'm getting them for wrong reasons, I've been known to say so and even to e-mail a person who rates higher than deserved and ask them please to reduce their rates to conform more to reality . . . because I don't need undeserved flattery.]

 

John (Crosley)

 

P.S. by the way, I positioned my car very carefully for this composition, moving it backward and forward carefully until I got it 'just right' and with trepedidation -- that's a patrol vehicle for the local constabulary in my rear view, who might have cited me (given me a 'ticket') for 'backing against traffic, except that there really was no traffic moving on that street at that time -- still if a cop doesn't like a photographer, they can make life tough, if you know what I mean.

 

JC (amending comment)

I didn't know in which of many folders to put this when I posted it; but I had marked it 'street' and it is 'street' in many senses.

 

But it also is in my view' fine art' so for now, I've posted it also in my 'industrial and other' 'fine art' folder.

 

If you see a different place you think it belongs, please let me know either by e-mail or by comment here.

 

I'm interested in anybody's view, whether from someone who's previously commented on this or not.

 

John (Crosley

your words are very interesting, I understand also with my ridicoulous english...

Pay attention to the composition is not only a style's exercise, but have to be, as here in your photo, a way to give more to the pic. For istance here the shadows and the lines you talked about needs to join the street and the murales, giving the idea ao a magig wiorld. Also the grey tones, similar on the wall and on the street, works for this. again, bravo, i love a lot to see good photos.

Yes, the idea is a 'magic world' where reality blends into the 'artistic' and the demarcation is difficult to determine. Just my kind of photo.

 

It is just one of my photos -- I take all kinds of interesting photos -- so many of them are entirely different.

 

I search for perfection in nearly all of them.

 

Or at least something interesting, if not perfection.

 

And if not that to find something unique.

 

As here.

 

I'm glad you came back.

 

(You are right about all else.)

 

John (Crosley)

Interesting picture and discussion ;D

 

greetings Els

Glad to see you around.

 

Also glad to see this has piqued your interest.

 

Mine also.

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

i quite like it, a lot to see on that picture, if you understand what I mean..

 

are you sure you could not play with the curves or contrast more?

 

good shot!

 

denis

I surely could play with contrasts/curves, etc. much more, but I kind of wanted part of it to look 'hokey' a little. Artist's choice, but then if you have a workup you'd like me to see, have at it. Just post it with a comment, and big enough to 'see' clearly. Maybe both an in-line version and as an 'attachment'.

 

Maybe I'll like your version better. Now I couldn't post it as my own work (that's forbidden by PN terms of use), but if you tell me how you get there, I can replicate it, or adapt it to my taste.

 

Frankly I just used shadow/highlight filter after developing this from NEF (raw) and making adjustments mostly in NEF. I did VERY LITTLE work to it at all.

 

You are right, there's 'quite a lot to see', and I do know what you mean.

 

It surprised even me how well it worked out as a photo; just another 'chance shot' that has taken on new meaning as 'art'.

 

Sometimes photography's like that. You take dozens of shots that you think might be 'good' or maybe even 'very good' then take a 'trifle' and it turns out to be 'remarkable' because (as here) it's quite original in concept if nothing else.

 

Thanks very much for your comment.

 

John (Crosley)

This is another instance in which the use of 'three' has crept into a scene, however unintentionally.

 

The black-framed mirror (with part of black auto depicted therein), the distant 'real' auto parked on the center right at the curb and the jalopy with flames all are black objects and central to this composition and each represents a compositional element.

 

Moreover as 'black' or mostly black objects, they define a triangle if one were to draw an imaginary line between them, and as noted elsewhere in my portfolio, a triangle is the most stable geometrical figure for construction, but for simple figures, the most dynamic visually and implies tension -- as one follows the points which define a triangle, one's eye is lead around a photo, which keeps the viewer's eye 'on the photo'.

 

The longer a viewer studies a photo, generally the more 'interesting' the photo, and however a photographer keeps that interest there, the more the viewer is likely to be absorbed in the photo and the photo to be a success. (brief summary and not an exhaustive treatise by any means).

 

I have a Presentation, older by now, of 'threes in my photography' into which this will go when PN adds thumbnails to Presentation making software, to make them easier to create and manipulate, as it is a major challenge to work with a Presentation with a portfolio of over 1,100 photos and only titles to go by to choose the photos that are added, subtracted and minimally moved.

 

John (Crosley)

This unique photo may raise one question in the viewer's mind.

 

Where was the photographer?

 

A close examination should resolve it (I had to rethink it myself).

 

I was in the vehicle, at the parking side of the street, but in a 'no parking' zone, if I recall correctly.

 

I was seated at the driver's side, and focusing from inside to the outside of the vehicle. That's why there's no reflection of photographer and/or camera in the vehicle's rear-view mirror.

 

And, as I think is explained above, that is a parking enforcement officer from the local constabulary ticketing cars coming up behind -- the square-looking vehicle in the rear-view), and I'm in a 'no parking' zone, so you can imagine that this is the last frame before I took off outta there. ;~))

 

This is yet another example of why sometimes one has to practice 'speed photography' -- get the frame and get it right, then get outtta there.. (or get a ticket . . . . or at the very least have an unwanted conversation about why a ticket should not be issued.)

 

John (Crosley)

Please excuse me for overlooking your comment; it was inadvertent.

 

Yes, I thought at the time I took this, 'whatever am I going to do with a photo like this . .. . it's so unlike anything I've ever seen done?' . . . and then went ahead and took it (along with several others, not quite so good).

 

The answer is that you just take the photo, even if it's not in your 'genre' then later figure out what to do with it.

 

Some very famous photographers have had specialities or areas of interest, who gained fame in those areas of photography, and when they were established, it turned out were much more multi-dimensional as photographers than people gave them credit for.

 

They would show other, different photos than anybody had ever expected.

 

Bruce Davidson was a small-camera man, or so people thought.

 

Then he hauled a view camera into people's homes in East 100th Street, Manhattan for stunning family portraits in situ and made a world class book from his work.

 

I don't like to get pigeon-holed too easily, though 'street' is my first love, so I'm not averse to being thought of as a 'street' photographer.

 

It's just that my talents run in more than one direction.

 

Please excuse this late response to your nice post.

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)