Lit

Comments welcome.

Pure beauty in b/w. It was worth waiting...Fine DOF, very interesting background, The flower enjoying the sun. Excellent work.

Beautiful. But this seems so unlike your usual posts. I find it simply inspired, I love the light and the Bokeh.

 

This is an edit, I thought about this for a moment and it came to me, I love all your posts. You have quite the artistic eye. When I said this is unlike you, I meant there seems to be no deeper meaning to this. I can look at it and appreciate it without finding a meaning that touches some aspect of the basic human condition. Those are the images you seem to really master. For me this image, I see the image and I can enjoy simply looking at the image.

Vladimir: Thanks for your thoughts. I actually liked the background more than the flower. Always appreciated!

 

 

Bob: Thanks for such a kind comment. I thought I'd post this photo, taken outside of the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont simply because it was what it was.

Lovely conceptual memorial to 9/11, the single flower basking in sunlight. Bits of light illuminating a pastoral field washed in greys. The flower, a living monument like a sun fountain, on which light commands the attention of the petals, plays on the leaves, and bounces down like drops of water. Your title coupled with this work offers practical advice, as looking for sparks of goodness in what is around us -- man and nature -- can lead to peace and understanding, and it is, of course, spiritual as well. Admirable!

Excellent shot that works perfectly in b&w

Wonderful composition and light. compliments -koushik

Great shot - I really like the feeling of loneliness this flower gives me. Also great light and tones as well!

Beautiful work, Jeff!

As different from Bob....( hi Bob:-))... Light is in every place when you look for it Jeff. I know you look for it in your life, and many of us do. This is a very nice lighted flower on a gray BG. For me it symbolizes both, nature and human two sides. Also your choosing to upload a SUN flower in B/W says some thing very significant for me , even tough you may not a priory think of it .

lovely piece Jeff - quiet elegant and in b&w as it should be. The vanity implicit in all flowers is present but is anti glam here, seen demurely, as in the flowers of Mapplethorpe. Works metaphorically too; the leafs so curiously flat as if an inviting stairway ascending toward the light.

Donna: Yes, 9/11 was weighing on my thoughts when i posted this picture, which as Bob pointed out is a little different direction from my usual shoe-gazing pieces. There's such a natural tendency to focus on the shadows of life, and certainly I have a dysthymic, brooding bent to my own psychology. As photographers, we are always paying attention to and managing light, and I thought it made for a broader statement about our larger state of affairs.

 

 

Alon: Thanks. The color version, pretty as it was, didn't have much punch.

 

 

Koushik: Appreciatively...

 

 

Inger: Interestingly, this flower was one of thousands in a field. Perhaps it didn't know it had company...

 

 

Ruud: Thanks!

 

 

Pnina: One of my best friends died of cancer a few days before 9/11. It was her death and the events of 9/11 that prompted me to pick up the phone and ask Deb out for our first date. I suddenly became aware of how tenuous life is. Many Americans prior to 9/11 lived in a relative dreamworld of safety. We had one huge attack in Oklahoma City in 1995 (amazingly, I almost took an internship in that building that year), but it was seen as a fluke. The world feels different since 2001, scarier and more paranoid. And perhaps we have grown a bit more aware of how the rest of the world feels on a daily basis. There's such a need to look up.

 

 

Carlos: I like to photo flowers, but I rarely post them because pretty as they are, they don't always equate to a meaningful photo, at least in my work. This seemed to have something more, but I 'm not sure what it is. Your critique gave words to it. Thanks.

I generally feel sad when I look at sunflowers. Their heads so often bowed in embarrassment , possessing such a gaudy, gargantuan, overstatement of a bloom. Dwarfed into insignificance by the sun which they try to mimic , while towering over the other blossoms of the late summer landscape -- victims of scale and proportion. This one seems more resolute than most.... proudly holding up its head, despite all.

 

The right hand side from the sharp leaf tip to the edge of the frame would make a terrific vertical composition sans flower.

…If You Find It !

 

Impecabble foto & background. Ciao, Alx

As Carlos alluded to ("demur"), there's a simplicity here that's inviting. But there's also a depth and sophistication, especially in the handling of the background which really does provide a contrast and add to the story here. I agree there is elegance. I'd add "poise." Photographically, the way you've gottent the flower and the outline of the stem and leaves to glow really does energize the photo. Yet there's a subtle energy in the background, highlights, muted bokeh, our ability to make out what's there but as if seeing it through a scrim. Almost as if the flower is on stage in its very own surroundings.

 

Personal taste: This could hang in a gallery, for its sophistication, nuance, and depth. The title, to me, has a more Hallmark character.

Gordon: Hail to the overcoming sunflower, head bent low by the weight of its aspiration, grasping at borrowed brilliance. What a great comment! Worth several rereads.

 

 

Alex: Thanks. Always a joy to hear from you.

 

 

Fred: I appreciate such a great review. Stylistically, this is a bit simpler in look and in reach than some of my recent photos. I agree that the title is pretty lame, but it was a multidetermined decision given the day of the posting. It is a creed of sorts for me, as saccharine as it sounds.

Yikes, Fred, I liked the title. It guided how I viewed this, bringing in the idea of tikkun olam, restoring the world by looking for light, acting in ways that bring in light. It's an interesting way to respond to negativity. Didn't think it was Hallmark. Anyway, Jeff, I agree with Fred: it's gallery-worthy. Truly lovely.

Thanks. Even as I typed the title, I thought it might sound like a bad fortune cookie, too warm and sugary to be real. You were quite astute in connecting the photo and title to the day it was posted. When we visited NYC recently, we stayed close to the 9/11 site. Wandering around the neighborhood in the early morning with camera in hand, the world felt eerie and grim. Last week, hearing all the stories on NPR etc., both Deb and I felt quite sad, revisiting in our minds the events of eight years ago. I suppose it's naive to try to wring light out such a dark experience. But as photographers, light is preeminent.

All I can say is that this picture with its accompanying title is an undeserved grace that has come my way. I am touched. It is another small candle in the darkness. Thanks.

Exquisite b/w image, Jeff. The flower, light, background and DOF are unique. Excellent photograph! Congrats!

Jeff, beautiful composition & caption. Only in Light we are safe, when Darkness rules paramount in the world.A symbolic image, signying aspiration for Light & Life.

Some photogs on this site get annoyed with generic responses like "great shot!" or "nice tones". Hopefully you're not one of those photogs!

 

In case you are, I'll mix it up a bit.....

Nice shot!, Great tones!

Really, just my own personal preference to want to experience photos relatively free of narrative or interpretive guidance. I generally find more room for my own imagination and aesthetic response when an essence or emotional raison d'être has not been spelled out. That's not a rule by any means. Many times, the story of a photo or an informational title will enhance it quite a bit for me. I do think there's a difference between an informational name or explanation and a poetic accompaniment suggesting emotional direction. To be honest, for the most part, I have come to appreciate Jeff's approach to titling his works as an integral part of his creative communication. I started out skeptical a couple of years ago, but allowing myself to see Jeff as an individual and really wanting to accept his as an alternative approach and vision to my own has changed me over time to where I genuinely look forward to seeing the titles accompanying his photographs. As this one struck me in particular, I thought it was worth bringing up. In this case, I saw a flower, a very successfully-achieved glow, a nuanced and layered background with much delight in the shadows. It seemed uniquely photographic and especially non-literal. It reached me emotionally without putting a verbal description to it.

I am curious. Had you not been "guided," as you said, where do you think you would have gone with this photo? Had you not gone either to 911 or to the affirmation of light, would it be any less strong or effective a photo for you?

This is beautiful the way the head gazes into the depths of the background as if a performer on stage composing itself in the light from wherever it is found and welcomed by the crowd of sparkling dew drops in the audience of the field (although the bokeh is likely not dew). The way the leaves are poised and layered is special too.

 

Now, for that title, I wouldn't go as far as saying it is Hallmarkish but maybe it could be on one of those small white billboard trailers with the changeable letters sitting out front of an evangelical born again christian church.

 

Jeff, I wouldn't call this title lame, maybe not your best but I wouldn't have said anything had Fred not brought it up. I, like Fred, think your titles are a very integral part of your images and I think I once pointed out that you could make a living solely naming people's images for them. You do have a way with titles.

 

Fred, what the heck!? What is this "Personally:" thing? Never seen you do that before; so is your interpretation and feeling now not your personal opinion? Just messing with you.

 

Kirk

Jack: A very kind and gracious comment. Thanks.

 

 

David: Thanks for the review. Appreciatively.

 

 

A.K.: Life seems to cycle between patches of dark and light, doesn't it?

 

 

Tim: Dude, thanks for the levity!

 

 

Fred: I know you were responding to Donna, but thanks for coming to appreciate or at least tolerate titles to these photos. Like my photos, not all my titles work and sometimes they don't add, but merely interrupt. I don't always see my titles and photos as going hand in hand. Often, the title is my own impression of a photo, often well after I've worked on it.

 

 

Kirk: When we lived in California, our house was nearby a fundamentalist church that would often have almost comical religious quotes on the sign outside, which would become our mantra for the week. Many were dire warnings about the afterlife. I often wondered whether they thought these "scare the hell out of you and the heaven into you" sayings would pull people in off the streets. This quote is a variation of one from C.S. Lewis who when asked which religion he felt was right, responded with something to say that he affirmed light wherever he found it. It has helped me look for the thread of decency, humanity, and grace that runs through all religions rather than crossing my arms and insisting that my own viewpoint is the end all, be all.