matthew macroberts

This is one of my favorite photos. It shows the hope and future of

Afghan women.

Great eye and use of color to isolate the subject while still letting him fade out of the image - a good use of a bright color to isolate the neutral colors of a military subject... On a personal note, I have recently worked with the Romanian Army and find they were a great group of guys.

Great job!

Taken for publication about the plight of orphans in remote villages

of Afghanistan.

The tones of the image combined with the content of the image do not work for me. This is just my opnion, but the effect of photo fights itself and looses my attention.

focus is a little soft

focus a little soft

I like the idea of the negative space, but to just a little lesser degree.

Simple genius.

A richer film (Velvia?) would show off the color of the brick better.

A tent would drop the reflections of your studio out of the glass. Another good trick is a piece of black foamcore with a circle cut out in the center to stick the lens through.

Cliche' for someone that does not live here. Every morning I wake up and have to look at the skyline where they used to stand.

Cliche' for those that don't have to see the firemen, police and families that lost borthers and sisters in the attack.

Would you rather see something else cliche', do you prefer the old weatherd doors, rainbows, nude poses and pet photos all over the web?

I don't want to berate other's photos, they all have meaning to someone. I'm just making a point with the above statement.

It's ALL rehash at this point in the world. We only reproduce the same imagery in a different context, no matter what we photograph.

While George's comments are a bit strong, I can appreciate them. But photography can be categorized into two groups - straight and manipulated.

 

Straight photography usually tells a story, whether it's your family snapshots or "professional" photojournalism. What is important is the subject of the photo and what is happening at that moment frozen in time. It may have a unique perspective, or unusual composition, but it still tells a story. In reality this is the easiest type of photo to take; be at the right place, at the right time with a camera and you have your photo (personally I consider myself a photojournalist, not an artist).

 

Manipulated photography is traditionaly of an artistic nature. And like any art it is subject to the viewer's eye. Not everyone else will appreciate it, see the inner meaning or consider it worthwhile.

 

So while I consider George's comment unnecessarily harsh, his is based on his own personal opinion about William's artistic work and I consider his criticism valid.

 

And ignoring William's question would be foolish. Any question about the quality or validity of your photography should cause you to critique your work from that standpoint.

 

But it does show that William does not understand the history or significance of photography. To him it is just another tool to make art with. (Sorry if I'm wrong William, but you did not elaborate in your critique. So we have to just draw conclusions from your question.)

 

But anyway, thanks for making me stop and think about it all.

 

Matt

love the antique look of teh photo

I set up the tripod between the two banks of lights and on the secure side of the fence, it would have taken some serious connections to get inside. The lights were in the secure area next to the relief center for the rescuers and press was kept as far from them as possible. But I was within about 15 feet of the lights, don't let the perspective fool you. The fisheye lens does some funky things to perspective/distances with the way it compresses and expands depth all in the same frame.

Matt

Your range of tones if wonderful. I really feel the photo on the left. Something strikes me in the photo.

The right photo I can live without. But they both show your knowledge of lighting and printing. Congrats!

Good eye. I think it is fine the way it is. Too much contrast and you may start to loose texture and detail. Sometimes a little flat is not such a bad thing, it's all in the vewier's eye.

I want to say first that I like the subject matter. There are so many Orthodox churches that will take your breath away in Ukraine.

I wish you had gotten in a little tighter. The black car in the right of the frame bothers me and the details of the facade are lost.

The subject of the church is the focus of the photo, but it only takes up 1/2 of the frame. The asphalt in the foreground says nothing about the church. There is a lot of space that adds nothing to the image and could be deleted.

If there were a group of nuns or monks in the foreground that would be different.

My advice is take the photo you think you like and then move in closer and shoot it again. After, compare the composition and see if you like the tighter image better.

Over all, a good photo but could use some fine tuning before taking it or cropping after processing.