beeman458

Thanks Dror!

:)

"my only nitpick being the one fellow in the back got missed."

One fellow? Why heck, it was the only fellah in the shot. Is this some sort of sexist plot to erase men off the sales landscape. :)

Nice sales team and congrats on the perks.

"Photographer's Request for Critique"

One might go to editorial mags and check out how they layout/grab shots of this kind as unfortunately, the shot does neither the group or the perks justice. Not trying to be overly harsh in my following as other than the photo being a group shot of folks you know (Could have been a college class reunion shot, before lunch.) it says nothing to the uninitiated. There's no energy considering the perk they just received and the cars (the perks) are just cars, of no import, in a parking lot, who knows where.

Supplied link is for examples of editorial shots made on the fly; not in a studio under ideal conditions. Note cropping, lighting, impact and dynamics of the various shots posted/supplied by the Getty Images distribution chain.

http://www.gettyimages.com/Editorial/Editorial.aspx

Hope the above is found helpful.

Hi Jennifer.

For perspective purposes, you're on the most SE corner of the San Francisco Bay. Kick back from the screen, place your hands behind your head and enjoy the feel of the image, at a distance from the monitor and let your mind wander into the distance as one might, staring out, mindlessly over the horizon. And like a soul lost, notice how your vision doesn't come back into the image, although the foreground is right there in front of you. :)

Thank-you for your thoughts!

Hi Jennifer.

Not sure of what quotes you're interested in. Maybe what you're seeing in my above, is an opinion of what I've personally discovered (opinion) from investigation of her photography and what I've read into her writings or that what I've read others to say of her biography.

I see her personal tale (biography) to be that of an overt, yet extremely sensitive individual, who had little to no understanding by others close to her and through her final efforts, in her last days, she was looking back at you, through the eyes of her subject matter; her immortality.

"...the skew horizon line, my eye is constantly drawn there."

As was intended. The horizon is skewed because it was captured at a diagonal. I'm looking NW and the horizon runs S to N (left to right), at a receding diagonal; so it's a receding line. The left side is hundreds of yards away, the right side is miles away.

The underlying intent of the image is that it represents the passing of Diane from the living to the dead and the boat is metaphorical of the Greek (mythology) boat her Soul took from the living to the dead. Hence why the image is designed for the eye to run out of the image and not have a circular path way, back into the image.

Sadly, death is forever and we're forever..... without Diane Arbus. Her genius and distraught psychic will be eternally missed. :(

I hope my above helps. :)

Thanks for the supportive comments Lannie.

It was the last outing you're asking about which gave me the last three posted shots when I got this empty feeling of no purpose. "Okay!" "I got some shots, so what?" With that question in my head and no reasonable answer forthcoming, I decided to post in the Philosophy Forum in hopes someone who had experienced these feelings could enlighten me. I've put the camera down as was suggested, resisted the urge to go out a few times now and time will tell how I resolve these feelings of no photographic purpose. It seems that one either ends up ultra bored with it all and quits photographing, finding a new hobby in the process or they end up doing it for money or glory as incentive continue.

Either which way, it's always nice to read that a shot worked for someone.

"Frankly, if you're burned out, it doesn't show. For the moment, for the record, I am."

Wishing you well with your photographic efforts as you wrestle with this beast.

Thanks! :)

Not sure what you're asking in real terms as nothing was done to the image other than what was posted.

"Air Brushed a couple of distractions, Contrast mask, Hue, Sat, Level, USM, reduced for web."

Contrast mask is a USM mask of about 30/30/0, Hue +6, Saturation +10, leveled according to the Histogram, USM 300/0.3/0, resized to 900X600, saved for web posting at about 135K.

Image shot RAW, converted in BreezeBrowser using in camera settings below.

10D

28-70mm @ 70mm

1/500 sec, f/8

ISO 200

Saturation: High

Sharpness: Low2

Contrast: Low2

What about the image conditions or the post-processing are you interested in?

It was a foggy morning as the two images posted prior to this image shows. The second image posted before this image, of the ridgeline, is of the same trees, opposite angle, approximately fifteen - twenty minutes prior. :)

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5603343

The scene was to the right of a dam face, so I'm artificially elevated up on the dam across the man made arroyo. The sun was playing peek-a-boo but there was a bit of foggy haze between the camera and the trees. The lighting was sufficient to give a direct morning light look but still maintained a bit of the hazy conditions. I applied a contrast mask to better match what the eye was seeing as the camera picked up the reflection of the light on the haze as the eye didn't see this reflective light in the same way.

Hope the above lends insight to your question.

"Semi-pro photographer and videographer for over 30 years."

Words from one of much experience.

:D

Thanks!

Thanks! :D

I'll intentionally work with the harshness of what's in front of me. I wandered this pumpkin patch for an hour and just before giving up, boomp, here it was, right in front of me, the image that summed up the character of this pumpkin patch. The blown light on the left was the sole source of lighting for this patch and it added a stark glaring reality to the shot. The whole time I wandered the pumpkin patch, this glaring light was constantly getting in my way; messing with "my" lighting in the process cause of light fall off. This one light was lighting such a larger area so instead of trying to shoot around it, as I had been doing all the time I wandered, I intentionally made it part of the image for it was very clear to me that this light was central to the experience.

Ben

Thanks!

It's always an up to read that someone "get's it." :)

The only PS'g done was to get rid of some utility line shadows cast from the wires behind me and a roof edge on the left and right edge of the building/image.

Other than that, the color was what the lense and camera captured:D

Nick.

Thanks for your thoughts:)

The tragedy, the security guard won't allow me entry to photograph the interior. I'd actually have to go to City Council to get permission.

"My gosh dude!" "The place is going to be torn down, what harm is there in me getting interior shots?"

Addendum: The structure is in the process of being torn down: 17May06.

I even tried to give him a copy of the above image but he was heartless:(

It's the last large industrial structure that represents San Jose's agricultural/canning past.

Ya haven't been around for awhile .[.Z:)

See if ya can get something going on the Philosophy forum, the place is a total snooze.