reed_caster

Don't mind at all. I need to learn how to do that.

A definite improvement. Thanks Steve.

Thanks Dennis. This is a shot that dates back to my college days. I dug it up in response to a w/nw Easter theme. I'll post a few more when I get back from vacation.

Brilliant! Dennis, this photo could be a dozen different story lines. So many elements - what an eye.

Dennis, as an image I like it. The colors are beautiful. It does not, however, cross-over for me as a photograph. This could just as easily be a poster. It seems to constructed - to flat.

My feelings are divided when I look at this image. I find myself at first intrigued and then fascinated by the mystery and color. But as I study it and acknowledge the obvious artificial qualities I soon dismiss it as fantasy. It has nothing that I find important in photography.

It becomes the painters version of photo-realism.

 

I look to photographs to see what others see - not what they would like to see. I want to see through the photographers eyes what I overlook and in the process of that study train my own eyes to look closer at the world in hopes that some day the less obvious unexpectedly pops out and I see it!

 

This is not an indictment of photoshop - a wonderful tool - but I sometimes see it as a layer between reality and the eye.

Steve Murray,

A nicely framed discussion. There are some startling views seen from both sides. The passion and anger expressed is palpable. This forum is best served by those that frame an argument in reason rather than emotion even when you feel the urge to spew - otherwise your seen as a nut.

 

Marcus,

A lovely photo. Pushing her to the right side of the frame and leaving the void to the left defines your intent to isolate. I feel her aloneness. Her eyes are closed aren't they? It's peaceful.

John, be my guest. I like your work and I would feel honored.

John, a lovely photograph. As Ilan has suggested , "Death Of An Orchardist", as a title, leaves me wondering what this story is all about. And Peter, who apparently knew John Lees and his orchard, did not know of his death. Might I suggest a title that carries tribute and sadness and maybe a small explanation, "Autumn Without John Lees".

A good call Nicholas. This was a throw-away shot until a much wiser man said, "Holy shit Reed, this is the best shot you've taken!" And my eyes opened to what it was I measured a good photo by.

Here's what I like about this photo: The focus (or lack of) is on the one subject who has removed himself from the scene - via a cell phone. A somewhat telling commentary on the indiscriminate use of them (when you have one you are there but only physically not cognitively) and the attention they tend to draw because of the users annoying lack of courtesy. And then there is this overtly Americana imagery of hotdogs, red white and blue Pepsi cups and kids all blurred in some sort of home town mosaic puntuated with the American flag over their heads and hanging just below is the peace sign on thrusted arm attached to "scrunched-up face" kid.

There is a big story here. Is it perfectly focused? Yes. It's the blurred line between what we expect in a photograph and what we expect in a photograph. Huh? We seem to judge photos on technical merit more than on content when both carry weight. I believe content has more importance. In this case I think the predominance out of out-of-focus area contributes to a lack of specifity of meaning that opens the photo to interpretation. What was once a throw-a-way because of a technical flaw became my most enigmatic shot. I think it has substance. And so it goes...

I welcome input into this discussion of content and technique.

Pretty funny stuff. A challenge: Give birth to yourself.

The monocromatic images are really strong here. This is the one color image I like. A good expression laden with sweat and the weight of his pack. The background, shrouded in fog, adds mystery. A good folder. Move the colored stream images to their own folder and keep the darker and mysterious images as the Blood Mountain folder - the label adds some additional intrigue to a good collection. I would also choose which of the duplicate images you prefer and eliminate the others. Nice stuff.

The best of the bunch. The rest I would eliminate. Obviously your best bud but the photos are not on display here for technical merit but for personal sentimentality. This image I like. The head dropping in from the upper left, the dead to the world expression (he is alive here isn't he? I don't want to be an insensitive bastard.), the white of the teeth and the coarse texture of the grass are a nice collection of elements and make for a plain but interesting perspective. A good one.

Pretty colored flower. I like pretty colored flowers. Pictures of pretty colored flowers look...well...pretty. Nicholas, this ain't you. Certainly a very pretty photo but it is what it is.

"Hang on McFly, the fluxcapacitor has reversed polarity. It seems we are discharging excess reality".

Close Encounters of the third kind. Once again I must disagree with Pierre. I like the balance between light and dark. And then there are those parking-lot-lights hovering above the ground like alien visitors. This image is as much about light trail painting as it is about human movement and structure. This is an image of man and machine moving through space. I think the overhead lights add an important element that helps to define scale and cropping down makes this all about the light trails and thats just boring - just another light trail photo. I like stories and this shows potential.

I disagree with Pierre. I like the sanctity of the cars interior. Electrical mayhem streaking by and the rearview mirror reflecting your escape - this is all about time and place; inside/outside, safe/unsafe, fast/slow, monocromatic/crayola, order/disorder. Lose the protective canopy of the cars roof and the photo becomes to linear with a distracting diagnol in the way. This is Fear and Loathing in Vegas. (boy...give a guy a key board and an opinion...)

Nicholas, I like your venturesome nature. Keep pushing.

Michael, I like this photo. I agree with plec about the background pilings - they kind of float above the foreground like a line of braille and make the image a bit more curious. A facinating image. Are the colors accurate? They are very pretty.

I really can't take issue with the out of focus foreground. The entire image crosses a line between reality and abstraction. I sometimes kick myself for what I perceive as an imperfection in what was almost a "perfect" shot. But what was captured on film was what I saw when I took the picture. Dennis saw this psychodelic patterning in blue and black and was able to capture it "perfectly". That the foreground happens to be slightly out of focus in no way detracts from the aesthetics.

I'd have to sneak in. The construction site has undergone some changes since this was shot. They have security.

If you could imagine for a moment - ten of these buildings, covered in ivy, surrounded by huge american elms and connected by brick walkways - albeit abandoned - and in came the bulldozers. All that remains are these three buildings - gutted. As kids they were huge hulking masses of threatening austerity. As adults they were beauty. Coming soon - Applebee's!

In the other photo you see a tree. It's a copper beech. "They made us keep it", a disgruntled worker complained.

 

You're the captain?! I sensed more than a cursory knowledge of jet propelled ferries as soon as you dropped the term "cooling strainers" and referred to props as "wheels". Somehow I thought you were a passenger with a lot of passages logged on board and had developed a close personal relationship with the crew.

Tried eliminating the "Paul Bailey" but the Warwick Ford got to squeezed against the edge of the frame. The doors and windows somehow don't quite fit the character of the sign and the sky - 50's vs. 90's - but it is what it is. I love the texture of the corrogated steel with its shadow and the sign and sky. The rest? It's just there.

Dennis, nice shot. I always want to be right up front when traveling in big machines but that usually proves inaccessible. How'd ya get in the wheel house?

John, I love it! It takes on a rather ominous look in B&W. Alien hatchlings. Thank you.

I believe that as well. However...your story begged me to take a closer look. I tried to find a hidden meaning in the images. It's pointless. I didn't know Mo and the shots carry a sentimental value after the fact. You're intent was as an album cover. The shots - I like. That you created an alter piece with the Virgin Mary flanked by cultural decay and vice while being shielded from the two with protective screening makes a poignant statement. I particularly like the Virgin Mary. I play a visual trick with it. I imagine her image as graffiti painted in photo-realizm on a brick wall. You gotta love critiques - people love to bend their minds around other peoples stuff.

There are a lot of photos in my collection that represent a personal emotional record. I often try to capture an emotion and fail. Reading your account of the happenstance that led to these images makes them more appealing to me. This frequently happens when I know something about the artist or the event that is being recorded. Probably a beaten-to-death question but...: Does knowing the story behind these images improve the images? Comments?