john_s._flannery

G and others,

 

Thanks for the comments. Been away from Photonet, resettling, trying to recover from the fire and aftermath. Still shooting daily and while away from aerial work, feel my viewpoints are equally strong. Several small shows and starting to move archival digital prints. Miss some of the thousands of aerial images and have about three left. Those were on other walls when the flames came.

 

 

jsf

At my property near Hillsboro, NM Sorry I didn't respond. Have been away from Photonet for a while.

 

jsf

Appreciate the remarks concerning the image from three totally different and equally exceptional photographers. Beats the numerical game with the non-participating snipers belittling good work.

 

Know Mike's variety of approaches from box cameras on, but hadn't expected to encounter two exquisite landscapes and a beautiful bit of abstract reality in the works of the other two shooters who took time to comment.

 

Regarding beauty in death, have been encountering that on a regular basis with the century plants in their grand finale and will be exhibiting some of that marvel at a New Mexico show opening this week.

 

Thanks for taking time to look and comment.

 

jsf

Full image as seen; no cropping. Happy for criticisms on this and

all other images posted, old and new. Thanks

 

jsf

Hanna,

 

So glad you took a look at one of the shots. Haven't posted a whole lot lately. Been busy with a show, about 16 images of glorious Century plants going through their abrupt growth period, putting forth their seeds and dying. Gorgous colors. Archivally printed. Now in the Truth or Consequences Turtleback Gallery, opening Friday night, coincidentally the night of the full moon which you have celebrated beautifully. This one is an appropriate reminder of what those nights can be.

 

This is a marvelous piece of art. Gripping to me. Glad I looked and would be content to look at this one every night! Good work.

 

Wish you were closer. Will think of you Friday night. Come on down and howl!

 

jsf

Mike,

 

The lighting is spectacular, the highlights on the bridle just right and almost impressionistic

and a great portrait to boot. And you already know what I think about the lady.

 

I'd give it a 10 or a seventyleben or whatever the numbers wogs use to define fine photography.

Wow, two Nathans in one brief period, and both with good comments! Guess I have aliented some of the high muckeys or have lost track of groundrules in this PN. Bin so long I've forgotten that comments are allowed. Thanks,

 

Enjoying what I have been doing...mostly agave or Century plants, plus the daily surprises, visual, that is in an urban setting.

 

jsf

 

 

Did you overexpose and underdevelop? The tonal range is superb.

Illona, love the sparse pen and ink feel of this wonderful piece. Might be that I am influenced by a craving for the seasonal change after the hot summer, but I think it is just recognition of a classic work.

Thanks Ben,

 

Nice to find comments. Some of the color saturation on the dying century plant was almost shocking. This week the colors are turning more toward yellow and somber dark brown. I'm afraid that as with some of my aerial work, people have trouble enjoying it because they can't recognize it as a living form. Therefore they don't comment.

Thank you for your comments. Love the image and haven't been able to hold the colors or contrast in efforts to print. Little big bugged by that since I usually print well.

Thanks Ben,

 

Some of it occurred when playing with saturation and some was intentional darkening.

 

Appreciate the comments.

 

 

 

 

Hanna,

 

Good to hear from you. Since the internecine feud on PN I hear from almost no one. And don't get ratings anymore. Does that mean I have been whacked too?

 

Don't really care and am going along with this century plant series and printing and framing today. Have plenty of material to work with and have even pulled a couple fotopaints out of the myriad images.

 

Best to you.

 

jsf

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, Patricia.

 

I have been totally overwhelmed by the colors and the artistic offerings of these plants as they perform vigorously in their last summer. People who drive the street in this New Mexico town are probably beginning to wonder about the wierd guy who is out there circling the plant's bases in 100 plus heat with a camera constantly in front of him.

Have to agree about the general impression of PNers regarding manipulation (paricularly flowers). Painful to see an amazing result battered by low or no ratings or comments that say in essence was "Well all you did is push a couple of keys."

 

It's like saying to O'Keeffe, "All you did is pick up some paint on a brush and move it."

Nice work and glad I found your images.Keep pushing the limits. Forget the ones whose tripods have worn divots in their floors. A lot of us will look, puzzle, ponder, enjoy and perhaps learn more.

jsf

 

Mike,

 

Really like the floating feel of the magazine and the color saturation.

 

Amazing how well you are seeing in both color and in b&w.

 

jsf

"Your head choses a path to go forward on..." Paraphrased from Lao Tzu and/or the Tao Tee Ching.

 

I like it. Colors are vivid almost unreal. Expect you name scrawled left top is to discourage plagarism.

 

Good work. Philip

Seven. Didn't follow what you meant on "Featured?"

 

Hanna,

 

Poor 3 year-old English pointer male who in continent (problems vets can't solve) now has it as one the numerous "pads" where he rests or sleeps when he is in this totally-carpeted house.

 

So it still serves.

Hanna, you sharp eyed divil...

 

I swear I didn't even see it until you pointed it out. And me with trifocals!!

 

Thanks, I'll probably pull the image.

 

Hope you like my agaves as I get them posted. You are doing great stuff.

 

jsf

 

 

 

Powerful portrait, Mike. Well lit and well presented.

Very boring and little definition. Can't see it as either artistic or documentary. Sorry.

Bert,

 

Did I tell you how much I liked this image? Like composition, colors, and particularly the bold dropout effect.

 

 

jsf

Thank you, and what a sharp eye you have. Not to mention a crisp vocabulary those of us crawling into image alteration lack. Might dig it up and give it another shot when I get through a number of challenging images I am working on.

 

Appreciate the comments on this and any of the rest I have posted.

Alberto,

 

Recently returned to Photo.net and find 1)that the mental dwarfs' jealousy of repetitive excellence has surfaced in a less than pleasant fashion and 2)that you are doing exciting work and getting the sort of feedback good approaches deserve. Keep it up. This site needs positive efforts, not destruction of talents.

 

By the way, since the Leica didn't arrive, my friend, I picked up several Zorkis, an amazing old Voigtlander Vitomatic, and a much used but clean Nikon 6006 with a seemingly good Sigma zoom. Not up to the stuff that burned in the house, but satisfying, though one of the Zorkis is incredibly hard to load. Takes pliers to pull the casette out. The Nikon 5700 keeps cranking out good stuff except on closeups.

 

Wish your black frames were just un pocito wider and deeper on bottom. Found mine that were done in black were just too heavy for the images, with one dark image exception.

 

 

Ilona,

 

Bold, startling, with excellent color combination and perceptive use of knife's

reflective surface.

 

Did one of this genre yesterday, but it fell flat. This is enjoyable where mine bored me.