jeff_green2

This is superb. Did you place those gulls in there? No offense meant, they just look a little placed even if they are natural. I love the color in this, even more than the B&W and that's saying a lot because usually B&W is always stronger.

I agree with others in that it is striking, yet needs a bit more. The pose is very stoic and the angle does make her legs look a bit short. I don't mind the eyes squinting, it adds a little something. What noone has mentioned is that this pic is about COLOR. 99% of the photos I see in color don't USE color. This one does and I applaud you for that. The concrete/stone is a grey blue and vibrates with the reddish and pink flesh tones. At first I thought the critique about only seeing breasts was funny . .but i kind of agree. i suppose due to the perspective shortening of her, which deemphesizes her leghs and hips (which are very nice) and emphesizes her breasts. I wonder if there are other solutions to composition at this site? Overall, NICE and keep it in color! (although I LOVE the B&W of this woman with the flower in her hand).

Lately, everywhere I look I see uninspired "fine art nudes". I always use the example of a nude woman draped on some rocks with her head thrown back as an example of the worst of it and the most common. Well my friend you have proved me wrong today! This is a truely inspired nude in nature! You have taken the very same setup and shot it in such a way as to create true engaging beauty, excellent composition and that certain something that is hard to put into words. . . My only nit is that the DoF drops off sharply at her right foot. The waves, her expression, the pose, everything is just magnificent!! So many metaphors, layered meaning could be read into this as well . . .

FANTASTIC!!

I love all your pictures Igor. I have to tell you of what I see in this pic. Please see this as just my idea and not critisism.

Everytime I see this pic I think the icing on the cake would be to have the model holding a lit welding torch in her right hand withh the long flame shooting out towards the right side. It woudl add a certain tension and intensity to the pic. Of course she would have to be VERY careful with it!

 

Great stuff as always.

i just love your work. i think this is one of the more successful. It doesn't look like you are trying to hard and i have to admit I didn't see the face at first, so when i did it creeped me out. I was just admiring the stark minimalism until I realized i was being watched/stalked/whatever. Awesome.

This is shockingly beautiful! The blue toning is just perfect. I'd hang this in the center of my wall!!

Very nice image. Don't apologize for the people. It adds scale and a human interaction with the environment.

I LOVE your stuff. Too many idiots in here can't hold their tongues after they see your work but don't understand it. And who cares about digital and photo mixes . . .it's all imagery. I love what you are doing in all of your pics, but this one is especially intense. i think i like this one because it doesn't have as much of an overt sense of assemblage as the others. It seems more natural . . .

 

I love that this image seems to be some natural event, very casual and commonplace but utterly disturbing. Absolutely Fantastic. You have a fan. Keep it up . .. .

I don't really see any clutter except for the little stick on the bottom right area . . .The trees and snow make a nice backdrop.

 

BTW, nice use of color. Too many people shoot color and don't think about color and why they are even using it. IMHO, if you are shooting color, then the image should be about color . . . or the color should be integral to the image. This shot uses it wonderfully.

Thanks Guy for the comment. Troy is the guy in the pic . ..and his comment refers to the words on the back of his shirt. i had the neg printed backwards . . and he was mocking me. What are friends for!

Thanks for the nice comments.

As for the numbering, please refer to my comments on the photo "Shop Window".

I didn't think anyone would notice. The number is actually a reference to shot number 95. I had the idea that if I included a physical number of the shot in the frame itself, it would help me keep track of the number of shots taken. Also, I kept a very detailed leatherbound book of each shot, it's location, the camera used, the film, the lens, the camera settings, my assistants, what the weather was like, the intended development and a little note or two as to what I had been doing at the time of the shot.

Before the trip, I very carefully made 1000 small ceramic tiles in my home studio, each with a very special antique glazing that I thought would look nice in Italy. I guessed that 1000 would be enough, although I actually ran out and had to quickly find a local potter to make some more tiles for me on short order . .it was very expensive and embarrasing. Each was numbered sequentially, hand lettered (well, numbered) and fired in my home kiln. For each shot, I tried to find an inconspicuous location where I carefully placed or mounted the tile for the shot. There were times when I got a little lazy and thought about using the same tile for several shots, such as when I was bracketing, but quickly realized that it would defeat the purpose of my system. SO I did in fact use a separate tile for each shot.

The only bad thing about the system was carrying all of them around, as I never knew how many shots I would shoot in one day and so carried around 250 tiles with me each day. When the shot was finished, I carefully packed the tile back into my bag (I am not sure why I saved them all, I guess I am sentimental that way). Funny enough though, I met a very intersting gentleman who was painting outside of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He mentioned that he was redoing his bathroom in his apartment and was describing an idea he had where each and every tile in his bathroom would be a different design. I think he was thinking more about some kind of floral design, but when I showed him the tiles he was ecsatatic and offered to buy them on the spot! I told him I would trade for one of his paintings after I was done using them and he agreed. SO at the end of the trip I met him again and made the switch. Good thing I did too, because they were very heavy to bring over and I was not relishing the idea of bringing them all back.

Anyway, there you go. If you look at a couple of my other photos really close, you may be able to see them in semi-hidden places.

Thanks for the nice comments.

too postcardy?

I don't know about a subconcious reaction, but I do get the peculiar sense that something is watching me .. .

There are many influences for us all, and many influences for an individual picture. Mr. Fokos is obviously a big influence of yours as he is mine. In one gallery you mentioned the strong influence rightly for pictures at the same location in a similar style: http://www.phototripusa.com/e_gallery_1000.html (on the picture titled "Five")

 

In this picture on photo.net you didn't and I just felt that it should have been mentioned considering the rating system based on originality. That's all.

Whelp. I like the pic OK. But nowhere does it mention David Fokos. This image screams David Fokos, and he is obviously a major influence. Now I know that there are no original ideas anymore and that there is nothing wrong with influences and emulations. But in my opinion this walks TOO CLOSE to the line of 'emulation'. It's one thing to say "I took this pic', but if it is chosen as POW I think that a nod to David Fokos is in order as it is most obviously derived from his work.

 

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/Gallery/fokos/westchop.jpgWest Chop Poles, David Fokos

 

Not to mention that the photographer has stated that David Fokos is a major influence in other places, but not here. This is not meant to be an accusation or anything, but it just kinda rubbed me wrong that Fokos is not mentioned in a pic that leans so heavily on his style.

you might want to look at some Edward Weston prints . .. . he basically did this exact same image in B&W about 80 years ago

would this appeal beyond my family as a portrait?

Yeah, it's a mediocre scan, and it's grainy because of the infrared film in 35mm. I wish they still made this stuff in 4x5, but then I would have never shot this image!! 35mm, was hard enough to cart around in the backwoods.

Uh, wouldn't any current posters pics of the Civil War HAVE to be re-enactments?

Wake up buddy!!

It's funny, because I always thought that pics shot at re-enactments looked sorta silly or forced. This one is excellent-nicely capturing the stillness after the storm.

My friend Troy would love this picture.

Thought I'd fill in some technical details.

I appreciate the commentary, all excellent suggestions. I realize that this photo isn't about creativity or originality, I was just trying my hand at some product lighting. I didn't give tons of thought to the layout of the things, although I suppose I should since it affects the whole picture. I was pretty limited for equipment on this one. I shot in B&W because I didn't have color balanced lighting. I used two construction lights (cheap reflector lights), with one of them placed in a softbox. The softbox was pretty small, thus the square highlight on the bottle. There is a large sheet draped in front of a sliding glass door to kill the ripples in the curtain. The patterning on the bottle was powder dropped onto it mainly to kill reflections from the room and to give it a dusty quality. The background was a bounce reflector 2 feet behind the product table aiming down at a 40 degree angle with one of the construction lights bouncing light up into it.

 

Not trying to give 'excuses' just informing the technical details. I'm working on getting some strobes and decent sized softbox.

 

Working on my lighting. Please give me real world feedback on it's quality level for commercial work.

This kind of looks like an early Pink Floyd album cover . . . .

I can see the logo in the top left of the pic . . .and the floating pig . . . .

Really nice picture.