kim taylor

Comments welcome.

Comments appreciated.

Comments appreciated

 

Kim.

Comments greatly appreciated

Please do comment. kataylor@ejmas.com

Being a fan of incline railways it bothers me a little to see it tilted out of true. On the other hand you might try tilting it the rest of the way so that the brick in the wall lines up with the top of the photo. Nice rough brick with smooth but complicated machinery and the wild, natural branches thrown in there as reflections. Lots going on to keep the attention on the photo while the car itself provides the dominant element and the point of entry to the photo. The car is of course going up (or in this case to the right) since that's where the lines converge.

Sorry guys, sometimes I can be a bit abstruse but I wasn't trying to accuse anyone of anything, certainly wasn't referring to Howell or Peter. I was trying to point out that when you get 1/1 because of content there's no reason to start a big war about it. Cultural differences in a global network are going to happen. Nobody is going to change anyone's mind in a minute or with an image, too much "cultural baggage" in all of us to do that, so the idea is to just leave it alone. (Which I didn't do but hey, I'm still trying to learn how to STHU).

Gee, a 1/1. I got a 1/1 on one of my photos does that mean I'm as good as Emil? "AS IF" as my daughter would say. Well that was a "shot" of my live wife and not dead animals so apples and oranges. As for the subject matter striking a nerve, I seem to detect a certain Europe/North America thing going on a lot here. There's a certain difference of sensibility that we are rather prone to notice here in the 'between-land' of Canada. We've got both attitudes in one place which makes for some interesting face to face discussions once in a while. If you do a google search of "painting" and "animals" you come up with at least 10 pages (didn't look further) of very cutsie paintings with very little "animal" in any of the poses and nothing ever dies. Add the word dead and you get nothing at all. Look at "dead" and "wildlife" and you get photos of seal hunts and other bad bad things but not paintings. For "painting" and "hunting" you get half way through the second page before you finally hit one of the old masters and some dead game http://www.alazraki.com/paintings/Hondecoeter-painting.jpg

 

So, should we really worry about 1/1 from anyone who gets upset with the subject matter of a photo? I think it's pretty obvious when someone is worried about subject matter and not aesthetics or originality so why bother? Opinions are worth what you pay for them, free to be expressed and free to ignore... at least so far, of course that may change soon too.

 

It's a politically correct world and nobody here has to deal with dead animals in their own hands any more. If people choose to forget where the Christmas feast comes from there's not a lot anyone can do about it except shrug and carry on.

 

Carry on Emil, I've shown your photos to a lot of people who think nekkid wimmin is sinful and not one of them wanted to write you a nasty letter, so listen to the majority and only fear that the minority will get into power.

 

I won't presume to give you a rating, consider all your stuff here and at "the other place" to be very highly appreciated by me.

Shop window? Nice PS treatment without using PS. ;-) I like where the reflected trees become more solid in the lower right to let more of the deeper image through. It would be interesting to continue playing with this idea, bringing in more of the trunks to show off the splay of the reflected light if you can find the angles. Didn't really notice your shadow frame until I started looking at the reflected 'frame' on either side and bottom of the figure. A frame within a frame is always nice, why not make it a true reflection of the frame and try putting the shadow on the left side too? Well done.

What's not to like about this composition. Subtle red colours with a nice red frame-line that complements it. Good positioning, enough light on the foreground to root the image. Maybe a bit sharper focus on the fruit, I'd like to see the bumps and imperfections in the skin, and see how the light moves over them.

Nice abstraction! Good strong base with a lovely curve leading into straight lines converging in the distance. This shot has a lot going for it. The light on the neck close to the body of the guitar is bright enough to call attention to the lack of focus in the foreground. You might want to see if you can get the light a bit more subdued there, and put a bit more of the body into focus while leaving the far end of the neck blurred.

Here I am thinking Guggenheim, and massive structures and then I read the title and all of a sudden when I look back it's 'mickey mouse' in scale as massive blocks become bricks. Never mind, the abstraction is good, and I like the play of light on the walls to the left, but even better is the reflected light on the walls in shadow on the right. Just enough cloud in the sky to make it interesting, not enough to distract from the lines between building and sky. All brought together by the dark element at the bottom which is reflecting the same blue sky once again. You'd usually want to see this shot in BW but it works because of the reduced number of colours. Very nice.

Curve in the watercourse mimiced by the curve in the rock, flowing water mimiced by what is almost a waterfall made of rock, and all reinforced by a strong straight line in the rock on the right. Everything on the far bank flowing around the corner. Very nice composition. I think I'd consider taking the exposure in the print down a bit to allow some darker shadows and maybe get some detail back into the overexposed water and rock to the centre and left. I'm more interested in the light and shadow than in the intensity of the sunlight coming up the stream. Maybe try burning it in because the light reflecting up under that carved out rock is great just as it is right now.

Almost too much going on. Funny to say about a photo with only 4 elements but I'd take the roadway itself out of the shot, crop up to the curb and then you've got the static tree, moving body and flowing bike stand all working horizontally. With the two lines in the road my eye is dragged down away from all the action.

Couple of buddies posing for a quick shot. I think this one is going to be enjoyed for a lot more years than most of our stuff, a great capture of a moment in their young lives. Just enough sharpness on the front boy to give the image a focal point while not losing his friend in a blur. Maybe crop in to his left shoulder to lose the details at the top right that compete for attention.

She's just daring you to make a comment about the size of her butt isn't she? But you've balanced that with her left hand which has become as big as her face. Good abstraction, especially since you've included the face which always makes it hard to assess the figure. Makes me ask whether this a portrait or a figure shot. I think the ring makes it a portrait. Very good.

Nice concept. You've done well to get just enough detail in the face that you can see features if you stare at it long enough. The off-centre lighting is balanced by a slightly off-centre cropping and off-square pose, also nice. There are a couple of light spots off his left ear that might be eliminated but keep the object off his left shoulder I think.

The photo definitely has that 'sun blasted Greece' look but I've come to expect even more saturation in the colour and the dock to be overexposed to blinding white for this kind of shot. It's working against expectations for me and keeping me looking at it.

The colours here are wonderful, a great range of browns that work well together. The central focus with out of focus hand on the right top and void on left bottom gives the image good movement, I expect to see the hand drop into the next beat. Well done and good choice of cropping.

Wonderful reversal on the usual sharp foliage and blurred water that one expects in a photograph. The vertical treetrunks work well with the horizontal blue lines to lead the eye gently across the water to the far shoreline.

Bright and crisp with good depth of field but the sunlight in the background and the clouds in the sky make the far shore look a bit washed out compared to the richness of the foreground. The lower half of the photo has an entirely different feel from the upper half.

This one does it for me, the pink draws the eye, the white streak in the water mirrored by the whispy clouds in the sky means the centred hills work nicely, the eye keeps running from sky to water and back again, top to bottom in a horizontal composition.

Nice sunny day at the beginning of winter out in the country. The reds really pull it together and the greens add a nice touch of interest as you get nearer the point of view.

Had to force myself to look at this one a bit longer, the pattern seems to repel my eyes, but if you look long enough you see the girls heading for class? a couple of interesting reddish walls that look like books and suddenly you get the fusion with the bullseye from the black screen to the almost black window dead centre. Good job. Now my eye is jumping from round element to round element to see what else we've zeroed in on. The boy in the belltower perhaps?

Makes you want to reach out and pat him. The dappled light really highlights why tigers have stripes. Good thing the background was out of focus or he'd blend right in. You've caught the fur and whiskers very well. Nice shot.