michaelseewald

Wow, a walk down memory lane. This image got a lot of attention in the front window of my Del Mar, Calif. gallery.

Thanks all for the wonderful comments/critiques. It talks a lot of your time to do so, much appreciated. MS

Thanks again folks for your support!!! ;/)

Love going thru these old posts and seeing so many great responses.

MS

From paint leftover from painting boats nearby. Painter's brush off the excess paint on

anything nearby, an old boathouse door for instance. Makes for wonderful

possibilities, just add light and composition.

Taken during a photo class I was giving in San Diego with one of my

students camera. Trying to get them to think about how to control the

eye of the viewer. Comments?

From the latest series (64 to date), Italy III. Can you figure out

what's going on here? A real who-dunnit, one of my best to date in

that category.

From my latest series, Italy III (my 13th trip or so there). Comments?

To see the complete series visit seewald.com/italy_III.htm

Used this new image for the invitation for opening night, which was a

month ago. See the complete series here: seewald.com/italy_III.htm

Comments?

If you'd like to see the complete new set of 53 from this series here you go:
www.seewald.com/italy_III.htm

From my latest series, Italy III. Made some strong abstracts, at least

in my mind.

This was a section of a door at a boat repair shop. The workers were

quite impressed I came up with something 5' from their work space that

they never noticed (as a piece of art, that is).

Comments?

Wow, how fun it was to read all the comments again, and see so much high praise, and 7's. Thanks all. It makes all the hard work that goes into travel photography that much more palatable (the wife quit going with me, calls it 'BOOT CAMP'! I shall continue, not that I haven't been, as this series was some 30 trips around the world ago. MS

Thanks guys. On the framed, toned it down and re-submitted the image, thus some folks may wonder why it's being commented on, it was much larger and the inner mat a bit brighter than what's now shown.

"When I first spied this scene, I was sick as a dog and the hotel was

on fire!!!

Fever and 'bowel problems' from forgetting that 'thou shalt not use

spigot water to brush thy teeth" the first night there had me running

to the bathrooms every few minutes a week later, which is when I'd run

across this scene. It was only my second adventure on my world wide

travels (Argentina recently was trip #62) and I had a lot to learn-

and not only that, I was now lost in China trying to hook up with my

'tour group'.

I'd spent one week up in Ningbo, a small village of a million people,

with Kay Fang, a friend/collector that owned a health food restaurant

in Encinitas (before health food restaurants were much heard of). She

had offered me a chance to go to China but the only problem was was

that it would cost over a thousand dollars, about a thousand more than

I had. Ningbo was north of Shanghai- six hours by slow boat (the way I

got there) or two hours by hydroplane, the way I got back. Her

godfather live there, and we visited for a week.

On my return, I was to meet up with my tour group, but I had a few

hours to kill before I had to go to the airport to find them. I hung

at the hotel I believed I was going to stay at and met a nice

gentleman that spoke English down in the lobby. I got his name and

contact number explaining I might return someday with a group of

photographers and I would need an interpreter/guide for that trip.

I then went to the airport but was dismayed to find out they never

showed up!!! NOW WHAT TO DO?

I'd pre-paid for the three week tour and had very little spending

money (maybe $50). I started to call the hotels in the phone book from

the airport, to see if I was listed, but in 1987 the phone system was

pretty new and there was basically no pay phones anywhere on the

streets, and the one I found played havoc on my ears. First, no one

spoke English when they answered the phones, and I could barely hear

them when they did speak. But the worst part was while waiting on

hold (I think I was on hold, sometimes they may have hung up, I

couldn't tell) while they went to find someone that did speak English,

a loud clacking would occur like someone smacking two pieces of wood

together, deafening in it's loudness. It was some sort of torture I'd

figured!!!

I could see the phone system would not work in this manner, and as

much as I hated to, I hired a taxi to drive me to the various 'tourist

hotels; to see if my name was on the registry; the group was leaving

the next day for Hangzhou and I HAD to be with them. After I basically

hit all the hotels, six or seven, I stopped at one last one before

heading back to the one I'd thought was mine. I saw a man playing a

piano and thought, combined with the interesting background that

re-iterated the piano and his clothing, would make a splendid image. I

set up, took my light meter reading to set my exposure and took the

shot (1 minute at f/32). I told him during the long exposure, "this

will be music to my eyes". One of the few that spoke English, he

smiled and kept playing.

The rest is history; I found my group due to answered prayer the next

morning (the one guy I'd met in the whole city ended up being my

actual guide- what a 'God-incident') and made a tremendously nice set

of images.

This image was the last of the 25 chosen by 25 sponsors. Tom

Spinelli, the sponsor, said when he picked it from the 10 choices

left, "I can't believe nobody picked it". Well, there are so many

good ones, all of them actually, as far as I'm concerned, that they

ALL can't get picked. Funny thing is, it outsold all the others except

one, which equaled it so far, The Three Graces ". MS

It's a bit top heavy. If you cut just a bit more than a third off, you'll stay in the image longer. You'll notice the actual dwelling place's detail's much more then, which did not stand out previously.

I'm with the peanut gallery, and 'puzzled' might be a more apt title. I think the lack of 'why' or 'what' is why it just does not work.

I'm with Robin, it's just not moving me. I don't like the heaviness above the person first off, too many portholes. That's why someone mentioned removing a row. That does not work, as another mentioned, and for me only two rows would be better. BUT, it still leaves me empty. Textbook positives, but I guess it's lacking, to me, any soul. Maybe lack of depth? This is the kind of thing once you shoot it you say to yourself, ok, everyone would do this, NOW what can I do to move it to the next level? What can I do that nobody else has? One really has to push themselves by asking this after each and every shot. You will find yourself making a lot more WOWS.

From my latest series.

Comments?

Thanks, MS

Sooooooooooooo special. Thought it was moving water at first (I must shoot too many slo-mo ocean scapes myself to figure this out correctly). Well done.

From a new series just released. Thanks for looking.

(View website to see complete set of 33 images).

Thanks Alex.Straight photo, no adjustments or additions (except cut and paste an out of focus elbow that started to come into the frame on the left, from folks in a pay phone line)- yes, they still have pay phones.

Oh yeah, cool there still is 'photo of the week', I'd thought it'd been discontinued. Went on a photo excursion a year or so ago and noticed it was gone from the front page. Looked high and low and gave up.