george peterson

I am glad this has been cleared up.

Actually the first thing that comes to mind regarding how I would present your work is to put together a series or progression. I'd move from complex to simple with recurring motif or from simple to complex with recurring motif. This would be a presentation of slices across the various styles of abstract and semi abstract images you favour.

eg start with the snow shot (your blank canvas) then the bench shot snow plus curve then move on to eg five flags, then capture the curve in the five flags in another image and so on...and so on on in progression - this approach would lend itself readilly to a 'show' in a gallery and do better justice to the spirit of your photographic focus - tha a mere selection of f10 or so strong but unconnected images.

I'll look into this if you like. No big deal - it is a convenient method to deliver a rationale for one possible edit of a person's portfolio.

Or if you prefer start with your personal favourite and then work backwards focussing on one aspect of each image that is then taken up in some way in the following image but be careful NOT to make the jumps too difficult for the casual viewer.George

Carl,

"invite you to visit my portfolio and pick the image that you like best. Write a paragraph"

My sincere apologies I saw the invitation on the forum but didnt take notice of the qualification. NOT on purpose - I was just feeling quite bullied at the time and flustered. I now understand why you doubt my sincerity. This ISN'T my favourite image of yours . I actually like many of your images.

As a sign if goodwill and by concrete way of apology, I will choose an image I like very much and tell you why. Sincerely George.

Carl - I am a relatively new member here. I have come a cross many many many fine images. You invited me to crtique an image of yours. I carefully explained how I ussually go about this process. I think you are seeking to extract an argument from me - I am sorry I am not interetsed in arguing. I think you have made many fine images - THIS image was chosen because you were trying somethign different and I wanted to help you see why THIS ne doesn't work.. Please stop harassing me, it is strange to invite someone to give feedback and then to try and make something else out of it.

very sad.

YOU named the photo 'dune fence' and whether you like it or not it is a leading line - yes there is a dune top line as well and neither leads anywhere. What the 'lines' are doing is defining what you were TRYING to do. But the there demarcating 'sections' are only demarcated by lines. In teh context of your picture here You ARE forcing a 2D perspective (space enclosure in this instance) on a 3D pic it doesn't work.

As for your three professional friends and the 'judge' who awarded you a winner - I am not making an observation about the context of your 'successes' ...if these people think that THIS is your BEST work...and you really believe them - then you are being badly misled -

At any rate what I see is an attempt to push a flat perspective compositional idea into a three dimensional scene where light and colour (let alone content) are fighting the composition AND idea (ie intent)- this is why it is not a strong composition.

What were they looking at ? How would I know ? How can I answer a question without context - I wasn't there.

at any rate you are seeking to justify something here by reference to things/people/concepts I can't see. This negates my critique in your eyes - and this is fine. A rejection is meaningful and can have value. Geoerge

I chose this image because it had a lot of potential that wan't realised - it represented fairly new territory for you and it didnt work as well as many of your other stronger images.

Thinking about the why's was interesting for me - I thought it may be interesting to you. I have read your reply carefully - I dont think you unerstand this image very well. I know it may sound strange to you that I say this - but I really dont think you understand this image. You understand your images very well. You are a person to whom control and order are very important. This image stretched the boundaries of this natural predisposiiton. That is why I found this image interesting within the context of teh work displayed in this folder.

As I have said in the site feedback forum, I dont do single image critiques - this is usually training and I dont train.

Relative to examples of abstracted landscape that I am familiar with I would rate this slightly less than bad - relative to PN standards, I suppose you could put any number above good you choose - whatever makes you happy.

Of course Carl, you are bothered by my selection of this image out of your folder titled Camera Club Winner. This one was taken by you, made by you, presented and apparently won for you. and yet you are 'bothered', one visit - and you want to post another version.

Interesting, think about it..I'll help you understand why..

I chose this image to look at because it was sufficiently different so as to allow for extracted generalisation about your other Camera Club Winners. BTW - I think these clubs are excellent institutions and have no personal like or dislike of these places _ I am a regular invitee to some of the larger equivalents.

Now as for your image above.

The fence is of course the linking thematic motiff betwen this image and many of the others where one sees a strong line or lines sometimes in abstract sometimes abstract in effect ( eg piano wires/piano keys/red lines in the blue abstract/even stepped patterns in teh harley Davids shot (look carefully)) I read you are a piano tuner - I am not surprised that you see and feel significance in tensioned lines - they produce beautiful music after all. This tension is a running motif in your work. Sometimes expressed as a strong apposite in choice of colour/texture - sometimes expressed as competing rythms in the framing of your shots.

This image is interesting because you dont like it much. The problem with the image is that the fence line (repeated lines/strokes/steps/) are overshadowed by the other elements in the shot. I see you thinking - hmmm I have some good lines here, I have a colour and textural contrast difference between the fence and the white sands. I have some interesting light and some abstracted tufts....but you dont like this image - because really , it doesn't work at the strong and tight compositional level which you fancy. Everything is loose. Everything recedes into looseness - by your own standards - pretty ordinary.

How would I (if i were you) go about making this image? probably an aerial shot might interest you in capturing landscapes in abstract form. This would eliminate the horrid sky which destroys any postives in the composition. You see you like and are quite good at flat perspectives/ singular planes/ you are comfortable in this 'space'.

Have you seen any aerial shots done in this fashion? They can be quite beautiful.

Less inconvenient than chartering a plane - would be the standard closeup play of fence against sand with some grasss thrown in..

So my point is that it isnt enough to focus on what you are natively comfortable with and then seek to make a composition out of - the fence doesnt work as a line in this image - because in this image it is just a fence - there is no POV, there is nothing except...a horrid sky...and a lot of 'stuff' thrown in under it.

Too loose . I could go on - but then we would be entering didactic mode - like you have a strong diagonal from bottom right to mid left - this could be top left leading to bottom right - you could tilt the image and thus flatten planes increasing the abstract if you made the diagonal stronger...you could also eliminate a lot of the sky whilst maintaing that stormy light...but all these things are just playing with not much..

Yes I agree with you - you should be uncomfortable with it.

If you were sitting with me whilst I was shuffling these into piles this one woudl go into a pile on the side...you would ask me about this one eventually - and I would say - it is crap and you know it - of course if I was to say something as obvious as this on here - I may get banned.

One final thought for you - if you think one can critique ONE image then you are a far better critic than any I know. One image critique is not critique it is training. I dont train.

You should be ashamed of your childish behaviour btw - you passed judgement on a person without any context or background and without asking any questions. I will remove that final comment if you ask as it is OT to this pic.

Carl - I have glanced through your camera club winners (I like the title)

my first observation is that there is one photograph that is odd and doesn't belong in the folder - save for the fact ( I take your word for it) that it too was a winner.

There is a lot of creative repetition of material here Carl. Steps and Series in every shot except the arches (the odd one out). I choose to look outside this folder now before I make my critique on the dunes.

I wish I had the shots on paper in front of me - my conclusions and observations are usually aided by a physical shuffling and reshuffling of the deck and a sharing of this shuffling with presenters. Never mind I find the exercise interesting. Feel free to comment as I go. Portfolio reviews are usually interactive.

I have decided to take up your invitation Carl. My modus operandi is quite straight forward I will explain to you on this image - I will delete said explanation at your request at any time as really this is an OT comment as far as critique of this image is concerned.

I ususally look at a person's portfolio as a whole quickly. I let my eyes move from thumbnail to thumbnail - much like an expert sight reader would ( I am sure you would be familiar with the expression) would flick through a score.

My eyes usually tell me if anything is worth clicking on. I click if this happens. I clicked on this image. This image is very different and very similar to my eye after spending less than a minute glancing through your thummbnails I see a number of repeated elements in your portfolio, in this camera club section.

I will have to reserve comment Carl as I will need some time to appreciate your work. There is depth and planning in your work. This image in particular is worthy of consideration and comment, I will comment on this image after I have studied your other work in this folder.

I have not deleted my comments - they were deleted because apparently I am a very rude person.