blowingsky

To persist is to make effort, to twist what is into what can be. That's what I see in this. You've only improved with age my friend. The technical is conquered,  you are shooting with your heart. 

Tough to pick a favorite, but this one has a lot of narrative to it. The whole series is transcendently expressive (except for the one of the window and frame that doesn't seem to fit in this group). I always think of this side of your work  as "pure form" photography and the quality of the art that could never be encroached upon by other art forms. Call it the dynamic strikings of happenstance...but seeing it is everything about the spirit.

Hi Markku, Nice to hear from you again. On the LX-3, I almost always shoot in manual with auto whiteboard and then make adjustments in Aperture 3. I find the auto whiteboard is pretty accurate or easily adjusted afterwards.

The printed version of this shot has more dynamic range. When I posted here, it closed up. When I make adjustments it is always for a specific storytelling purposes. In this case, I wanted the Yucca plant blooms to be luminous, otherworldly. If I could successfully set the contrast between the blooms and the severe angular dissection of the sky, the viewer can finish the story in their own terms.

I don't use exposure compensation. I use manual mode, ISO 200-400 , spot meter, 16:9, standard mode, 24mm wide, raw and finish in Aperture 3 usually with tweaks to the edge sharpening, definition, and cropping.

Hi Pnina, Nice to be back, though it is a bit quiet. I don't have as much time to spend to online as I used to, but trying to take more photos. 

I think this was a straight B&W shot on Tri-X but I might have shot it on Sensia and converted it. 

Jack, I know exactly what you mean and I have to restrain myself from writing an essay about it here. I think this is the way it is with creatives. We meet, we commune and we fly off, each of us source of a viewpoint worth sharing with the world. But there is more... A creative image is not just a study of applied technique, it is a kite flying up from the being him(her)self. It's a proclamation of what it takes to be alive and stand up to the world with more powerful illusions than what it can try to force upon us. Finally, I think this is the centrifugal power that causes us to fly off from others of our kind. But really, how far do we go from each other? Your photos are forever with me, you've opened territory and it is on my map and a part of my navigation. Yeah, it's lonely, but only because we keep the wind in the sails and seldom think of all the hearts we've touched. End of spiel. Back to the camera.

Ah, Jack...in a better world this would be on display in the photo wing of a major art museum.

Kind of like listening to classical music -- no words whatsoever, and you don't know the title or anything else about the piece -- and sensing meaning, emotion and some hint of the general grace underlying the universe. This is the kind of photo that sells camera gear to the hopeful and it is exactly the kind of photo that gear can never take. 

That said, looks like you are getting a lot out of the D7000. The high ISO operation will probably work well for your night street photos. 

Excellent shot. Image quality is perfect. Everything in this frame contributes to the overall impact. 

Brilliant (if that word can still be used these days, overworked as it is). Sharp and somehow dream-like at the same time. Allegorical. The dancing tarps give a wonderful lift to the senses of how it must be. Also nice is the texture of the nets. All the sensations are present, as well as a range of emotion. Composition is perfect.

Did you just wait for this shot? What were the circumstances. Fantastic serendipity of elements.

I've been off photo.net for a few years, but in reviewing all the photographers whose work I really like, I came back to you and this shot and can't believe I never commented on it. I agree with Beau, this is as good as the best street photographers. The circles in the water really make it.

The reduced universe that comes to many with age. When he was 23, did he jump down from a train to kiss a woman? Or take risk in his teeth and start completely over at a new venture, in a different country, against all odds? Or did he only dream all this, and here he is now, dreams deflating like an escaped party balloon that comes to rest in the hills?

I like the depth of focus choice and the bottle and glass rims in the foreground.

Interesting image. Buildings as projections of human consciousness? Many interpretations possible as with all genuine art. It is lit like a set. A play about to begin, a story to be told. This frozen moment will move. 

Love the grain and the toning. takes me to another world of purpose and the possibility of escape. the twisted branches in the foreground, the hooded, hunched figure and the rough somber edges of the dunes and hills beyond give it a darker, allegorical feel. Some passage here, some trials ahead. 

technical aspects are well represented but there are many technically proficient photos in the world. what I like here is what the technical produced: a tableau of richness and isolation. A flat enormity in which all things vertical have a magnified presence. Nice happenstance is how the house sags to the left, the tree leans to the left and the wind wheel rudder is on the left. 

This lighting with the complementing color palette gives a Flemish formality but the face turned away is refreshingly insouciant. You want to see more, that's good, you should want to see more. But what you've left of the face is the character. I have the impression that I know something about this woman.

My feeling is that in a strong portrait, everything that is inside the frame must contribute to the overall impact/story/message/emotion. In this photo, there are too many distracting elements that lend no support. My eye is pulled away from the subject in all directions. On my monitor, his skin tones look a bit artificially red, though perhaps that's the way he really was at the time. I do like the contrast of the head with the dark background.

Hard to critique because how I "get it" doesn't pass easily into words, which is just my failing, not yours. It has both broad, dull strokes and precision that adds up to a reminder, yet again (like all good art), that perception is not in the world, it is in us. Thanks for creating this shot.

ahhhhhh. Love it. Really communicates the inherent serenity and stoic perpetuation against the elements. B&W, cropping, zones...all good choices.

oops, meant to say, "the sky the planes, the smoke and the photographer."

Unbelievable synchronicity between the sky, the planes and the smoke.  Real pro shot. Unfortunately, the lack of reference to scale made my first impression that this was a shot of models. It sucks when a well timed honest shot has to fight back against easy armchair manipulations. But perhaps in the large, this shot wouldn't give me that first impression.

<Peter wishing he had said what Jack said and weighing the moral implications of ripping off that line at a gallery opening or something>

hahahahahahaha....oh but Jack, you high-art the happenstance of the cast-off like no one else can. I was lucky to walk past this, and had I not known you, hmm who knows where I would have been looking. I know we both agree that it has to work both as a 'gotcha" and as a photograph.