blowingsky

Everything inside a frame is information. Most of the time there is either too much information or some of it is dispersing and unnessary. This photo excels in using everything in the frame to one result and it is spectacular, right down to the slanted and elongated shadows.

Andrea, well put. Thanks for the comment.

Dear Jack,

 

No, there is nothing more to life than photography. Everything we do is inside a frame. Make good pictures.

Jack, it always amazed me, getting out of the tent in the morning and seeing dawn build up. Mostly there were no two mornings alike, but really, it was me not rising the same way twice. In Lone Pine, Whitney faces the rising light and at the moment I took this photo, the sun is not yet visible to an earthling on the ground. The light is bending across the sky from a position below the horizon. When this happens, edges lose their characteristic sharpness, colors shift, depths flatten and the scene breaks from common expectation. This light lasted about 30 seconds. Damn cold out too. I had to break up a sheet of ice that had formed on top of the water standing in a pan so I could make coffee.

Nice division of elements and a subtle undertone of a city built from formless rock. This picture is a place to come and rest your thoughts. I appreciate your decision to crop a bit of the palm tree, if it was a choice. It helps the image avoid a static feel.

As uncommon as the trip probably was, this is the common postcard angle. However, your persistance in waiting for the right light sets this version appart from the one you see in tourist posters. It had me looking at the village in a new unit of time, rather than optically skipping over it liek you would with a stroy you've already heard. I like how well the rock peak contrasts with the range in the back and how that back range has some detail in its darkness. And the light coming in from the side is an engaging detail. This is a very competent shot of an often shot scene.

I particularly like the way you controlled the range of exposure here. It adds enormously to the overall impact of the image. I will be going to Bordighera in a few weeks and I will be bringing a lot of film!

Nice shot, nice angle, good depth of field. Tell her I said she looks great in that dress and you are off the hook.

The early bird gets the flock. Really unique capture of what too often runs to the cliche. The four colors ("colours" to you) of clouds strongly attract the eye to the frame. The geese are sharp and you've caught their perspective in a way that gives the image a great deal of depth. Don't know if this is the result of a cropping decision, but I like the frame just the way it is. Bravo.

A nice portrait. I would caution against a "leading" title. Let the viewer attach whatever significance to this that they will. You've captured a moment we can all recognize. It looks like you've dodged around the head because of the lighter background and I think you did this well, without making it distracting or artificial. I don't know if it was intended or not, but there is symbolism in this image, in that a thinking man is free of the prison of unawareness (the bars).

Jack, Karen, Kent,

 

Thanks for your comments on this and other pictures of mine.

 

It seems like destiny will find the four of us on a bus together and we will have full camera bags and we will stop along the way and shoot similar things sometimes from the hip, sometimes from the heart and the pictures will look different from each other's images but anyone could see we took the same bus and come to think of it, that's already happening now.

 

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It is a picture like this that reminds me that in all the wide photo net universe, you and you alone have the only cult following and that they are discerning blokes and Blokettes. Wonderful shot.

Thanks guys. This shot makes me feel like a Robert Frank impersonator.

Joonas, If I had it to do over, I would have left more borders and worked something out. At the time (12 years ago) I went tight because everything outside this severe border was distracting and I didn't have the option to rearrange. This was in rural Maine and I was trespassing.

Comments?

Comments?

Looking northward at the foot of Mt. Whitney in Lone Pine. Shot on

Velvia at about 75mm.

there may be many photographs of Monument Valley but I can't recall ever seeing one with snow, like this. The tonality and saturation also makes this shot unique. Nice!

Perfect balance and overall composition. Great use of leading lines and tonality. People on stairs in public places have been done alot, but this is fresh and engaging. Great shot!

great two shot. Lots going on and the dog with the stick in his mouth looks like the cigarette smoking ringleader.

Splendid candid portrait. Offers a glimpse into her intelligence and character. All with a glance.

I opened up the crop and rescanned the image, this time from the actual neg.

I like this too. A kind of multi-plane viewpoint, each surface with its own relative depth and significance. A good study of emotional/visual integration.

Undeniable energy and there is enough separation in this mix to understand that this is a gentleman in a suit on a bike in city traffic...but you get this from really only the most essential lines before it all becomes a kind of emotional jazz. Great shot! Would look great as a ten foot long mural or triptych. Cool dude!

Still love this shot but now think the crop here is perfect. I'd count this as one of your best, that I've seen, and one of the very best on PN. I'm not going to throw words around as to why I think that, it's obvious to anyone, I think. But have you ever been at a movie and thought, wow, this is a proper use of the medium?

 

That's how I feel about this photo. You are using the art of the still photograph to its maximum advantage.