james___

I just looked at the rest of your work and enjoyed all of your images. The question I have is where do you reside? NY? LA? Poland? I love the girl in IR. Magdalena? She is a wonderful subject. I hope you were able to really work with her. So innocent yet verging on adult. That wonderful in between age. I enjoy talking with photographers like you who exhibit an eye for line and form within your photographs. I am in So Calif and envy you the chance to photograph in NY. I have a couple friends who live there and will visit them soon. You have some very nice images. Keep shooting. One suggestion, work from different angles. Lower, higher, don't worry about "level". With your sense of space and form, I think you might benefit from the viewpoint. Have you ever thought of putting together say 10 or so images at 5x7 or 3even 8x10 on single weight paper and crafting a book? I think your images are worth it.

Maria, I have images up at usefilm.com (member-james mickelson)if you would like to see some of what I photograph. You can also check out my credentials there from the people on chat. I only have a couple images here as I am PC and scanning challenged. But I have printed for a few people here who have loved my prints of their work. I teach LF printing and photography. Again I would enjoy printing this image for you at any size you would like and as many prints as you would like. I use FB papers and finish them archivally. I really think this could go to 16x20 given a few tricks and look wonderful. Do you print this conventially or digitally? This is an exquisite image and should be given all the care it deserves. Take very good care of this negative. Let's talk.

Maria, I am very very interested in talking to you about obtaining a print of this. If you can't print it, I would be honored to make you as many prints of this as you would like in any size you would like. I am a master printer and this is the stuff photographic dreams are made from. Love to talk with you. Let me know. James

I don't know about the rest of you, but this is superb on many levels. This image alone stands with some of the best I've seen of this genre. Stiglitz and Strand would be proud of this image were it theirs. I would love to know how I may obtain a print. I would love to have this hanging in my gallery. As to a discussion of the technical merits, this hits the ceiling. As to whether the figure should have been "placed" differently? That is a moot point because he helps anchor the scene and give it real depth and that human touch. This image comes alive with him included. The sense of him going away is wonderful. A responders mention that the "placement" of him in the position of thirds, is irrelevent. It is not a cliche by any means. Going away creates tension within the scene. I love it.

I would have liked this image much better as a black and white without the people. And as a time exposure so that the water was a soft monochrome and the stark tree trunks as an abstract element. The people are so much different than the starkness of the rest of the scene and the two graphic elements just don't go together for me.

I cropped it a little off the top and liked it much more. The top white area bothers my eye. I like what is going on in the lower portion of the image. Very dynamic abstract here and I like the colors.

I like this rendition much better. The other view had her right eye hidden in dark shadow. Very pretty model.

I'm not thrilled with this image except that within it is a subject which could have been explored much more. That subject is the hanging lamp and it's shadow. Try it again.

I like this image very much. Nice leading lines and the birds make it interesting. The colors are nice too. The foreground grasses give it some depth. Overall a nice image.

Richard, while I like this image very much for it's story telling, I think it could have been in the outstanding catagory with just a few touches. This image is one of those that many, including me, would love to have in their portfolios but I would like you to consider making it even more. There is so much wasted space here. A lot of wasted light and action. The little girl, the frantic mother(?) the man with the radio entering the scene, the man helping stabilize the victim. All of them could be brought together in a more impactful way by using the light properly. The victim is in wonderful light. Not to bright as is the frantic mother. All the other people here should be darkened as their prominence decreases. And the background car, pavement, should go very dark to isolate the man stabilizing the girls head and the girl who is definately the center of attention here along with the frantic mother. That area focusing on the little girls arms, to her face and the frantic mother along with just the helpers face and forearms should be the tones that are here. I'd like to see everything else brought down dramatically. See Doug Burgess' image of the old woman in the station waiting room(though not that extreme) and see how the central characters can be isolated from the extraneous elements here and the image becomes so much more dramatic. You have an image that many photographers would love to have. Now make it even more dramatic and make the rest of us drool with envy. Nice image.

I think this is an outstanding image. I see a lot of street scene images like this but what really sets this apart from most of the others is the use of the blur around the outer edges. Just enough but not too much. Very subtle. It adds a lot of atmosphere to this starkly, cold, blustery winter scene. And another thing that sets it off nicely are the leading lines. I can feel what it would be like to walk around what to me is a foreign place in a very different environment. And add to that the shadows on the snow and ice that really sets this image in a very northern latitude. The human subject seen here hurrying down the street leaning against that cruel cold wind really gives this image that bleak feeling. Great work.

This is outstanding. A great image in the same vain as the famous Minimata series. I like the crop as it was presented in the original Doug. The upper empty space here gives it a spacious feeling helping to make her much smaller, isolating her against the world and conveying the emptiness of the room. The barely discernable people behind her exagerate this spacious atmosphere and by allowing them to go to almost to black it isolates her very well. The deep black works very well here giving her a luminous quality lost in the other renditions. I love the metaphore about her ageedness. Lovely idea well executed. congratulations Doug.

And if you can find time Jeff, please come down to San Diego and attend my show at The Poway Heritage Museum. The reception is the 23rd of February 5-8 pm. 15 to Poway Rd. east to Midland and left to Poway Midland Railroad and Park. Love to see you there. James

Jeff, I have been viewing your images for quite some time now. I think you have a good eye. This image warrants POW. One poster likened this to D. Fokos and felt you didn't give him the recognician he felt D. deserved. I disagree. D. didn't take this picture. Nor did McKenna nor Bill Brandt. And a host of others before them. You took this photo and translated your ideas very well. I have similar images such as this and I don't think that they are of any less value than any other artists images. Try and take a picture today that is truly unique. I bet Tris can't either. As for better equipment and rules.....to hell with them.

I will put forth a descenting viewpoint as far as contrast here. I think the contrast here is right on but for the snow being to dull and grey. Everything else is right on the money. What you failed to do and failed to mention is what was the contrast range of the scene to begin with? You need to know that before you can set the correct exposure. Here the exposure is a little flat but the camera handled it well considering it knows zip except that it was pointed at a light grey spot on something and so took an average exposure +.7. next time find out what the contrast rang3 in the scene is and compensate so the white comes out white and you still have a good black in the deep shadows. You decide not the camera. James

Ooooooooooo!!!!!!! I like this! Very nice image. Good contrast. Nice detail. Veery good balance. Feels very still and peaceful. james

This would have been incredibly effective cropped. The little boy is so insignificant in this version. There is a lot of extraneous information here. All the extra space on the left hand side of the gate isn't needed to tell a good story. Nor is the area above the gate. The little boy tells the whole story. Not the space around him. Let the mind fill in that part of the scene. And I like the idea and how you have handled the color here. James

Hey now that is one nice image. Really great contrast. I would like to see a little bit of detail in the shadows though. I like the symitry here. And the black sky. But if you could keep a little more white in the clouds it would really add more impact here. Why don't you come over to usefilm.com and post this. There are some very good photographers over there who could giove you a little more critique. James

Hey Jeff, long time no see. Great image. I like the idea here. Great contrast. We were supposed to get together and shoot. What happened? Hey why don't you start posting some of these on usefilm.com. we'd like to have you join us there. Let me know if you still want to shoot. And when you visit usefilm.com please take a look at my portfolio. James

Can you imagine where this could have gone with large format? I just think it could have been much more powerful with everything in focus and with a changed perspective. A lot of options here. Printing could have been a lot better. That's not a criticism. There is so much going on here that doesn't show up because of the printing. I love this image. But it could have been much more than it is. Keep going.

 

Nice image. I like it. She's a little out of proportion in places but that's just my view. The idea is intriguing. Good Shopping. You an Ulesman fan?

Now this is good. I'd like to see the edges burned down to keep the eye from wandering out of the frame. Not much but the enormous amount of white here is distracting. Great model. And that is good hair movement. If the gal in the wheatfield could have had that hair I would have given it a higher score.

To much sky and the out of focus stubble along the bottom really distracts from the model who is absolutely gorgeous. To bad you couldn't have gotten more hairspray and made the hair really flow in the wind. Would have been more provokative.

Gosh but for some great clouds. The image needs something to complete it. The sky is a big blank. The internal contrast is to flat. Nice scene. Go back when there are some really nice spreading cirrus in the sky and take this again.

One of the most creative geniuses of our time. Long live the yellow snow. Burnt weenie sandwiches all around. And "why does it hurt when I pee?/!!!"