laurentlacoste

A really good one, Amal. The soft monochromatic tones are beautiful and allow the viewer to concentrate on the harmonious lines that create the composition.

A very peaceful and serene image, Jeff. I particularly like the close-up approach, the perfect crop and the PS work that enhances the subject even more.

A beauty. A very successful image in every respect, plus the gorgeous PS work enhancing the light that is the icing on the cake. 

Markku, you've seemed to be on an endless roll for quite a long time now. This nice Buddy Bear of yours might bring you a lot more good things some of these days, that your talent surely deserves. Thanks for asking about my opinions on your Zenfolio Bear series. I left a few comments there for you to read.

The best of luck to you.

It seems this image struck the same chord in the three of us even before I read your title. It made me think of my old philosophy lessons and Plato's dicussions.

Another wonderful image, Markku, that resonates deeply in the mind AND the soul of the curious viewer. 

Beauty! Love the painterly effect and the color palette that make this composition look like a cross between Hopper and the Flamish masters.

This is really worth viewing larger to fully appreciate the details that create the mood the picture inspires. The warm sunset colors and the light have been beautifully treated . I find the details in the sky wonderful.

Is that the return of the politician? 

The contrast between the natural and the artificial is a great conveyor of meaning that supports our interpretation of the image . On the one hand the natural soft-colored texture of the aged wooden house, on the other hand the artificial brightly-colored celluloid texture of the poster that displays the politician's image. A meaningful opposition that is very well-seen. 

Beauty, Drew. Love it!

A beautiful study in blue. This one reminds me of Klee. 

Beauty. Love the textures and soft colors on this one.

The first thing I thought about when looking at this portrait was the great humanist photographers of the past and I found the composition, the expression on his face as well as the feel of the whole image very well presented. The various crops suggested by other posters have taken a lot of the soul and core of the image. It had to be left as Jeff posted it. It can be OK at times to use tight crops, but here placing the character in his environment added meaning and atmosphere to the image. I liked Gordon's version which offered something different without betraying the spirit of the image. Emmanuel's looked a bit too dark and "graphic" in my opinion.

The coexistence of the characters on the photograph and of those outside in the real world create an intriguing atmosphere which your PS work enhances beautifully as usual. What is also striking is the contrast between the B&W treatment that gives a vintage feel of things gone to the image and the fact that the characters, especially those on the "photo in the photo" seem so alive and present (more in fact than the real ones outside the frame). This relationship between stillness and life shown in a paradoxical way is very interesting to me and could be linked to a reflection about the meaning of photography itself.

Beauty. Love Jack's comment on this one. Spot on.

Great aquarium we have here, Markku. I'm in awe in front of the visual beauty of this picture. I particularly like the fluid texture of the plastic screen and the effect it produces on our perception of the scene. It acts as a sort of filter that makes us comfortably look at the scene like spectators protected from the outside world. Some kind of a cocooning effect. On top of that, all the ingredients that compose your unique approach are also there to make another winning image by you.

Jack, thank you. I'm still into the reading of the great humanist photographers these days. I love the deep empathy they had for their subjects as well as their eye for composition. I discovered the work of Boubat a few weeks ago and was amazed at how modern his photography was. I wish I could be that good.

Jeff, thank you so much for visiting. It is true that color always plays a great part in my photographying decisions, but I must say that I don't deserve the compliment in so far as I have a very good camera that reproduces color brilliantly. I remember making up my mind on the D2X when it came out because I liked the quality of its images and the way it handled color best, although its price was far higher than what I had expected to spend on a camera !

Thank you, Linda. It's always a pleasure to see that old friends are still here, well and posting! It is true that I've felt less prone to post images lately. 

These latest posts seem to show more PS experiments from you. Very nice atmosphere, light effect and color on this one, and a good image either with or without the pipes at the top.

Has Amal come to Japan on a shooting journey with you? This image immediately made me think of him. The crowd in the background makes it for me. Very nice expressions on all of their faces.

Well...weird indeed. Is that a space invader? What is that big thing in the middle of his body for?...On second thought, I'd rather not think about it.  

Seriously, I like the shot, Jack.

I love the composition here, and the color of course. Those orange labels perfectly scattered on the background are a treat against the blue foreground. I did a shot a little like this one last year which I think I hadn't posted so far, as it was far less of a keeper than yours. Here it is...just for you, Linda!

Beauty, Linda. I particularly like the way you handled color on this one. 

A pleasure reading you again. I think you're right. It's all about truth, about integrity, about being sincere trying to look at things beyond the surface and hopefully succeeding in getting better no matter where you start. Everybody has to live up to their own standards, I guess. On the contrary, what I tend to dislike most is that kind of shallow-mindedness that makes everybody do the same thing to be up-to-date, and we see a lot of that in the artistic field too.

P.S.: Jack, thanks for the compliment about my English, though to be honest I must confess that I see it as I see my photography. Neither of them is good enough to me, so that it often feels frustrating when I find myself unable to extend my vocabulary to the point of being really accurate. 

I couldn't agree more with what you've just written above about what happens to the beginner and his ego, about being under the impression that everything we do is fresh and new at the outset.  Yet, I really had the impression that few other people liked to do the kind of pictures our little group of friends already liked to do about five or six years ago. I mean the kind of approach our favorite shooters on Pnet seemed to favor. Well, I don't know what on earth has been goin' on over the last year or two, but suddendly it seems that I am seeing the kind of pictures we loved to take everywhere on TV or at the cinema these days. You know, every commercial or music clip is full of poles, posts, traffic cones, traffic lights and signs and so on... Have you also noticed that trend in the countries where you all live ? Well, I know that famous photographers ( like Shore, for instance) are hired by advertising agencies to direct important commercials and music clips, but it seems that there's a fashion at the moment of doing things after those great American photographers. Every advertiser seems to be making images that look like Eggleston's, Shore's or others I may not know, with the addition of a digital touch...Unless they just checked out on photo.net and stole our own ideas!!! (just kidding, but who knows after all?) In a sense, sounds like a pity , doesn't it? What used to be unique or rare becomes cheap and repeated until it becomes a cliché...It seems that ideas circulate so fast nowadays with new technology that they become obsolete before the next day has come...

To conclude, let me second the other posters about the quality of this picture. And that's what counts in the end.

Jack, I know I kinda seem to pop in from nowhere after such a long time away. Great seeing everybody's works again. I haven't quite found the motivation to post lately, although I still like taking pictures. Well, at least I bought a few good books by the greats to read recently. Boubat, and one by Doisneau in Palm Springs in 1960. Doisneau documented the famous resort for Fortune magazine back then and took some fine series of color pictures there. Great book, I'm sure you would like it, and Kent would too.