eric_zimmerman1

I didn't realize the glider was airborne at first either. I saw the shot and cringed at the imminent accident! (I guess you use the low tow position in Australia.)

Thanks for the clarification! With the lack of visual cues and the odd angle, I thought I was looking at a plane that had spun into a snowbank.

Multiple exposures aren't usually my cup of tea but this one, well, it just works.

Very interesting. I like the moodiness of the scene. And the laundry sign is great!

Michael Le, the reason that he wouldn't show up in the image is that he was only there for a fraction of a second during an 8-hour exposure. So the fraction of the light he blocked in any one area was something like one twenty-thousandth. Hardly enough of a difference to be visible on film.

 

As for illuminating the foreground in some other time exposures, it's true that the light would only be on for a small fraction of the exposure time. But a flashlight on the sand is many thousands of times brighter than starlight, so if done right the total light cast by the flashlight over a few seconds could be comparable to the light cast by the stars in a few hours. There's also reciprocity failure which enhances the flashlight even more, but that's a technical detail which doesn't change the basic argument.

The medals are actually campaign decorations, which anybody who served through most of WWII would have.

My guess, given the date and his apparent age, is that he served in WWI.

It looks like a gigantic train arriving....

I do love this shot -- as I've previously commented on another of Tsotras' images, these 'step-streets' always remind me of the Bronx (as seen in a lousy record shot). There's nothing uniquely Parisian here -- it's a scene familiar to any very dense city built on hills. The image has a coziness that anyone who has lived in such a city would recognize: "it's a big city, but every hill is different, and this hill is home."

Wow-- this is beautiful. A dramatic take on Industrial Revolution architecture.

 

I would have done two things a little differently -- stepped back a little to get a little more of the top bridge (especially on the left, where it reall looks cut off), and printed one grade higher in contrast.

A powerful shot in the tradition of pre-WW2 Soviet propaganda photos. (This is actually a compliment -- Rodchenko is one of my favorite photographers.)

I love the pavement pattern!

 

But.... something about the legs looks awkward to me. I can't quite explain why, though. Perhaps it would have been better if the legs had been walking, rather than just standing there?

OK, I think I've gotten as much shadow detail out of this as my

scanner can produce while leaving the blacks pretty black. Comments on

the digital darkroom work or the photo itself are welcome.

Is this a photo or a painting? :) Nice.

Well, clearly it's a photo of a painting. :-)

I agree with those who say the dodging halo is distracting, but then again, distracting dodging/burning artifacts are a pet peeve of mine. :-)

 

But I DO like the photo! I like the way the top of the accordion forms an extension of her right arm, and I like the way the folds of the accordion mirror the waves in her hair. There's more than a bit of sexiness in it, in fact. I'd like to know what her face looks like, but in this view it might grab too much attention. Perhaps a diptych with a more frontal shot would work?

I very much like the composition, but I think the image would work better with a little less PS work, and especially less saturation. The hazy sky and blue mountains look fake, and the dark halo around the turban makes the fellow appear pasted in.

The composition is worthy of Cartier-Bresson. I do agree with those who suggest that the background is too sharp.

This is actually a cleverer shot than it seems at first. I'm imagining everyone else in the flight lounge praying that these two won't be sitting in their row. :-)

This is one of the best photographs in a dramatically good folder. I very much like the angle -- it's vaguely reminiscent of the style of Rodchenko, one of my favorite photographers.

This is really stunning.

 

(Does anyone else see a sleeping polar bear on each bench?)

 

No, I don't think she was. :)

I don't think the tracks are intrinsically ugly -- I find the patterns interesting, especially the way perspective makes the tracks smaller on each dune as you look toward the background. I think it gives the image a sort of fractal look.

 

But there's no question that the buggies themselves are environmentally destructive in these large numbers. The Imperial Dunes area has been controversial recently -- the dune buggy use is so intense that it has killed nearly all the vegetation off. The dune field is divided by a highway. Buggies are forbidden on one side of the road, and the dunes look completely different there. The Sahara-with-tracks view here, though I find it visually interesting, is not the natural condition.

Yes, the snow really is that blue -- this was taken just before sunset.

 

As for the foreground, I never thought of shortening it -- I don't think you can cut too much without losing the effect of the long shadows from the trees and walker converging toward the sun.

Oh, I like it very much. I also see the "Moonrise, Hernandez" parallel, though the difference is obvious: as with everything else, the Swiss have the most orderly graveyards in the world!

This is very nice ... wish you had a larger scan to show more detail.

 

BTW, are you sure this is Nebraska? Looks rather Wyomingish to me. I've seen a lot of Nebraska's western hills but nothing quite this mountainous.

Hey, shouldn't it be two pair, not aces full?

 

Good job -- the old silver dollars are a nice touch.