elaine_roberts1

I like your "Passages" series best of all, and I like this photo the best of those. It is perfectly balanced in every dimension - line, form, shape, color, and density. The golden mean formed by the telephone pole/wires. The two lights and the stop sign form a triangle on top of that. Almost monochrome - but then, just enough color softly filtering through the snow to make it interesting. Makes me miss Minnesota (even in winter)!

I like the shot, but this doesn't seem like pj to me...more like a pic of a play!

A pity about that one reed through the middle - but a beautiful shot nonetheless. I love the position of the bird, the out of focus leaves...beautiful.

The more I look at this image the more I like at. At first glance, it just looks like...a road. If you stare at it for a few more seconds, it takes on a much more aesthetic quality. I love the subtle variations of the dirt, the graphic contrast of the road cutting through. Perfectly balanced & exposed.

Nice job with exposure....it is pleasant and peaceful, takes me there.

I love the image itself, but the crop feels a little funny...sort of like I want to chop a bit off the right side to put the frame into more standard proportions. I think doing so would boost the overall movement within the frame.

This is an amazing portrait. It may have been candid, but it reminds me of a 19th century posed portrait: perfectly framed and posed, in a frilly dress. She looks almost like a china doll. The only thing wanting is a nice warm sepia tone ( I think that sepia would show off the image better than straight black and white). Marvalous!

Nice exposure; not quite sure on the framing. It seems cropped a bit tight - it took me a while to figure out the context. Ciao~ER

What a powerful familial image! The woman gazing straight at the viewer, dead center, evokes a madonna-type of image. This is a picture about women: the three (poss. four) women/girls in the picture are staring at the viewer, perfectly still, whereas the little boys run about their business. It evokes the traditional role of the woman in the home. This reminds me of a painting, a certain painter, can't remember which. Beautiful balance and division of b & w. I love it!

I love this portrait. This little girl doesn't strike me as particularly sad; looking at her eyes she looks more like she's dreaming, staring into her own little world of imagination. You have captured a beautiful moment. Have you thought of adding a little yellow and a littel red to the color balance to warm it up? I think it would add a lot. CIAO~ Elaine

A striking profile, but there's too much shoulder and too little head. Next time I'd recommend shifting the camera up to get rid of some of those superfluous stripes on the bottom and include the top of her head. Ciao~ ER

You've done a good job getting in close, but there are a couple of suggestions. First, having these flowers dead center sucks the energy out of them (and they also appear a bit out of focus). Second, the other blotches of colour in the background distract from the main subject. I'd suggest experiementing a bit with wide angle and tele, taking time to compose the background too. Also the stem running down the middle of the pic isn't very flattering for the subject ;) Ciao ~ ER

yay - a fellow Minnesotan! Regarding this shot - I like the atmosphere of it (where did you do the shoot?) What bothers me a bit is the pose; it seems a little awkward for a woman, at least from this angle.....Her legs and rear, while certainly not large, are not flattered by this angle....As I said though, I like the atmosphere, and the expression is great for this sort of shot.

 

Well, cheers! Take care ~

 

Elaine

Hmm, I like the moon...I like the sky...I like the branches....but the big out-of-focus thing in the bottom foreground keeps distracting me.

 

Other than that....I like it - the out of focus branches make it it interesting - if they were sharp this would be just a boring moon shot. Like this it conjures up haunted houses and storybooks....

 

Cheers ! ER

This is a terrific image. It's very dynamic; I don't know that you could get much more dynamic - and as always, your printing is beautiful and balances tonality well. But what really makes this image work for me is the kid's expression, especially the girl in front. She's not giggling like the others; she's staring intently and a bit cautiously at the camera. In the context of the rest of the photo, this makes me think of 'x-files' somehow, like this is a poster for a sci-fi film of some sort....very surreal. Also - was this shot at this angle, or only printed that way? If the latter, I woudl be interested in seeing an untilted print; it woudl have a very different feel to it, but also be a strong image.

 

Cheers!

 

Elaine

Interesting portrait. I like the moodiness of te lighting; did you use a flash, or was that just how the light was that day? What makes this a terrific image is your 'printing'; you've really used the darkroom's tools to your advantage. Light and dark are well-balanced. Also, it is a very interesting expression; mid-laugh, it would seem, with no eye contact. And yet, it works......I also like how the light in the sky forms almost a halo around his head. I disagree about putting him to the right; maybe it would have worked, but it would hav ebeen more cliche. This is a time, I think, where the rule of thirds doesn't necessarily apply. Cheers ~ ER

It may be unavoidable, but the stamen's shadow is very distracting....Otherwise, i like the composition and black/white theme.

Interesting work. I like the sky and the silhouettes. A couple of suggestions: have you tried putting the moon and star further towards the upper right third of the frame? That way the people appear to be looking at it. Also, I think you need only about half the black on the bottom; you don't need much shadow to balance out a sky like that. But overall its a creative concept. Cheers, ~ER

Lovely exposure. I would however either crop or clone out the bit of leaves at the left. The composition is carried off well, though; the sky dominates, yet showcases the land.

The tilt angle seems just a bit extreme in this case...I worry for him falling over. Good exposure though.

These two characters look like they could come out of a Mark Twain story or perhaps Chekhov. I like the intensity of the man's expression, and the dog's adoring gaze. Something about the composition was bothering me though, and I realized it's the man's position in the frame; he and the dog are sort of floating just off center, leaving that big white gap behind him. I think cropping a bit off either side would strengthen the composition and help focus the attention on the subjects.

 

 

I don't find the window distracting. Had these two been standing in front of a blank wall, you'd have had nothing; a boring shot with no interest. This shows them in a specific environment. It adds to the photo's charm.

Thanks for the comment, Ville. You hit the nail right on the head, as it were - the original is quite boring; not a bad shot, but with lots of white sky and such. I was trying, with my PS work, to produce an image that combined the feel of a deep red (bw) filter (for the sky), and ir film (ie the foreground leaves). I couldn't tell you exactly what I did. It involved some gradations in the sky, burning, layered levels, and a couple of effects filters.

 

This is one of my favorite images. What do you think?

Comments/ratings appreciated. ~ ER

I prefer the uncropped version. The extra space does just that - it creates a sense of space. You have a knack for group photos; this one is expressive and moody - it captures a moment in history. I love it. I would only reccommend cropping out the bit of film edge on the left.

Wow! What incredible light. A shot like this takes patience and good luck. I think I might have chosen a different subject to showcase the light - or arranged the trees a bit differently, but its still a great shot.