bernhard

It's a technically excellent portrait and the girl / your daughter has a very interesting expression. Overall a very successful portrait. I, as an amateur, would be proud if had taken this photograph.

 

On the other hand, when I pay a professional photographer (not some guy at Walmart) to take a portrait of my daughter, that's exactly what I expect: a technically well executed portrait. So in my book, a pic like this should be standard, in other words, average and can't be a 7/7, but a 4/4 or at most a 5/5.

Marc,

 

> And I wish Ian could post here again this picture of a kid who just wet his pants."

 

I think is what you're looking for: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=862824

Tony Dummett: "A photograph from another planet ..."

 

Quite the opposite: It's photograph from THIS planet. But everything else Tony said is true, very true.

 

Photography is about showing other people what you have seen. Problem these days (partly in the past as well) is that you don't know if you can believe what you're shown.

 

What this photograph does in a most admirable way is to be authentic. We see what the photographer saw and we simply know it's true. We just know it.

 

 

Remember the film "Being John Malkovich"?

This photograph does right that, put you in the head of another person and let's you see if not experience what he or she did. In an amazingly simply and effortless looking way, where everything else disappears behind the image.

 

A photograph from this planet taken by a photographer that has a deep connection to this planet.

 

True art from one of the greatest photographers I know.

Hi Vuk,

 

Good photographs seem to attract good people.

 

Yeah, I thought about Canada and we will look in this direction as well. As to the Wagner thing, you known, Wagner is very German but he is also history. When talking about about a place to live, I'm more concerned with the future.

 

Why don't you book a one-way flight back to 'Old Europe'? In the end it's human beings that count and not buildings, books or vinyl records.

Peter Daalder: What's happened to Bernhard? Did we give him a scare?

 

---

 

Tony Dummett: shhhh!... ... He's having a word with his wife. "

 

I'm busy reading the literature provided by Peter, checking out jobs, writing CVs, applications and stuff. Sorry for not participating in your nice conversation, I'm enjoying the pic but my families future is what's on my mind now.

this pic and your warm replies, boys my eyes are starting to fill with tears. No kidding here, I'm dead serious.

 

Peter you did immigrate as well? I thought so but wasn't sure.

 

Anyway, there are a couple of good professional, private and family reasons my wife and me are thinking about this.

 

I'm an MD but work as a molecular cell biologist since 1999, my prime expertise would be molecular live cell imaging (sitting long night in front of a microscope). Scientific imaging went digital a long time ago by the way, but I just bought a fresh bottle of Rodinal.

 

My wife is an ENT specialist, board certified with special expertise in allergy and rhinology (=nose stuff). If I has my way she would put the bread on our table and I would work part time and take care of the kids. We got two boys and my older one will start school in fall.

 

Professional perspectives (for both of us), access to good schools, work family balance and the general state of the German society as a whole are all factors in our ongoing decision process. And last not least the people.

 

Peter, I don't know what's your experience, but after we came back from San Diego, the difference in mentality was all too obvious and that's something that makes me feel homesick or faraway-sick so to speak when I think of Australia (including Tasmania) or New Zealand (but not the US, there are plenty of good reasons not to go there), while I tend to feel just sick when I think about Germany.

 

Anyway.

Boys, if we can manage to take heart (read: persuade my wife) and give Down Under a try we might soon meet. I'd love to take a good test sleep on Tony's sofa, we just have to see if your pets get along with my kids who prefer sleeping in their parents' bed.

For some time I'm weighing the pros and cons of leaving Germany and finding a good job and a place for me and my family somewhere Down Under. Well this picture might be able to tip the scales

My first thought was that this is ammunition and a letter. because this image instantly reminded me of a a famous image by Don McCullin called "Fallen North Vietcong" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1202_printroom_boxes/1202_images/box_13_photo_history/13_b/fallen_north_viet_larger.jpg) where his personal belongings including a letter and ammunition are scattered on the ground next to his dead body. This image spawned a thought process which lead to my refusal to go to the army more than 20 years ago (in Germany we still have military draft).

I like it because it looks like a close up shot of a lady with a giant hat (and double chin) watching horses, you know the type of hat and lady you usually see in Ascott. Very British indeed.

 

If only the building had circular windows ...

Recognized this immediately as the WAVE. I know, it's damn hard to make something out of this place that gives the viewer more than instant yawns, but this shot didn�'t achieve this.

 

Sorry [yawn], my bed is callin ' ...

Not sure if anyone cares about my opinion, I've become a rather infrequent visitor around here.

 

The picture has flaws on several levels:

 

Composition wise is nice to have foreground middles ground and background but the movement of the jackal calls for landscape format.

 

Technically the bokeh is apalling. I don't know if it's the lens (which is supposed to be rather good), the body or postprocessing or a combination thereof and it really doesn't matter. The pink flamingos are such an important feature in the pic, that the way they are rendered really drags the pic down.

 

And last not least, there seems to be a touch too much of sharpening.

 

Overall a nice opportunity; not a total failure, but nothing to get too excited about.

 

I won#t rate your pic to spare us all some hazzle, but I'd gice it a 5/4 (O/A).

Thanks for your comment! The "more confident young man/lady" queueing behind is me, taking care and pictures of my little boy.

 

How would you think about rotating 180? (because that would have been exactly my perspective when taking the pic)?

 

When I have some time I'll stop by in your portfolio.

The positive sides of this pic is composition, the negative side is the technical one (tonal rendition).

 

The pic has a strong diagonal composition with an unusual flow to the bottom left (where the snake is going). The contrast between the child and the snake on several levels (weak - dangerous, good - evil) adds even more interest.

 

But the tonality looks rather flat and liveless and that's not only the JPEGs fault.

OK moderators I'll try to discuss the aesthetics, the impact of the resulting image.

 

What sets photography apart from other types of art.

 

IMHO in part it's the subconcious assumption that what you see is/was real and this is what's an integral part of the aesthetics and the impact of photographic images.

 

That's where this picture take the hit in the aesthetics and impact department.

 

In a nutshell: I'm intersted in the beauty of the real world, not how well graphic artists can translate their wet dreams into a images.

 

 

I know that oponions differ, there are those who don't care if something is fake as long as it looks/feels good and this is a universal phenomenon from politics to porn (and everything inbetween). And there are those who don't want to be bull$itted just for the sake of a cheap thrill.

 

What I think is really intersting that in the last years the basic assumption in the viewers has changed radically: A couple of years ago most people simply believed that what one sees in a photograph has a more or less close relationship to reality. Nowadays a significant number/fraction of viewers are ready to suspect that something is manipulated.

 

 

It'll be really exciting to watch the development of new artistic ways of expression that use the connection of photography to reality as an asset (in contrary to manipulated photographs that fight with reality).

 

The big question for me is: How can I make a photgraph that IS real and LOOKS real and nobody doubts it.

 

I think the digital revolution may actually foster such a development, because now there is a real need for it.

Oops, looked at this again at home with my old CRT and there was WAY more detail in the snow. Here at work I have an LCD and not much control over it and here the entirebackground looks just plain white. With the detail in the snow it looks much more realistic (like a photograph) but there is a pink cast in the snow.

 

If nothing else ths shows how different a picture can be received depending on the tghe viewers system and we as photographers have no control over it.

Looks like graphic art, but is probably the result from a few heavy moved sliders in PShop. It's hardly a photo anymore in my book, but it is pretty.

Vanilla sky, but Ilike thebird ...

Incredibly good, everything fits, perfect!

Thanks buddy,

 

Yeah, I know, the step to the right. What can I say, you're all right.

 

I really would like to return the favour of commenting on my piccs, why don't you post a few of yours?

This a POW I really like. I've been to Morocco twice, the first time must have been almost twenty years ago and they have had the same plastic bottles already. This pictures takes me back to Morocco and my trips then and bring them back to live again. In my book this is one of the best things that can be said about a photograph.

 

The picture has a very honest and true character (in several respects). I wouldn't vhange a thing (especially not the water bottle), it's perfects as it is.

 

Finally kudos for pulling of a shot like this with a long exposure and tripod setup and still keeping the man relaxed AND saving the image from underexposed print film, which is much harder than saving overexposed print or underexposed slide film.

Babelfish translation: "I have obtained to east effect putting an icy patch in front of brezo. thank you very much"

 

 

You took this pic through a piece of ice? Nice Idea! What I meant is that it look psychedelic (LSD) and asumed it was achieved with photoshop (PSD). Just couldn't resist the wordplay.

congrats!

What's that below her eye. She feels a little tense.

brutal on camera flash, washed out tonality, but the expression of the man and the backdrop that puts the man into a context with his environment kind of save the pic.

better than the other one