steve_bingham

You bet. e-mail me. Meanwhile, this is an outstanding image.

Just a delightful artistic rendition!

Just another lonely sole looking for a way home.

This very lonely doll was found stuck in a decomposing wall in a

rapidly deteriorating old home in the ghost town of Dos Cabezas,

Arizona. I think she misses her friend. Perhaps she is dead by now.

I will try to be gentle. The most glaring error is one of composition. Yours is very static. It has no place for the eye to go but dead center. No movement. You need light balancing dark, you need the eye to wander - to have movement, to want to explore. You have slammed a pretty rose in our face and said LOOK.

 

Your photo is also a little soft, lacking that pin point sharpness for such a photo. Your greens are way off but can be corrected in Photoshop. (Image-Adjust-Selective Color - Green - then tweak)

 

Might I suggest getting in closer. Change the lighting for a little more dynamic or dramatic effect. I say all these things assuming you are what you say - a student desiring to improve. I sincerely hope this helps. In one of my classes this would have been a C+. As a casual snapshot I would give it a B+.

 

I know nobody ever critiques in this critique forum - but you just got one.

Thanks folks. I sure appreciate your input. This sort of stuff is fun for me - making discoveries. Nothing serious about it.

Harder to do than it looks! Great phot. I wonder how tightly you needed to crop?

. . . and to the sea we shall return.

I know! Blue is my favorite color.

I have seen this tried dozens of times. This is the best to date!

A really excellent model. Published twice (magazine and book)

This was a fun shoot!

Excellent! Great art.

Another in the Bombay Beach series. The Salton Sea rose and gradually

buried an entire community is salty water - then decades later

receded and left these skeletons.

R Jackson.

Yes, that would have worked also. Good eye.

You will notice, however, that the chair is there to demand attention - and placed both where horizontal and vertical thirds intersect - and demanding all the attention I wished to give it. A strong diagonal from the left would have diminished this effect while creating another. I wished for a moody and solem composition.

The Salton Sea rose and wiped out entire communities - then receded

leaving skeletons behind.

I love this. I am surprised you saw it - being upside down. Good eye!

I sure like your subject matter. However, it is lacking strength. Perhaps some stronger cross lighting? Maybe even a little dodging and burning and a little more vibrancy to bring it to life. Gotta give it more life/interest. Just one man's opinion.

My son - looking for direction. Bombarded with emotions. Knowing

something must be done but not knowing what. Feeling a sense of

urgency, yet trapped in the very place he is. No matter where you go,

there you are. Change must always begin in mind.

 

This started out as an actual photograph, by the way. He was walking

through the forest, looking for a way out.

Simply amazing - shot, after shot, after shot. You, my friend, are one of the reasons I DON'T do landscapes! There are others out there (you, as a prime example) that do it so much better. The dedication, time, expertise, sense of art, and shear physical energy required is possessed by damn few. Take a bow!

I love this photo - and your entire portfolio. It is so refreshing to see such good art on photo.net. You are now in my very short "favorite" list.

Wonderful! What a "breath of fresh air"! Now ,excuse me while I go visit the rest of your photos! (I bumped into this masterpiece accidentally)

A strange photo which certainly causes the mind to move - to wonder. The composition is strong and dynamic - to the point of being unsettling. That's a real plus.

I photographed these bath tubs in an old abandoned hospital in

the "ghost town" of Jerome. While wandering around the "empty"

building I picked up a couple of discarded Polaroids left by a

homeless couple. I immediately recognized the man in one of the

photos as the man who had murdered one of my female employees by

strangling her with a vacuum hose wrapped around her neck. He was 6'

4", she was 4' 11". He is currently serving a 20 year term.

 

And then I forgot about the incident. A year later I was putting

together a collage, letting my mind have free rein as I usually do,

and when I was finished - totally finished - I was dumb struck by

what my sub-conscious mind had done. I had, without conscious

thought, extracted my revenge!

 

Since that time I have come to realize that all my collages have a

much deaper meaning (upon later viewing). And so, I work very hard at

NOT pre-conceiving them before I start. Does this deeper meaning

reach other people? Who knows. It doesn't matter.

Thanks, Susan. Just having fun, nothing serious!

Thanks for the reminder. It seems not a week goes by that another innocent child drowns in a pool in the Valley (Phoenix and surrounding areas). These sad events often make the newspapers and TV, and yet they continue - week, after week, after week. Your documentary work is excellent, by the way.