mikemorrellNL

What a wonderful article, Sam! Many thanks for the link. (As a Brit) I'd never heard of George Hurrell. It was truly fascinating to read (and see) just how innovative and creative he was in his use of 'lighting'. He obviously had many other (social?) talents in becoming a preferred photographer of Hollywood stars. But his innovative ideas about 'lighting' were truly transformative.

For @samstevens (and others), these are the color versions. Interested too to hear what you think the B/W versions have lost and gained compared to the color versions. BTW. the color versions look way much 'redder' on PN than on my Laptop screen (Lightroom)! Although I did correct the color balance in Lightroom. The 'Free Dance' session was followed by a well-moderated 1-hour evaluation and discussion session. A quick individual (card-written) evaluation of what participants felt 'Free Dancing' meant most to them. Followed by a rotating series of 1-1 'speed dating' discussions between individual particpants based on a set of questions. The last 'event' of the morning was to enjoy a tasty home-made lunch together 🙂. TBH I love being involved in (voluntarily) photgraphing this kind of local event! Including 'burst shorts' (dance) and a few photos of the evaluatiion session, I took almost 350 'shots' from which I delivered my 23 'best' photos. Different photos from different perspectives and with different focal lengths (from close-ups to wide-angle). TBH, my ISO (and shutter speed) were lower than they should have been. Still, my 'client' was delighted 🙂. So these are just 2 of the 23 that I think best expres the idea of 'Free Dancing'. OT: My (volunteer) colleague wrote up an article of the morning in which she included some quotes from participants during the 'speed-dating'. Perhaps unsuprisingly, they expressed benefits with a much wider scope than movement/dance. They extedended into their better sense of 'self' and a greater sense of confidence and freedom in their everyday lives. For largely 60-plussers, I find this remarkable!

OK I'm going to go for a 'critique' again. At a local social center, I took (by invitation) some photo's of an activity called 'Free dancing'. In other words, anything - in terms of movement - goes. This activity is open to young and old and also to users of walking frames, wheelchairs and mobility scooters. My original (digital) photos were in color. But I likea few B/W versions that showt 'the form' without the color differences. I haven't spent much time on the B/W conversion. Just picked a 'look' I liked in Silver Efex Pro. Any comments/suggestions much appreciated!

I've learned more about photography from Michael Freeman's books than from any other source. Notably from 'The photographer's eye' and 'The photographer's mind'. Though I have a couple of other of his books, including 'The complete guide to Light and Lighting'.. I can't compare how his (now older) books compare with more modern alternatives. And certainly not with those that focus on 'portraits'. I just note that in 'The complete guide to Light and Lighting'., he does touch on portraits throughout the book and only really 'zooms in' on portrait lighting alternatives in the the last section of the book. The book is not solely focused on 'portraits' but if your can pick up a cheap copy, I would recommend it. In the last section of the book. he illustrates how 'lighting' affects a portrait. I learned from it. I don't have it, but you might also want to check out Michael Freeman's book 'Michael Freeman's School: Portraits'. I'm a fan of Michael Freeman because - in his books - he focuses on the aesthetics of a photo (intention, composition, movement, color, etc) and not on the 'tech' used to capture and produce a photo. I also like his his 'learning style' that there are no easy 'recipes' or ''quick fixes' for photographers. They each have to experiment with and develop their individual style of photography. Mike

Sorry to hear that you spent many days in bed. But I really like these abstract photo's! Amazed at your creativity and 'photographic eye'! Best wishes, Mike

I'm neither a B/W or an architectural photographer. So I have all respect for the comments of other members above. Having said that, I wouldn't change a thing! I think that it's a wonderful, well-composed B/W photo. I love the variation: in B/W contrasts from 'harsh' (dark grey to light grey) to very subtle (graduated). The wide variation in textures adds a lot to the photo. Finally, the perspective from the from the 'formal foreground' along the 'leading curve' of the staircase to the people at the back is magical. The story the photo tells me is that 'the formal foreground' is impressive w.r.t architecture but 'empty of humanity'. 'Humanity' is found clustering together in the far background, far removed from the 'formality'.

+1 for me.

Artwork at Antwerp central station. Post-processed in Nik Silver Efex

I'm delighted, @pavel_l.! Great visualization! Mike

I haven't posted photos on PN for many years. In conversation with another PN member I realized that it was high time I updated my 'Personal Album' with some photos that were less than 10 years old 😉. In that period, 95% of the photos I take are as a 'voluntary photographer' for various local not-for-profit organizations. They have implicit 'ownership' over the publication of my photos (whatever the laws say) so it just doesn't feel right to me to publish these photos on PN. I have a small group of close friends (now all women) who from time visit art museums. Usually as a 'birthday treat' where the person whose birthday is it is gets to choose where we go and goes for free. Yesterday, we visited the 'Panamarenko house' in Antwerp. I'd never heard of 'Panamarenko' and I'm sure you haven't either. But I found the visit really fascinating. 'Panamarenko' is considered an artist, especially in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. He was also much wider acclaimed. He qualified as an 'artist' from the Belgian Art Academy. Yes, he made many 2-D visual artworks, but his main interests were 3-D objects related to 'flight'. His main 'artistic activities' were therefore design, engineering and construction. I found it fascinating to look his very cluttered house (and all his junk)! Everything gave the impression that he was a 'scatter-brained artist', flitting between various unfinished projects, leaving all his copious junk wherever it had fallen. In contrast, his extensive book and VHS collections were well-ordered. Although this post (with the exception of photos taken by and of him) has little to do with photography, I just want to mention that I for the first in a long time felt inspired to take some photos (on my mobile phone). This is absolutely not an 'ad' but I've uploaded couple of photos to my album.

I saw a post on PN about editing the details of published photos. Intrigued, I did a couple of 'experiments' My findings are: - Within 15 minutes of uploading a new photo, the "Manage Photo' button includes an option to 'Manage Details', including options to change the name and description of the photo. - After 15 minutes the 'Manage Details'' option under the 'Manage Photo' button disappears; the 2 remaining options are 'report' or 'delete 'If you feel that the right title and description is important for your photos then my advice is to upload photos to PN one at a time. Within 15 minutes you give each photo your preferred title and description.

Hi John, I'm long retired but I'm still quite curious to find out why some websites don't work as you'd expect them to. My only involvement in a couple of local 'not-for-for-profit' websites in entirely voluntary. So as a PN member, I read your post with curiosity! Following a couple of 'experiments', I think (suspect) that I've figured things out. I'll post my 'findings' to the PN 'Help' forum too. Experiments I've just upload 3 'test images' to my personal Album and I think (suspect) I've figured things out. I uploaded my 1st 'test' photo to my album, faffed about a bit and it didn't seem to matter whether I uploaded a new photo to an existing Album or tried to edit an existing photo. The only 2 options I saw under 'Manage Image' were a) Report Image and b) Delete image. As far as I knew then, you could just upload images with any remaining Exif data. You can usually 'strip' some or all Exif data when exporting from a post-processing program. Though again, I personally believe that including Exif data really helps other members in figuring out 'how did she/he take this shot?' On the upload of my 2nd photo, I was a bit quicker off the mark. Suddenly the 'Manage Image' options also included a 3rd option: 'Edit Details'' (including adding a custom title and description). I added a 3rdphoto and the 'Edit details' option was still available for my 2nd an 3rd photos. I can only guess that the 15 minutes 'time-out' on editing posts also applies to editing 'photo details'. When you upload a photo, you also have the option of adding 'tags' (which I assume will be used in searching for photos). Summary I realize that this doesn't t help help you with your existing photos on PN but hopefully for future photos. You of course always have the option of deleting your best photos and uploading them again and editing 'the details' within 15 minutes. Hope the helps, Mike