Photography - Photo critque

PhotoBanter.com (http://www.photobanter.com/index.php)

- Photographing Nature (http://www.photobanter.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14)

- - Photo critque (http://www.photobanter.com/showthread.php?t=4294)

Any comments on my photos and/or website would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.mvpol.com

The new photos gallery is what I am most interested in getting critiqued,
but I will take anything!!

I am still learning and last time I posted my website I got some very good
advice and I hope that I can continue to learn.

Mark Vander Pol
Soli Deo Gloria

Mark;
You asked for it. I hope I have not been to harsh. I do think you are trying
(which is more than a lot of others) and I do think you could really take
some nice images with some more practice and technique. You seem to have the
drive and creative ideas. So please don¹t get upset if you disagree just say
so.

First: I find highly distracting the White Squares used as a film negative
frames on your New Photos Index Page. It distracts from the thumbnails.

On your new photos, I feel as though you are trying but to me they seem to
not be focused enough on what you are trying to say.

b22 - Canada Geese Taking Off--
Negatives: Birds going away from Photographer; Birds small subject in center
of photo; to many distractions in foreground.

t49 - Dead Tree Trunks: I just don't see the point here. And I don't like
the way they lean to the left.

mi30 - Flag and Trees: Close but no cigar. If the flag could have been right
in the clear area the leaves would have made a nice frame. I also think,
this would be a lot better with it cropped vertical, cutting the left side
off. Nice idea though.

mi35 - Dew on Web: Another nice idea, but there is the bottom left without
dew, and then a lot of the dew is out of focus. It would have been better to
crop to the bottom right area and just get those larger drops in focus for
the entire photo.

p38 - Grasses in Breeze: Nice idea again, but: Is the focus the grasses or
the breeze moving the grasses? To a person just viewing this photo it looks
as though the grasses are out of focus. How could you have made more point
of the grasses being blown in the wind? (I have an idea, but lets see what
other say.)

p40 - Grasses in Breeze: Personally I don't like both verticals and
horizontals in a small photo gallery. Chose the best and leave the other
out. Same comments as before except; I would like to see the front grasses
pop out of the background more.

sil29 - Grasses, Rock and Waterfall: One of the photos I like best. I like
the pattern of the rock and the rocks in the falls.

sil30 - Grasses, Rock and Waterfall: I don't like this one as much as the
previous one. The Grasses seem to be the focus, i.e. they are in focus and
the falls are out of focus. I would like to see variations of this; both
falls & Grass in focus, Falls in focus & Grass out of focus; then these same
images with the water shot at a faster speed, less milky.

sil32 - Stream, Flowers and Trees: Another nice idea. But I would have
cropped the right side out. And made it a vertical. And brought the color up
some more.

df26 - Fall Colors: Nice but I have seen these type of shots all over the
place. What is it that caught your attention here and focus in on saying
that and only that.

p43 - Leaf in Plant: Again I think this could be helped by being cropped
down closer to the subject. The background could be a lot more blurred also,
that would help bring subject out better.

t52 - Dew on Leaves: The background could be less distracting by being made
more blurry by choosing a different aperture. If the subject is the title,
then the dew should be the focus and it doesn't like it is. I do like this
one though. Except fot the bright vertical marks going though the photo.

sia1 - Combine and Grain Cart at Dawn: Nice colors, but don't depend on that
to carry a photo. If you did not have a title I would not have know what on
the bottom left of the photo. It seems to me to be distracting along with
the blocky bottom across the bottom of the photo.

mi36 - Moon Over Barn: Sorry this doesn't do a thing for me. The moon is
just a white dot and the barn roof isn't appealing for any reason. Maybe if
the moon looked more like the moon and it was larger and much closer to the
roof and the roof was unique for some reason might make a difference.

sia3 - Hog Shed and Road: Not that bad but the colors could use some help.
If it supposed to be foggy it needs to be more foggy. The photo just doesn't
pop for me.

Keep shooting.

--
PWW (Paul Wayne Wilson)
Over 1,000 Photographs Online at,
http://PhotoStockFile.com

On 12/13/03 8:46 AM, in article
, "Mark Vander Pol"
wrote:

Any comments on my photos and/or website would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.mvpol.com

The new photos gallery is what I am most interested in getting critiqued,
but I will take anything!!

I am still learning and last time I posted my website I got some very good
advice and I hope that I can continue to learn.

Mark Vander Pol
Soli Deo Gloria

"Mark Vander Pol" wrote in message usenet.com...
Any comments on my photos and/or website would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.mvpol.com

The new photos gallery is what I am most interested in getting critiqued,
but I will take anything!!

I am still learning and last time I posted my website I got some very good
advice and I hope that I can continue to learn.

Mark Vander Pol
Soli Deo Gloria

You do realize there is a lot of this kind of work already in
existence, don't you? There is little need for more of it.

Thanks for the constructive criticism Michael, I appreciate all the help
that I can get while learning the art of photography. Can you please
enlighten me as to what avenue I should be exploring with my photography,
since you seem to know?

I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I couldn't resist.

Mark

Good morning Mark,

I suspect your scans aren't as good as your original Velvia/Provia. I
wouldn't recognize the film from what's on the web.

Looking at your other galleries ... they seem to be better than the new
photos gallery. You have some nice images in your scenics. Looking at your
new photos gallery it seems like you are trying something different but I
can't identify any "guiding principles". If you could find a good
description of the rule of thirds and think about it, you might compose your
shots a little differently.

Also keep in mind a photo that works well as a 16x20 hanging on the wall
might not work very well on a computer screen. So don't just focus on
getting good comments from www viewers. Always think about how the image
will be presented.

You might find the Olympus mailing list of interest. The signal to noise
ratio can be pretty low but it is a great source of info about the OM
cameras.
http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright/olympuslist.shtml

Best wishes, -jeff

"PWW" wrote in message
...
Mark;
You asked for it. I hope I have not been to harsh. I do think you are
trying
(which is more than a lot of others) and I do think you could really take
some nice images with some more practice and technique. You seem to have
the
drive and creative ideas. So please don¹t get upset if you disagree just
say
so.
snip snip

sia3 - Hog Shed and Road: Not that bad but the colors could use some help.
If it supposed to be foggy it needs to be more foggy. The photo just
doesn't
pop for me.

Keep shooting.

--
PWW (Paul Wayne Wilson)
Over 1,000 Photographs Online at,
http://PhotoStockFile.com

On 12/13/03 8:46 AM, in article
, "Mark Vander Pol"
wrote:

Any comments on my photos and/or website would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.mvpol.com

The new photos gallery is what I am most interested in getting
critiqued,
but I will take anything!!

I am still learning and last time I posted my website I got some very
good
advice and I hope that I can continue to learn.

Mark Vander Pol
Soli Deo Gloria

I am not very good at scanning and using Photoshop to get the colors the way
that they really on the slide.

Thanks for your comments.

Mark

"Mark Vander Pol" wrote in message usenet.com...
Thanks for the constructive criticism Michael, I appreciate all the help
that I can get while learning the art of photography. Can you please
enlighten me as to what avenue I should be exploring with my photography,
since you seem to know?

I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I couldn't resist.

Mark

Try something different, not such banal subjects as sunset and water
running over rocks. Please. These pictures are technically competent,
but show no originality. Don't take picture of the obvious. It's been
done to death, and then some.
Take care!

Not true, Michael. Some of the best sellers can be subjects shot many times
over by other photographers. Sunsets and Waterfalls are always crowd
pleasers. Plus, as I pointed out in my previous post, Mark's photos are not
technically the the very best they can be (no offense Mark.) To say "Don't
take pictures of the obvious) is too simplistic of an answer to help.
--
PWW (Paul Wayne Wilson)
Over 1,000 Photographs Online at,
http://PhotoStockFile.com

On 12/14/03 9:29 PM, in article
, "Michael Scarpitti"
wrote:

Try something different, not such banal subjects as sunset and water
running over rocks. Please. These pictures are technically competent,
but show no originality. Don't take picture of the obvious. It's been
done to death, and then some.
Take care!

Michael Scarpitti wrote:

Try something different, not such banal subjects as sunset and water
running over rocks. Please. These pictures are technically competent,
but show no originality. Don't take picture of the obvious. It's been
done to death, and then some.

He took shots from the zoo.. you took shots from the zoo.
Kettle..pot..black?

Don't tell me your zoo shots were original.

While it is hard to disagree with Paul Wayne Wilson who points out
that sunsets and water on rocks are among the biggest crowd pleasers,
I think you have a better point in stressing originality.

But it may not be that sunsets and water on rocks need be avoided as
subjects per se. It may be in how they are treated. An artist once
explained to me that she looks at her subject until she sees it in a
way that no one has ever seen it.Then she tries to protray that
vision.

-Brian

On 14 Dec 2003 18:29:53 -0800, (Michael
Scarpitti) wrote:

"Mark Vander Pol" wrote in message usenet.com...
Thanks for the constructive criticism Michael, I appreciate all the help
that I can get while learning the art of photography. Can you please
enlighten me as to what avenue I should be exploring with my photography,
since you seem to know?

I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I couldn't resist.

Mark

Try something different, not such banal subjects as sunset and water
running over rocks. Please. These pictures are technically competent,
but show no originality. Don't take picture of the obvious. It's been
done to death, and then some.
Take care!