[SI] Too long, or not long enough?

Good gravy, I've returned to making commentary! And thus the header -
it's certainly the former for me, since I should do this a lot more often,
but I expect to hear votes for the latter...

Anyway, these be just me opinions, hokay? Certainly not worth taking
seriously, and c'mon, why start now?

For those just emerging from their coccoons or something, the images
in question can be viewed at http://www.pbase.com/shootin/end. Anyone
should feel free to offer their own comments - that's what they're there
for.


Tom Hudson - A nice portrait, not quite sellable quality, but pretty good
for a candid. Pleasant colors, nice and undistracting background. The
motion blur takes away a little, I think, and overall it doesn't quite have
enough in there to carry the mandate - she could just as easily be The
Beginning. Any other little touch might have strengthened it: her eyes
looking out over the audience, a little sheen of sweat, the music obviously
near the end of the pages, or the standing bow just a little later? Just
something. Nice shot, just not quite communicating this particular mandate.
Sell it to her anyway ;-)

Paul Furman - I was bugged by this slightly for a short while, and now I
finally put my finger on it: It doesn't seem like the 'End' because you
wouldn't need a Stop sign to keep you from proceeding. I'm put in mind of a
collage I saw many years back, a forced-perspective kind of thing, but
overall I kind of like the chaos of imagery and colors - anyone catch the
peace symbol in the eye of the skull? The wide-angle lens definitely
provides the most impact for all the elements. Probably a bit more digital
work than the rulz intend, but then again, how much latitude would a decent
film give to work with? Ah, I'll let Alan decide. Neat image, fits the
mandate but not too directly.

Paul Bielec - You know, as I was considering this mandate I thought about
how "The End" is strictly a human concept, and this image seems to
illustrate that. The apples look like they're full of potential, hardly an
end, and from the trees' standpoint, all set to start new growth. But
there's still an element of the "end of the season harvest", and I can
accept that I think. Lovely light for the subject, but just a bit too
direct an approach for my tastes, and I keep wanting to see some 'grabber'
from the prominent fruit. Methinks a slightly different composition would
be stronger.

Brian Fane - Ah! Nice approach to the subject, and a technically fine way
of tackling it. The sign slams the concept home to me, and the wheat field
seems overwhelmed by comparison. Two very subtle things assist this too:
The listing of "tracts" on the sign, indication of a development to come,
and the framing that prevents even the treeline from cresting over the
sign, making it undeniably dominant in the frame. Nice balance of tones,
too, even from the sky. Faint distraction from the other sign, but not too
significant. Great job!

Bowser, uh, Boswer [hey, he spelled it that way, not me] - I think the
downward slope is the part that detracts slightly from the mandate, for me
anyway, and this is helped by the dude being 'over the crest' as it were -
there's an implication that the trail may continue downwards. Otherwise it
works pretty well, and strengthened by the pose, almost wistful. The
elements all frame together nicely, and the foreground grass hints that
we're sneaking a peek. Unfortunately the boy is a little over-exposed, and
as the main subject this is noticeable. Overall fairly good, but needs a
little oomph.

Ken Nadvornick - Ken knows how to use B&W, without a doubt. This one is
stark and direct, contrasty (from the lighting) and still possessing great
tones throughout. The subject is nailed home with no subtlety, however, a
little heavy-handed for my tastes. Interesting effect from the age of the
corpse - to me, it's moved away from the sadness of a recent death and
begun to enter the realm of the soon-to-disappear, less desolate. But
c'mon, Ken, a 21.4% crop? That's so bourgeois!

JIm Kramer - Jim, where are your hyperfocal macro focusing skills?
Geeezzzz... Nicely framed, with impressionistic splashes of color to
prevent it from being monochrome. Not perhaps the strongest approach to the
mandate, but the position of the anole's legs do seem to hint that he'd
like there to be more room for climbing. Nice contrast of the detailed
textures for subject against the smoke of the background, harmed slightly
by the crosshatching at upper left. Seems like the head's slightly soft.
Perhaps I'm too used to this kind of subject, but to me, he's looking
directly at the viewer, communicating rather than being observed.

Al Denelsbeck - After two weeks of not finding any appropriate subjects for
the mandate, I went out the day it was due with this (among other
approaches) in mind, and lucked out by finding a suspiciously dead juniper
sitting near some ancient headstones in the cemetary. Played around with
framing and settled on this one - it could just be me, but the branches
have that 'clutching hands' aspect, and I like the subtlety of the
headstones. My second choice was staged later that evening and can be seen
at http://wading-in.net/Add/Shootin2.html

The Dave - Fits the mandate well, great light for the subject, lovely bokeh
with good background elements. But just way too direct for me. Flower shots
tend to be overdone, and I might have liked this one better if it had that
typical approach with the bud just about filling the frame, making an
ironic statement of some sort. Or maybe cutting it to put in a completely
dry vase...

Doug Payne - A very nice landscape taken at a great time of year - good
foliage color, nice pastel sky, just a bit too much contrast from the rock
face. It makes it stand out from the background, though, and gives an
entirely different approach to the mandate. But the discovery of the
climber takes away from that a bit, because the rock's implied direction is
left across the frame, cut off abruptly, but the climber's is primary up
(it can be argued down to the right, too). So perhaps slightly weak on the
mandate, though the strength of the shot overall counteracts this. Plus
Doug is making me think again about hitting the waterfall areas out at the
western part of the state when the colors hit.

Joseph Kewfi - Now who would have thought we'd have two dead cats? This one
doesn't quite bring it together, though, a bit haphazard in the elements
and framing, and the color and blur just seem like a mistake, where in
other uses or compositions it could have a strong artistic affect. There's
a forlorn and abandoned aspect of it, and the much-better condition of the
cat (as compared to Ken's) indicates the tragedy of a lost pet, but just
not bringing it together.


And that would be all of them this time. Thanks for playing, and
while you've been reading this, I've been raiding your fridge. Paul, your
veggie drawer needs cleaning out...


- Al.

--
To reply, insert dash in address to match domain below
Online photo gallery at www.wading-in.net

Al Denelsbeck wrote:
Good gravy, I've returned to making commentary! And thus the
header - it's certainly the former for me, since I should do this a
lot more often, but I expect to hear votes for the latter...

Anyway, these be just me opinions, hokay? Certainly not worth
taking seriously, and c'mon, why start now?

For those just emerging from their coccoons or something, the
images
in question can be viewed at http://www.pbase.com/shootin/end. Anyone
should feel free to offer their own comments - that's what they're
there for.


Tom Hudson - A nice portrait, not quite sellable quality, but pretty
good for a candid. Pleasant colors, nice and undistracting
background. The motion blur takes away a little, I think, and overall
it doesn't quite have enough in there to carry the mandate - she
could just as easily be The Beginning. Any other little touch might
have strengthened it: her eyes looking out over the audience, a
little sheen of sweat, the music obviously near the end of the pages,
or the standing bow just a little later? Just something. Nice shot,
just not quite communicating this particular mandate. Sell it to her
anyway ;-)

Paul Furman - I was bugged by this slightly for a short while, and
now I finally put my finger on it: It doesn't seem like the 'End'
because you wouldn't need a Stop sign to keep you from proceeding.
I'm put in mind of a collage I saw many years back, a
forced-perspective kind of thing, but overall I kind of like the
chaos of imagery and colors - anyone catch the peace symbol in the
eye of the skull? The wide-angle lens definitely provides the most
impact for all the elements. Probably a bit more digital work than
the rulz intend, but then again, how much latitude would a decent
film give to work with? Ah, I'll let Alan decide. Neat image, fits
the mandate but not too directly.

Paul Bielec - You know, as I was considering this mandate I thought
about how "The End" is strictly a human concept, and this image seems
to illustrate that. The apples look like they're full of potential,
hardly an end, and from the trees' standpoint, all set to start new
growth. But there's still an element of the "end of the season
harvest", and I can accept that I think. Lovely light for the
subject, but just a bit too direct an approach for my tastes, and I
keep wanting to see some 'grabber' from the prominent fruit. Methinks
a slightly different composition would be stronger.

That one struck me as noting that here we have beautiful, tasty
apples...that are going to waste on the ground as they've fallen from the
tree...soon to be rotten rather than enjoyed. The End.

Paul Bielec - You know, as I was considering this mandate I thought about
how "The End" is strictly a human concept, and this image seems to
illustrate that. The apples look like they're full of potential, hardly an
end, and from the trees' standpoint, all set to start new growth. But
there's still an element of the "end of the season harvest", and I can
accept that I think. Lovely light for the subject, but just a bit too
direct an approach for my tastes, and I keep wanting to see some 'grabber'
from the prominent fruit. Methinks a slightly different composition would
be stronger.


Thanks for your comments. I agree about the composition as seeing it at
home I had the very same thought that something even better couls have
been done about it.

On 13/10/2005 9:58 PM, Al Denelsbeck wrote:

Doug Payne - A very nice landscape taken at a great time of year - good
foliage color, nice pastel sky, just a bit too much contrast from the rock
face. It makes it stand out from the background, though, and gives an
entirely different approach to the mandate. But the discovery of the
climber takes away from that a bit, because the rock's implied direction is
left across the frame, cut off abruptly, but the climber's is primary up
(it can be argued down to the right, too). So perhaps slightly weak on the
mandate, though the strength of the shot overall counteracts this. Plus
Doug is making me think again about hitting the waterfall areas out at the
western part of the state when the colors hit.

Yeah, unfortunately with a lens that wide you can't easily see the
climber's route which is up and to the left, even though she's looking
down and to her right (damn climbers are *so* uncooperative :-). There's
a couple of bolts there with quickdraws attached that are hard to see.
Follow the horizontal crack above her left hand off to the left. Top
roping is now outlawed here because of damage to the trees, but the
original route "ended" at the top left.

Thanks for the comments. Colours are quickly fading here. Another "end".
They weren't great this year anyway, quite muted what with all the air
pollution over the summer. That shot was taken in the Beaver Valley at
"Old Baldy". It's part of the Niagara Escarpment, although considerably
north of Niagara Falls.

Thanks for the meaningful commentary. This sort of open mandate was nice
though I agree many did not hit the mandate, at least it wasn't so
restrictive so you could submit just about anything.

Al Denelsbeck wrote:

Paul, your
veggie drawer needs cleaning out...

ewe, that's what the smell is

"Al Denelsbeck" wrote:

Ken Nadvornick - Ken knows how to use B&W, without a doubt.
This one is stark and direct, contrasty (from the lighting) and
still possessing great tones throughout. The subject is nailed
home with no subtlety, however, a little heavy-handed for my
tastes. Interesting effect from the age of the corpse - to me,
it's moved away from the sadness of a recent death and begun
to enter the realm of the soon-to-disappear, less desolate. But
c'mon, Ken, a 21.4% crop? That's so bourgeois!

Thanks for that, Al.

Most of my photos benefit from far more preplanning than this one did. I
usually spend most of the first week turning over concepts in my mind until
I settle on what, if anything, I want to attempt. Then I go out and try to
put on film what I see in my head. Sometimes it works, other times it does
not.

This one was just there as I walked past while looking for an Ugly America
image. I was initially attracted by the brilliant white teeth against the
dark of the cat's open mouth. Looked like a final agonized frozen scream to
me. Unfortunately, at only 594x727 pixels I'm afraid this aspect of the
composition doesn't present too well.

The tracks were included both to suggest the cause of the poor animal's
demise, as well as to lend a graphic element to the photograph. Their angle
and slight convergence add a bit of energy to what I think would otherwise
likely be a "dead" composition. (Sorry...) The noted lack of "subtlety"
for a subject such as this was vital.

Also, you are correct regarding your "soon-to-disappear" observation. Two
days later I drove by and Fluffy was indeed gone...

Ken

P.S. The "21.4% crop" statistic is a by-product of those damned digital
processes and mentality, wherein everything must be quantified down to the
last atom, simply because it can be.

I much prefer using some old cardboard for cropping, or simply waving my
hands through the projected enlarger light until I feel things are just
right. Doing so gives far more relevancy to the phrase "painting with
light."

Just because one can lay out a football field with a laser beam does not
mean it's necessary -- or even desirable -- to do so.

"Al Denelsbeck" wrote in message
.9...
joseph kewfi can ae1
Doug Payne nikon d100
The Dave Can Eos 10D
Canon Pro-90IS
jim Kramer Can Eos 10D
Ken Nadvornick Nikon F2
Bowser Canon Eos 20D
Brian Fane Can Eos 20D
Paul Bielec Can Eos 300D
Paul Furman Nikon D70
Tom Hudson Can Eos 20D

Not only digital slr rules but it seems mostly canon.