These are the impressions I received while simultaneously testing my tongues conductivity with a light socket and viewing the gallery at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html. Dan Mitchell (House) - In my opinion you picked a perfect day for this shot. The bright sun creates hard lined shadows that break up the big, yellow house which it then lightens as it reflects up off the street. You have the perfect camera angle allowing us to see down both streets and at the same time the roofline and the street draw my eye around the bend. The almost cartoon sky with its perfectly pure blue and fluffy white clouds gently contrasts the yellow house. I also like the intrusion of the building at the right of the frame which gives context to the shadow on the street and mutes the red sign. I really like this shot. It appears very well planned. Greg Fraser (Spring) - Well this is just curves. I like the way the blurry background curves make me feel off balance while the clearer foreground curve seems well balanced. I must apologize for not removing the white specks. I didn't have my Photoshop but I was bored so I scanned the negative and shipped it off prematurely. Elson T. Elizaga (Light From The Ship Landing) - Nice shadow control and the highlights are somewhat blown out as one would expect from superior intelligence illumination. The light really makes me feel there is something interesting up to the right. To me, this is a tough subject to frame. I would want to show the curves at the edges of the lips at the left but this means leaving darkness to the left and this leaves a balance problem on the right. I would be tempted to crop much more severely but then I wouldn't get that mother ship landing feeling and I do get that from this photo. I would say your goal has been met quite well. Bob Talbot (Self Portraits) - Wow! With one photo you stripped Achal of the 'Most PF self portraits' title! Can you imagine being trapped in that thing for a few hours? How about after a 'Grateful Dead' concert? Very cool photo with nice recession of lines. I realize it is out of necessity but I like the way you appear to be cowering in the corner. Roger Eichhorn (Berkeley Arboretum, December 1999) - Another composition I really like. The reddish branches lead down to the central green section which leads to the edge of the water and the marble looking border around the gravel which spirals into the ??? (mushroom? stool? shrine?). I find the faded colours interesting and the way the branches of the right hand tree blend so well into the ground below them as if the whole right hand part of the image is washing away and taking the color with it. Brian Chandler (The passers-by) - Why did you not place your camera parallel to the fence? If I was taking this shot in my usual anal manner that would really bother me with this background (which I really like). Oh, perhaps I just answered my question. Your subject is the people not the buildings. The hands of the perky, young, yellow sweatered woman appear to be holding an invisible broom with which she is pushing the older, black clad woman ahead of her. Sort of a 'Get out of my way old woman. Your day has passed.' thing going on. But then both the people and background are in clear focus so what does that mean? Perhaps I'm missing this because given this location I would have waited for the people to pass so I could shoot those pipes that I find very interesting. Many questions have I about this photo. - Yoda 2002 Alan P. Hayes (Study for Buick-Oldsmobile Reunion Two) - Looks like a mid-western stand-off shaping up except those are usually Ford VS Chevy and involves at least one gun rack in the back window. I don't know who north-east Buick people hate. Volvo people? Peugot? Actually Alan its interesting seeing your project develop. Please keep us pictorially posted as future updates occur. jIMMY Harris (Unseen Maintenance Men) - And their faces are still unseen. I really like the way the foreground corner leans in, the horizon is not horizontal, the shadows of the figures run out of the frame, the no tripod blur, the light blasting around the heads of the men, the way the one figure is centered under the conduits and the way the conduits fan out and curve at the top of the frame like a giant, subterranean flower. The part I like best though is the leaning foreground corner. Marvelous shot, I must say. Great composition. Roderick Chen (Blue) - What I find most interesting about this is the way everything but the man, including the edge of the image, has an airbrush appearance. Instead of being drawn directly to him through the use of lines and shapes, I sort of float to him gradually as I search for definition at the edges. The only hard shadows are on the man's face. The composition is very well done also with the line of the back of the man's head and shoulders matching the joint of the floor and wall behind him. Actually if you move up from the bottom left corner along the shadow to the man's right foot, up his body until you hit the wall-floor joint and along that line you get a tilted, flattened 'S' and who can resist the old 'S' curve? These kind of details really impress me. D.L. Shipman - This is a photo that needs some simplicity. I like the placement of the daisy and I really like the shape of the blue and white trail of baby's breath(?) but the background is very distracting to me. I think if you would have softened the light a tad and removed the background (at least the pinks) you would have a better photo. At least in my mind anyway. Marilyn Dalrymple - The unmistakable form of a headboard, yellow pillow, footboard and a red LED likely a 'power on' light from some form of battery operated device. Something that goes bump in a darkened room at night? If the bumping is bothering you then you can - 1. Move the bed away from the wall. 2. Tape some foam rubber to the back of the headboard. 3. Take it outside with the rest of the animals. Seriously though I like this image and the colors of Polaroids in general. Speaking of Polaroids - Mark Small's wife Annie has some really beautiful ones on her web site http://www.smallstudio46.com/ASHome.htm. David Small (Through a Cyclone Fence) - Its interesting how the mural almost hides the graffiti. It also almost sucks up the boy on the right. I like to glance quickly at a photo like this to see what stands out and what I see is the boy on the left, a pair of legs to his right and far off to the right a basketball that looks as if its going flat. The slanted line formed where the wall meets the pavement, the angle of the boys and the ball being so far to the right give me the feeling that the boys are trying to keep their ground and not end up sliding down to the right. The visual clues are quite strong. Neat. Greg Fraser London, Ontario Canada http://www.geocities.com/fraserg1962
