I'm lacking enthusiasm this week, not because of bad shots but because after last week I wonder if the reviews will make it before the gall.'s updated. Here're some words composed while I open up the image in "thumbnail pecking order". Work now on display at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html include: Looking through the thumbnails ... the one that grabbed my eye most ... Laurenz Bobke - Sun, Sky, Rocks and Water A pleasant, classically composed, competant shot of the sun, reflecting off the water as ir hides behind a mountain. The water gives the curious sensation of "doming" upwards in the middle: I don't think it distortion, maybe the shape of the gorge. A nice picture, but not unusually so. Next, the thumbnail for Kostas' image packed colours ... Kostas Papakotas - Looking Out Ah, this image is not by Kostas, but by Vasso and John - both of them? It is fun and you swear not set up. Actually, you say not set up - in a way as a picture it makes no difference really - a happy coincidence. It looks set up - it looks like a digital composite - or the sort of things "photography" students would concoct and call art. It is a memorable image - a bit of fun Third opened .Andrey Ivanitsky Montmartre Well, in part a new name and partial panorama. A street scene - a busy image. For me "busy" is not the insult many "camera club" judges would infer. Simplicity has it's place as a general rule but if the aim is to convey the business of a town .... Is it raining? The image is a little dark in the shadows to the left - maybe that is my monitor. It's pleasant and the sort of image I could look at (at a larger scale) for a long time. The key elements are the coffee-drinker-girl, the multi-colour-table and the street-market. I don't see any deeper message... Elisha Page - Another new nameand an untitled image. Why untiled - "Royal Mile" would be a simple handle for the image? It's an unusual presentation: not the converging verticals - with the tower effectively shooting up from bottom right, but the choice to present it with half of the lovely yellow stonework bathed in deep shadow. Is there something going on in the shadows I should be able to see? My monitor again maybe. It looks polarised - well, there are the "distinctive darkenings in the corners" (quote our club's latest visiting judge ;o) Sigh, have they not heard of vignetting. The shadow is still nagging me: different but does it work? Next opening Emily L. Ferguson - Russells Mills pond, S. Dartmouth, MA I was wondering if this would be the "new interpretation of fall colours" talked about a few week's back. Sure it''s a nice scene. The reflection seems to be of the reds and yellows - but actual trees appear very green though. There is a VERY blus patch on the water - sky? Was it polarised? I'm suspecting not because the saturation on the foliage is reduced: the water reflections, as photographers should know, is polarised anyway. Needs a focal pont; a duck or a canoe? Now the thumbs become a lottery - the one standing out is by Enrico but not in a good way: there is something "wrong" about the blue Enrico Christion - enlightenment I can't really justify why I don't like this: perhaps I should find a reason to like it. It is symmetrical - but the sky looks WRONG - too cyan? Or is it just too contrasty for me. OK, it's a shed - where are the cave paintings? Sorry, I'm not connecting with this = I can't understand what is supposed to be going on through the door. Dan Mitchell - The shopping expedition Whereas in the previous shot it was the blues - here the greens look wrong, or was it too bright? They look strongly yellow. They are old people and they are resting, but is that not a perambulator next to the park bench? The main flaw for me is we feel too far back: the shot for me would have been over thier shoulders (placing them bottom and left) with the main subject interest being the workmen. As it stands there is empty image space, dead space, to thier left whic at web-display scales are pixels that could have been used to tell a story ... Christiane Roh - Lausanne, Pl. de la Palud, november 2002 Oh dear, the thumb was so dark and uninviting but the image is much better. A character shot and the gourd (?) adds a touch of whimsy ... If anything weakens the shot it is the inclusion of the other man's knee. Unavoidable maybe but fact all the same.. Richard Cooper - Safe Harbour No added pixels - but you don't say how many you removed. If you put a shot in a gallery - details like the dark corner should be addressed. main prob - the image is just not critically sharp, anywhere. I'm also wondering if the image is another too-dark-one then seriously doubting if my monitor is the common factor. OK, it has boats, but did it want a person? Fianlly, not because of any negative feelings about the image ... Guy Glorieux - Old Montreal 1 It's the second of a series but the first one stole it's thunder. Good, maybe, but somehow the forces of darkness are not as appealing as those of the light. You remind me of a picture I was always wanting to take (make) but never did. Get a model to make up with negative make-up shading ... then photograph in black and white. Dark make up on the skin, light on the lips. Light under the chin. So on the neg. it appeared right. Waffle - interesting shot Guy, but when the technique becomes the main interest - I drift off ... Ho Hum. Let's see if this makes it though today rather than next Saturday. Thanks to Siobhan, Eiona, Smeggie and Tess ... those galerie lassies without which the gallery would be down to Andy alone .... Bob
