Out of hibernation just long enough to type a review of the images in this weeks PF gallery at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html, I present the following: Peeter Vissak (Allegory) - Taking a crack at still life eh? The hard lighting works well portraying the hardness of both the nut and the nut cracker. Even the table looks hard. I'm not too keen on the composition though. The curve of the upper edge of the upper arm is quite peaceful and serene like gentle ripples in a large body of water which seems to contrast the rest of the image. Perhaps a steeper angle would increase my level of tension. Fletcher Jernigan - The thumbnail is just too simple but its amazing how those little nail heads change everything! Specially the superfluous nipple on the right! Magic! Outstanding shot in my opinion. D.L. Shipman - Wow. Beautiful shot. Great pose. You really know how to work with orangutans. Christiane Roh (Lausanne, Palais Rumine, October 2002) - "Harold, come quick! They're feeding the humans in the cafe habitat! Look! One's looking right at me!" I love this reverse zoo thing happening here. I wonder why the woman on the left knew she was being watched or did you, the photographer, tip her off? John Palcewski (Thanatopsis I) - Like the other images I remember you submitting, this one shows the evil inherent in Caprician harbors. I looked at some of the images in your novel and I didn't get this kind of a feeling from them. Are these images from the climax or no, I imagine the epiphany and I just didn't get far enough into it? I like the drama in the shot. Karen Habbestad (Pressure) - Nice frosty, early morning lighting. The title makes the subject a bit more interesting to me. Are we referring to geological pressure? Is there some form of pump under all that growth? I can't get a sense of scale. What looks like a power line pole could be a mile away. Perhaps pressure refers to the pain in my head from trying to figure out the title. Morley Roberts (Haunted?) - For sure. There are so many ghosts from my past I'd rather not delve into that right now. Lets talk about your image. Its interesting to me how although gaping holes have been punched in the walls, the door appears to have lost half its veneer (and is modestly wearing a skirt) and what we can see of the structure shows obvious decay and neglect, the composition to me is somewhat clean and formal. The verticals of the door frame, the strapping at the right and the exposed studs at the left all cleanly enter and exit the frame in an almost parallel group. The lines of the log wall at the right and the remaining door veneer are also nicely parallel. Squinting to lose detail, the main lines in the image are very stable looking. You can see the superficial and the subterficial (perhaps a made-up word) at once like an engineering cutaway. An erosion cutaway as it is. But is it haunted? What isn't haunted these days? Emily L. Ferguson - I like the way the sunlight brushes the tips of the trees and I like the lighting on the chief but the two seem to fight each other for dominance which, as far as I know, is not the Massasoit way of life. Kind of an anti-harmony with nature thing. The composition seems rather static with his head almost dead center in the image. Being a statue, he is, by nature, bound to be static so I suppose that's not bad but its a statue of a human and I suppose I expect him to one day resume his active form like gargoyles do when nobody is watching. Dan Mitchell (Owl) - Pretty predator but alas, bound to a human. Actually that droopy eyelid and the open mouth makes him look like the 2:00 a.m. pose of a sailor who, oblivious to the angry mob he has just insulted, turns from the bar and slurs "Ha! You and what army" seconds before they eject him into the frigid Norwegian night. That's not to say that such an event ever happened to me. jIMMY Harris (Hickory Nut Tree) - Cool fog but the color is a wee bit too intense although I do like purple but it looks rather unnatural but naturalness is really over-rated although over-rating images is the cornerstone of amateur gallery reviewing and of course amateur gallery reviews are often very subjective and subjectivism is without exception shrouded in personal bias which ultimately is just so much fog. Cool fog. Steven Ross (Kessock Bridge) - Alternate title "Huge Boulders with Kessock Bridge". I faintly see interesting suspension wires on the bridge. I clearly see the boulders that occupy exactly half the image. What I do like is the way the clouds are shaped similarly to the boulders. Perhaps this image is about boulders and nature and how the bridge is insignificant in the natural world. I guess it depends upon perspective and the reviewer not drinking so much coffee just because someone offered him a free cup which they never do normally and it makes the reviewer wonder what they've got up their collective sleeve. Thanks to all our contributors and a special thanks to the gallery staff who toil every Saturday morning in the oppressive Davidhazy sweatshop to bring the gallery to us all. Greg Fraser http://users.imag.net/~lon2251/Gallery
