The PhotoForum member's gallery/exhibit space was updated 14 June 03. Authors with work now on display at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html include:
Dan Mitchell - Up the Creek
Lotta colors and lines here. Polarizer might have brought out the sky and tamed the brights a bit but it looks like noontime, so I suppose it wasn't an option. Shame about that driveway and the dirt in the foreground competing with the creek. I think I'd like to be a bit closer and much lower down - squatting even. Maybe even standing in the water about a foot from shore. It would be interesting to see this when the sun was at more of some angle. Down light is hard, hard, hard.
D.L. Shipman - A place in the sun...
Find a Chamber of Commerce in Jersey and turn them loose on this one! Very nice horizon, great color in the umbrella, maybe a little too polarized, might have been nice to let the clouds go to white. I suppose one uses a 2 or 3-stop grad to tame the sand without depressing the sky here. Generally pretty nice image.
Les Baldwin - Annie
Interesting composition. The face painting is a bit soft, I believe, and I'd like it sharper. I think I'd like less green too, and more level. Somehow I can't get the nose level. Oh, I see, it's the chin. More than half of the chin, slightly more than half of the lips, a feeling of less than half of the forehead. I do like the concept of the connection between the earring and eye painting as ornaments. Maybe shut the eye so the viewers attention stays on the two ornaments? Not sure.
Amy West - Toucan
The old zoo problem - those glass walls and the backlight. Makes it really hard to balance the light and gives you some interesting choices for background. Might have been nice if the tail end of the tail hadn't be caught by a leaf, or if the bars in the windows had been smoothed out by a closer hyperfocal point. Or maybe just so little depth of field that only the bird is in focus? Generally it's very nice that the shape of the space mirrors the lines of the bird's body, howeverr, and especially that the beak is open and the eye looking right at the viewer. I can't tell whether it's tack sharp, jpegs are just too wishy-washy for that. If it's not, then the eye needs to be, in my opinion.
Shawn Parker - Jess
Great. I like this a lot. Those eyelashes are really spectacular, and the eyebrows, too. I also especially like the choice of depth of field. It's the real eye that is the point. And that it's not right out there. Very effective to me, very nice shapes, nice sense of direction. I hope she likes it too.
Laurenz Bobke - Gone Fishing
Another erection (ahem)! The composition is very agreeable to me. The fish are out there and there's space for the viewer to imagine them in the image. The gradation of color in the water is agreeable, although one can always imagine something more exciting. The posture is so absolutely perfect for the process, and I like the shape of the two containers on either side of the fisherman, the way they lean away from him. Generally a very fine looking image.
Pablo Coronel - hand on hand
Tiny hands are such a miracle! I never quite believe that those little tiny fingers come out all ready to go after only 9 months! There's something deliberate about the image that distracts me from the classic sentiment that warms the heart with this type of image. Something about the closed hand, and the big, monster, somewhat controlling or restraining thumb. Makes me feel that the hand wasn't quite willing to play along with the photographer. The background is very distraction also to me. I'd like to imagine that I would have had the presence of mind to go for a lot less depth of field if I had committed myself to all those different angles in the background.
Rich Mason - Black Canyon, Colorado
The sky is lovely. How fortunate that it emerged at that moment. But it would be nice to either have a grad so that you could get more detail in the foreground, or to show more of the sky and less of the forward canyon. More canyon wall would bring the image into unity with the caption, but the image is the boss not the caption!
Shyrell Melara - Soap Bubbles
I'm confused by the presence of the person in relation to the bubbles. The only motivation seems to be the caption. I like the depth of field (or lack thereof) but speeding up the shutter might have given you a better chance at getting slightly sharper bubbles. I realize this is no easy task!
Christopher Strevens - Shopping
Kinda neat effect for an illustration. Maybe the best of Chris' photoshop filter efforts thus far. Interesting how few people there are in the scene. I'm afraid over here there's never a time when a mall has that few people in the hallways anymore! Not sure what the interesting white space is in a window on the right... Might have been good to clone something in there that looked like the rest of the window.
David Small - Erection
Well, it's just too contrived! And, I think I'd prefer it less back lit. Might have been interesting to get down very low and to the side a little (maintaining the juxtaposition, of course) and make the "erection" less perpendicular and parallel. I dunno.
Much thanks to all who contribute, especially our new contributors. Now let's see lots of interesting reviews, too!
The usual litany of appreciation for Andy's continued committment to our little project here, as well!
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Emily L. Ferguson
elf@cape.com 508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races, press photography
Beetle cats on the web at:
http://www.vsu.cape.com/~elf
http://www.beetlecat.org/store.html#yrbook
