Thanks for your attention.
Walt Frankhauser
rand flory wrote:
Forum members,
Here are my thoughts on the PhotoForum members' gallery/exhibit space now on display at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html:
D.L. Shipman - "Danaus plexippus, Monarch Butterfly" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/shipman.html A most excellent photograph of the female (?) plexippus! This capture emphasizes the triangular shape of the butterfly's profile against a beautifully out of focus (artificially so?) background, While the triangle is foremost in the image, the body of the plexippus is straight , emphasized by the antenna jutting straight forward. With the antenna in this position, the beauty of the body is emphasized almost as much as the beauty of the wings.
Shipman also emphasizes the color of the plexippus by his choice of color on the flowers where the insect is resting. This use of a complementary color, and essentially only under the straight line of the body, takes this image far above the normal butterfly picture.
This textbook photo belongs in a textbook.
Jim Snarski - "Airborne" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/snarski.html A child is a treasure. A childhood is a memory. This photograph shows both the child and the childhood. A memory picture to be treasured for years.
Photographically, the background is about as good as you can get for an action picture. The dark circling the child, offset by the almost circular shape of the leaves in the upper left-hand corner and the straight green grass below, perfectly breaks up monotony, and emphasizes the child, her innocence and her play.
Ya done good.
Pablo Coronel - "Woodscape" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/coronel.html
This is an interesting image that I suspect loses a lot in the I'net translation. I would really like to see the original, but this rendition doesn't move me. I get lost in the black at the top, there is (I would think) texture that I really can't appreciate and the contrast is too subtle for my viewer.
Per Ofverbeck - "Tragopogon (?)" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/ofverbeck.html Nature provides endless examples of beauty, and Ofverbeck has found one of those examples. His choice of analogous colors is good, not that he had much choice. I don't think that as many people find analogous colors as pleasing as complementary colors, but I personally like them. What I like even more than the color scheme, however, is the subtleness of the unopened bud, and especially the protruding yellow-brown stamen. It is there, but you have to look twice to see it, and thrice to appreciate it. Of course, you do see it on first glance at the image, but it is not appreciated until the photo is really looked at. That adds a lot of interest for me.
While I am not an expert in the field of botany, when I Googled the term "Trapopogon," this image seems to be an excellent example or Trapopogon dubius. In fact, this image is MUCH better than most of the "official" images I found of the species that I found on the I'net. Ofverbeck should seek out the creator of some of those sites and offer his image.
Jim Davis - "Gulls on Posts" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/davis.html I really like this image. I get to see the same species of bird from four different angles in one picture. The combination of reflections, the net and the wooden perches are wonderful. The net is necessary to tie the posts together in the mind's eye. The orange reflection of an unseen structure in the background enhances the coloration of the birds on the right, while the blue water on the left show the birds in a more natural setting.
I like this one a lot.
Shawna Hanel - "Santa Please" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/hanel.html I really like the S-shaped curve of the silver wire cutting through the picture. It gives a feeling of serenity to the image. Stars do much the same, but the extreme contrast of the stars is a bit jarring. The needles add interest, but that interest is diminished by the huge brown area in the lower left quarter of the photograph that contains large blue-black spots seem to distract rather than complement. While I sometimes like mysteries, this brown unknown is unsettling in photograph in which I initially felt, and wanted to continue to feel, a sense of peace.
Laurenz Bobke - "Sunset in the Summer Palace" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/bobke.html A wonderful abstract somewhat diminished by the title. The colors, the ripples and the dark edges all work well together. As an image there is a slight element of mystery here, and in this case that is good. But the title is just so matter-of-fact that it is just a bit too jarring for me.
Christopher Strevens - "The Shape of things to come" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/strevens.html An interesting interplay of various stages of construction of a housing project. In this case, the title enhances the image as it draws attention to the progression of incomplete to complete that I missed on the initial viewing.
Pini Vollach - "Forbidden Love" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/vollach.html Unlike Vollach, I am one of those non-fans of tilted horizons. It adds to an unplanned "grab-shot" feeling. The subject, the lovers, are not complemented by anything else in the shot. The light green of the foliage to the right of the couple is too distracting. It pulls my eye away from what should be paramount. While mildly interesting in a voyeuristic sense, there isn't enough here to hold the interest.
Bill Ellis - Untitled http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/ellis.html I like this image a lot. There are so many contrasts. There is the beauty of the ancient church offset by the ugliness of city encroachment, and the poses of the individuals awaiting the train. This is reality. But for me it is the lines that give this photo its sense of proportion. The dark of the overhead shelter breaks the image in two. But there are lines both above and below that point all try to converge somewhere to the far right of the picture. These lines tie together the newer items into a whole to contrast against the older church.
Conversion to grayscale was the touch of genius that gave this image feeling. This is a masterful street shot.
Scott Thurmond - "Lost in Thought?" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/thurmond.html Very cute. The story, the oval cut-out and the wood chip-like frame combine to show imagination and skill. This is the most fun image I have seen on the Forum for a while.
WRGill - "Light Rain on the Duck Pond" http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery/gill.html I want to like this shot. There seems to be much to like. But it is just too small and too fuzzy to see well. Given WRGill's experience, the fuzziness almost has to be an artifact of downsizing the image. I just wish I could see what it really looks like.
Happy holidays to all Forum members. And once again, thanks to Andy, Beatriz and all the authors this week for their contributions and efforts to make the Forum available and viable.
pax,
rand
