Hi again, everyone. Here's my view of the Gallery for the week of 12 August 2006. ----- ------- ----- ACROS Fukuoka by Laurenz Bobke Laurenz, This photograph jumped out at me right from the start. I try to avoid reading the text until after I've had a good look, but after drawing a blank as to what I was seeing (industrial complex? government facility? some new kind of MRI machine?), I just had to read. The repetitive pattern is actually kind of alluring, and it draws the viewer in to the artificial starry sky bounded by green light. Happily, the concentric squished rings are broken by the reflective cylinders (elevators, I presume); had they not been there, and more to the point, grounded on the bottom of the frame, I feel the image would have lacked stability, possibly giving the viewer the feeling of falling into the frame, thereby being a detractor to the image. Although I would prefer all of the floodlights to be on (if it were in my house, say), in this photo the scattered, random nature of the lights lends itself to the dreamlike quality of the image, reinforcing the concept of the starry sky. I also appreciate that there are no people here to betray its scale, or to reveal its identity. Fantastic job! I look forward to seeing more of your work. By the way, the starburst effect tends to happen when the aperture of a lens is stopped down, and its intensity increses as the aperture is closed as far as it will go. this is due to the refraction of a strong light source off of the edges of the aperture's blades. Count the "points" of each starburst, and you will notice it corresponds directly with the number of aperture blades in that lens... ;-) ----- ------- ----- Untitled by Emily Ferguson Emily, I absolutely love the composition here. The sky dominates, and with it, the wind! In addition, your placement of the horizon could not have been better, but what really lights the fuse on this one is the boats. A single white sail leading the masses of darker ones, sails pointed every which way, and blocked by one more, all firmly planted on a watery ground. An aside here: I can't help but draw an analogy beween the arrangement of boats and society (this or any other, for that matter)--the majority, the population, if you will, is a cluster of diverse voices, being led by one who stands out, but is also restricted by a small segment of the population. </aside> I think I would have liked to see the clouds just a touch more prominent, as the sky is so vast in the frame, and their existence aids in the breaking up of empty space. Also, the sepia keeps the image from being awash with drab grey, but I'm sort of on the fence with its use, thinking maybe it would have been more striking in cyanotype, but having not seen that version except in my mind's eye, it's all academic. As I have come to expect from you, Emily, this is a great shot. Nice work. ----- ------- ----- Framed! by Guy Glorieux Guy, What a great followup to last week's submission! Where the statue photo was somber, this is a nice lighthearted contrast. Occupying the place of honor is an elegant floral arrangement; behind it, a lazy river lounging beneath a bridge in the distance. And then opposite the river is--what's this? Two people stuck in a sign! This secondary detail becomes the focus of the image, and indeed is undoubtedly notable enough to garner the image's title. It is almost reminiscent of Doisneau's "Sidelong Glance" (http://cda.morris.umn.edu/~pagem/images/doisneau_sidelong_glance.jpg), where the apparent subject is the couple looking through a storefront window, but the true subject is the man looking at a painting. Exposure looks good, and the lack of a blue sky doesn't bother me at all here. As for composition, You might have strengthened the shot with a vertical format. And it's possible that by surrounding the people in the sign with the road behind, they might have been just a little more obvious. However, as time was of the essence, I believe you nailed this one, as I caught the clever joke within 5 seconds of looking at the image. Well done! Keep posting! ----- ------- ----- OOOerrr! by Howard Leigh Howard, My initial reaction was to laugh. You got the gnome so tightly framed, he undoubtedly saw the reflection of the "Special offer" tag in your lens, and was shocked to learn he had been marked down. The composition works well here, and the sharpness is spot-on. Although there appears to be a lot of stuff surrounding the little fellow, it has been very effectively eliminated from being distracting. I tried to figure out where someone would put a gnome with this kind of expression on his face, then it occurred to me: on top of a sprinkler! This is a good photo, full of whimsy, and a pretty good candidate for all kinds of applications, like a framed photo next to the garden-tools rack, or for clandestine inclusion in a friend's family/wedding photo album. You can tell the camera that it did a great job with exposure and depth of field. ;-) ----- ------- ----- Untitled by D.L. Shipman Dave, I stopped trying to figure out the barrage of methods used to create this work when I noticed I was simply drawn into it and really didn't care how it was made as much as that it had been made. It is identifiable as a cluster of tree branches; if I had paid more attention in biology class I might have been able to identify the species, but then I'd be deviating from looking at the photo as a photo. Groups of near-black leaves, dark leaves, light leaves, wispy branches, and soft, blown-out sky all cooperate in this one to produce a very dreamy image which can change moods based on the viewer's environment; I'm looking at it in a cool room and see fog and can feel the cool dampness in conjunction with the photo. If I were to print it and go outside (very hot and humid in Florida right now), I would associate sultry, suffocating, breezeless air and hazy yellow sky with it, almost to the point where I could actually smell the oil dripping from the leaves. Following my eye's movements through the frame, I am finding an inability to stop studying it. The sense of depth is extraordinary, and the deeper I look into the frame the more I see. Getting more distant, I can't be certain I see anything, but I know it's there. I feel like I could reach out and grab a branch, and never stop climbing until I was above the clouds. Composition is amazing; you've got a vague "V" shape forming which draws the eye into a second-layer group of leaves, which connects to other groups, and following the eye's tracking, I find myself over the entire image within about 30 seconds. Exposure looks very good; contrast is excellent. The almost-pink tint also enhances the image; you did wonderfully in creating this. ----- ------- ----- Alfa by Pini Vollach Pini, First off, this is a great juxtaposition. I see a material girl gazing longingly at a shiny car, but then the girl is fake, just a papier-mache facade, and the car is just a reflection in a window. She'll stay like that until she falls apart and the car has long since disappeared. You captured this magnificently, letting the background elements fade into blurry darkness, and closely cropping. Just enough string to wrap the package, as one of my professors used to say... The exposure was most definitely tricky, combining direct sun and open shade/window light, but somehow you managed to pull it off. If you were to eliminate the chair-back from the image and posibly darken the remaining background, I could certainly see this finding use as an advert of some sort. It's great to see your work again, Pini. ----- ------- ----- Thank you all for keeping the exhibits portion of the PhotoForum alive and well. As always, I look forward to comments about this and future galleries, and continued discussions. Yours very truly, Darin Heinz Melbourne, Florida USA
