This "not showing up in inbox" seems to be a webmail thing.
My posts - read and posted with G-mail - aren't showing up in my mailbox either, but they are arriving at the list just fine.
It confused me, too. :)
Have a good week!
Renate
On 8/14/06, Darin Heinz <spacecoastphoto@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[This was sent previously, but failed to show in my inbox. Accept my
apologies if this is the second time you're reading this.]
Hi again, everyone.
Here's my view of the Gallery for the week of 12 August 2006.
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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... ;-)
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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.
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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!
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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. ;-)
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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-machefacade, 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.
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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
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