As seen at: http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html Snarski: I think the initially wondrous thing about getting an image like this is that you did it hand held. The depth of field is shockingly thin which leads the photographer to make choices about what most deserves the gift of focus. (micro-nikkors are not generally celebrated for their bokay!) Had you sacrificed the wings to focus on another body part you would have been branded a subversive danger to society and had to claim artistic immunity... Given you made the right decision and nailed it (aren't you glad you didn't have to wait to get the film back to know that?!?) we can only concern ourselves with two things. Lack of symmetry and lack of symmetry. Bug and background. I find the background to be off kilter. The bug seems so symmetrical. Why doesn't the background follow suit? Then, I notice that the bug couldn't be bothered to be symmetrical either! Further inspection indicates that the bug is in fact a mutant. Look at the front leg. Where is the joint on the right leg that is so visible on the left leg? And why is its right testicle (or whatever the heck that is hanging down there) hanging so much lower than the left one? On second thought, never mind that observation. Further observations on that phenomenon have proven not to indicate any proof of mutation on the part of the patient. Ok... Drag this tiff into photoshop, toggle back and forth between layers to see how a Crane Fly should really look. Or not... http://robertearnest.com/Snarski/ Per Ofverbeck: What is it with you D200 people and your 60mm macros? Again, a photo that would normally celebrate the exhibition of nature's perfection through symmetry shows us a gimp. Is there not a petal missing? I must say, on this flowers defense, that it looks really horny. And frustrated. Imagine if you flowered but once a year, you found that you were missing a petal and all you got for your effforts was some Swedish guy with a short lens and no depth staring at you all day. Are these flowers edible? Next year I want to see a picture of it in a salad. Rene M Hales: Ok. First and foremost send me the info on technique you promised. Secondly, here is another image that would normally have been shot from a POV that emphasized the symmetry. The perspective of the skull is not addressed by the "technique" which on one hand prevents it from looking like it was actually hanging on a wall with incredibly hip wallpaper and on the other hand allows the texture to be both behind and on top of the skull in different parts of the image. You should have considered using your 60mm macro lensbaby, though... So, all that aside here is where the picture takes me. I think the next big thing might be to have your skull placed in the desert for a few years to bleach after you die. Then you could have it mounted on a nice piece of maple wood shaped like a shield from the movie 300 or a tortoise shell or perhaps inside an oversized scallop shell with twinkling Christmas lights behind it. Oh my, how the children will fight over it come the reading of the will! Linda Buttstead: Why are we down here? The snow is starting to melt. The picnic table we used to hope to be the first to claim when it was warm sits waiting to be the center of attention again. Their is a sadness here. Perhaps we have come here to remind us of happier times only to find happiness hibernating. It will return. And with it? Flowers! Run! Do not walk. Run! Run and buy a D200 with a 60mm macro lens! Herschel Mair: Some worn paint on the sidewalk with brown leaves mysteriously photographed with a limited depth of field. At one point it was a new unworn spot of paint on the sidewalk. Oh! How proud it must have been. Now, in its golden years a moment of glory. Herschel Mair has elevated it to art. Or has he? I say yes! GO little worn spot of paint! Have your day in the sun! Don't mind those ugly brown leaves. They are but fleeting debris. Fans, lucky to have been in the front row and captured by the lens of a master as they adored you. Now existing forever to honor you. I used to photograph a lot of paint spots. Some of them yellow ones in fact. I was never this good, though. Russ Baker: Man. I realize why I don't do these reviews anymore. They are exhausting. Russ. This image simply has too many technical incongruities for me. The catch light in his eyes are too bright for the amount and direction of fill on his face. The fill light on his hat is brighter than the fill on his shirt even though the shirt is closer to whatever source of light is doing this magic. The pure black background takes him out of the real world and leaves him hanging in some sort of glaring spotlight. There is no sense of storyline here. Just props. I really hate to be dismissive of the image but I can't get past what I perceive as a heavy-handed "printing" job. I just can't. And consequently the image doesn't take me anywhere. Sorry. Also? I hate Knockando. Emily L. Ferguson: I can tell I am getting tired. I should just quit. Emily? What? Asian people on the steps of a building in Cambridge. Is that what the letter C in the little circle stands for? Cambridge? Or Caucasion? No, obviously not. Bob Sull: This has the feeling of an image taken from a speeding car. It reminds me in some odd way of Mair's image of the paint spot. An image of something in decay that once had proud purpose. A vain woman in decline. A discarded couch. Maybe we should do that! How about we all photograph a discarded couch in our towns and post a show here? Surely everyone has seen them. Everyone is so proud when they get them and after the cats scratch them to bits and the babies have puked on every square inch you buy a new one but WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE OLD ONE??? Why, you dump it in an alley far enough away from your house that the neighbors don't come to you and ask why your old couch is blocking the alley way. That is what you do. And then some freak with a D200 comes by and it is suddenly an international piece of artwork. Howard Leigh: Holy mother of Allah! What the...? Did the person holding the plate have the cuticle appetizer? Jeezus, man. Be civilized and wait for your meal! Until I saw that I was booking a flight to have dinner with you. Yumm. That's the way I see it. Goodnight all. R
