Still Life: my start: "Shoes by window light"

I was staying in Denver, Colarado. There was a pesky moth that beguiled me. Never could catch him in any light and then I developed a stategem: hold the drapes away with my shoes to expose the fugitive moth. However, then the distraction. I became more interested in the shoes.



So then I realized we need more still life photography here, so here's my contribution.

Asher

Ah, the many nights in Denver. The Brown Palace Hotel is a wonderful place to visit or stay...this is the time of year to cross the Continental Divide and go through Estes Park and the photographs of and from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park are wonderful.

This is much closer to home from last year:

Hi, Asher,

Very nice. Thanks.

I think the blown out window is a little too blown out. Even at the modest luminance on my display, subjectively it "makes my eyes hurt".

Blinding light from heaven, Doug! That's what it is.

Asher

I'm not sure what you were going for here Asher, the image really doesn't speak anything to me. Most of the time I don't mind blown out background light, it can often as you say seem heavenly, but in this case because the shoes do not have much detail and there is really no rhyme or reason for them to be placed like that, the blown out highlights just distract. There are no real leading lines or even a definitive subject for that matter, maybe it's the shoes, but then again maybe it's the white curtains?

Al

Shoes are a vanitas that speak to our unsettledness. We always want to be somewhere else than where we are. They paint a picture of where we've been, or where we're going. This photo like Kathy's speaks volumes of where these shoes have been.


Done by window light with an ancient Ajax Petzval lens on 8X10 paper negative.

Jim's speak of a life lived - these of a life looked towards



It's probably a bit formal for me, but from my brother's wedding. Also, I confess, not lit by window but a single shoot through and a speedlight.

Mike

Allen Maestas said:

I'm not sure what you were going for here Asher, the image really doesn't speak anything to me. Most of the time I don't mind blown out background light, it can often as you say seem heavenly, but in this case because the shoes do not have much detail and there is really no rhyme or reason for them to be placed like that, the blown out highlights just distract. There are no real leading lines or even a definitive subject for that matter, maybe it's the shoes, but then again maybe it's the white curtains?

Al

Click to expand...

Hi Allen,

You are quite correct. There is no powerful composition, just the absurd position of worn Salvatore Ferragamo shoes on the windowsill of a hotel. However, that absurdity drove me to take the picture. Black versus white, two options: life-giving light from the sky versus dead leather to walk on.

I agree it has either no meaning or narrow meaning and it might not work except as it has done, to stimulate people to show far more esthetically created photographs of fine and more humble shoes.

I'll have to think about executing that concept with better formulation. But that's where critique can be valuable! Thanks for pointing out the weakness of the image. I make no aplologies. It is what it is, a spark of an idea, that's all.

Asher

Technique and Quality

Sometimes a picture just tells the story and what it makes up for in lack of perfection for one may be just the ticket for someone else's taste. I like that original one, Asher. There is a story.

Shoes, huh....... Ok.. These are from my son's wedding. While I was waiting for the 'pro' to get his thing done. Outside, glass table with umbrella, natural light. 1dsMKIII, 24-105mm.

Asher

this has got to be Fred Astaire- my first thought when I saw the photo
love it!

Charlotte

A Banshee

well an over head chandelier and my heels
thanks you Asher for the inspiration-