Bridge to Your Future

[Rachel Foster]

Critique welcome, or not is fine also.

A similar type image in another thread inspired me to post this one. (I've recently come back to this one so apologies if I've posted it before. ) This was taken within two months of becoming interested in photography with the Rebel Xti. ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/80.

I'm having this printed large to present to my son's Intermediate school. In the fall he goes to the high school, I'm going to print it with the white frame. The top will read "School Name" and the bottom will read "Bridge to Your Future." I like the lines, the reflective aspect due to the rain on the bridge, but I don't like the overexposed trees in the top portion. I also wonder if a crop that included more trees might be nice.

Any and all opinions are welcome.

Jacob Eliana: Bridge to Your Future​

 

[Charles L Webster]

You know me, I'd crop it tighter to see what happens ;-)

I like the overall composition and shape, it works for me, but the bright almost-vertical bridge elements want to drag my eye out of the frame. Can you dodge those down a little so they aren't so white?

Thanks for sharing Rachel.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Good point, Charles. I hadn't noticed that.

Would you include less of the trees?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Rachel,

The major treat is that you have a spectacular reflection. Examine that. Make the picture large so we can see that! Explore versions from RAW to optimize the reflection v. the rest. See what resonates with you, but I do feel there's a lot to explore and you need to be able to see it larger to get some intimacy with the picture's innards!

Asher

 

[Mike Shimwell]

In the interests of speed and directness I'd

- prefer it with the bridge central and straight through the picture, not at the slight angle as at present

- I think you should tidy up the left edge so that the close upright defines the edge of the frame

- I don't mind the trees, but would need to see it bigger to make any judgement

- The overexposed rail doesn't bother me at this size, but would drive me mad in a big print.

FWIW I see lots of big posters around the country as I visit clients that are very substandard technically (art is not a considerataion for these) and that typically include severely blown highlights, often in areas that are important to the pictures message. The other day one was of a smiling couple walking through the countryside and the poor girl had no hair!

Mike

 

[fahim mohammed]

Rachel, I want to see it a little bigger to comment.

I am all for technical aesthetics...all 25% of it! The picture has the other 75% ( imho ); but that is neither here or there.

Tell me why YOU photographed it and why you like it.

Stay well.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Thanks all for the feedback. I will respond more carefully soon (I have dinner guests tonight and must make a quiche..ack! me cook?). I did have a chance to consider some of the feedback.

Mike, is this the sort of crop you referred to? (I will have to look at this more carefully and evaluate what I think of it). Also, Asher, if you will indulge me....I just learned how to do watermarks! (I'm rather proud of my modest accomplishment.)

Jacob Eliana: Bridge to the Future​

 

[Graham Harris]

Rachel,

I didn't know whether this is acceptable but I took your image and did a quick play because I think sometimes it is easier to show than explain.

If I have offended you in any way I apologise and will remove the image.

My methodology was as follows:

1. reduce the brightness in the trees at the end and increased the contrast and the structure.

2. increase the brightness and contrast and structure in the reflection

3. increase the structure in the bridge

I don't know if this is what you are searching for but it creates a different image.

[/CENTER]

Once again I hope I haven't overstepped the mark here.

Graham

 

[Rachel Foster]

Thank you, Graham! I'm not in the least offended and am looking forward to carefully studying the changes you made.

 

[Maris Rusis]

Find a better bridge. I reckon this is an example of subject failure.

The metaphor you intend for this picture, "Bridge to Your Future", is eloquent but the bridge itself does not support it. Fussing with the electronic file can't save the fact that the bridge leads to dead end thicket. If my future lay at the far side of the bridge I would not want to cross.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Find a better bridge. I reckon this is an example of subject failure.

The metaphor you intend for this picture, "Bridge to Your Future", is eloquent but the bridge itself does not support it. Fussing with the electronic file can't save the fact that the bridge leads to dead end thicket. If my future lay at the far side of the bridge I would not want to cross.

Yes you are quite right if Rachel stops where she has with this picture. However, one has a myriad of ways to work with what she has and what she doesn't have.

The bridge has a strong structure and the reflection in the roadway is worth amplifying. I'd feel free to do away with what was at the end of the bridge and put whatever I wanted. However, Rachel's vision is based on her imagination at the time she was there. More work needs to be done with what she has to get her feelings to materialize in the image she delivers. There's no need, IMHO, with my own values, to just rely on what was captured or even use all of it.

However, if one has a rule, discipline or attitude that one does not cut and chop with no conscience, then, yes, you are correct, Rachel has to find another bridge or shoot this in an entirely different way.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

Thanks, Maris. It may be that it works better for local people though as it will evoke memories of places the children have been. But I will keep looking for bridges.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Asher, this is a shot taken about the same time that was aimed at the reflections you mentioned earlier.

Jacob Eliana: Bridge Reflections​

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher, this is a shot taken about the same time that was aimed at the reflections you mentioned earlier.

Jacob Eliana: Bridge Reflections​

Rachel,

I like this much more. It has a sense of being one thing which to me is a good sign. After all every being has an identity. I might remember this a month or a year from now but not the bridge. I do like the special parts such as the rich color, the ripples and shapes of the bridge iron. This area has so much more potential as a subject for composition and to develop your own perspective.

The bridge is a fine project but needs working on.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

I've been thinking about Maris' response and I think I disagree on this one. The trees leave the future undefined, as futures are. Also, I find trees inviting, full of life and hope. It's interesting the different responses to the same scene. The question is, of course, how many see it as discouraging (like Maris) and how many as inviting (like me)?

 

[Asher Kelman]

The Arc of intent requires an original idea and also the necessary physical work!

Jacob Eliana: Bridge to Your Future​

Hi Rachel,

Having feelings, a great imagination and brilliant ideas is insufficient, to make art that can live well amongst others. There needs to be physical structure and qualities sufficient to energize others to devote attention and be considered given your own cultural worth in their societal culture. For one artist it could be placing one concrete paving stone at an angle on another and for others it might require a body of work and a curator. For us, it means we have to be cognizant that we have little to back us up and the picture needs an introduction and then must speak for itself.

I can imagine your feelings if you would see this bridge and also think of your son and realize how the two thoughts might become entwined so when you look at the bridge, it works for you. However, we do not have that priming of the mind with the emotional charge to have to spark the imagination. Part of what art might be is the externalization of such ideas that only you have and somehow make them materialize in your picture so that the idea you have, the gestalt of "Bridge to the Future"’ is what makes the work have life in its nostrils and be born to live without you. However, you have not engineered the image so it will carry your ideas and express your intent, so, to me too, not just Maris alone, it is lifeless.

Let's imagine now that you had your son with his backpack on and his lunch box in hand, walking away from you, towards the light piercing bright clouds and through the foliage of those trees, we'd then be thinking that this boy is, indeed, on a bridge to the future.

Now this is without an abstract rendering or surgery to the picture. When one wants to get an idea from one's head to others, ask, how would they know that? If the signals are not there or diffuse or were all around where the picture was taken or just in your thoughts, but not in your photograph, how can the delivered picture evoke what you intend.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

And that's why I post on OPF! Exactly that, to get reactions from others divorced from my associations. Now, what I think may be the case is that this might work locally with the given title but not beyond the local. So, if this image is to go beyond my little town, it has to be without the title at least. Is there anything else to recommend it? That I still need to ponder.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Frankly, if it were my picture Rachel, I'd exploit that great reflection and the sides of the bridge and add new background at the end. but, again, I am not limited by purity of purpose or some sense of telling the truth. Others couldn't tolerate this and so it's a limited solution for those who's want to use the picture as such.

I'd need to think more of all I'd do is allocate different attention to parts of the image and do no surgery. I could have a try.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

Ah but Asher, you're far more skilled at that than I. Different backgrounds still require tremendous effort for me.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Ah but Asher, you're far more skilled at that than I. Different backgrounds still require tremendous effort for me.

Not with todays photoshop. I'll cut out the trees for you some time if you wish and give you the layered photoshop file.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

I'll send you the file. But I really need to learn how to do this myself.

 

[Rachel Foster]

There is a problem with replacing the trees. They are reflected on the bridge and when I take them away, it looks odd.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Well, never one to walk away from a challenge, I've put the bridge on two different backgrounds. I'm pretty amateurish, though, with photoshop. The trees are better than bad photoshop, I think.

Jacob Eliana: Bridge 2

Jacob Eliana: Bridge 3​

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jacob Eliana: Bridge 3​

This is much better. I assure you that the precision in getting ideas down is not as important as your voice that can be heard. Just remember that you will walk out of a crackling, spluttering movie that requires sound for comprehension but will tolerate many half dark scenes and grain as the artists style! For now, don't let skill in cutting and merging forms be a barrier. It's really not important at this stage to be technically perfect. You can catch up. If you work in layers with masks, anything can be improved later.

Superb that you are working on your idea. Getting the concepts from one's head to one's artform is hard work. One has to be able to look at the piece and be moved to have feelings and or ideas at least analagous to what you intended. It takes effort to do this and to be able to remember that others don't have the benefit of the extra information you own privately.

Here, with the signal of the tiny figures, we are on the right path, however, may I suggest one sole figure, clearly going away from us ear, towards but not at the end of the bridge.

Then we can imagine the person having to reach that boundary and from there go into the future. That's merely my way of looking at it.

It's not even necessary that you totally succeed with this iteration. You will see the next bridge better as a result of your diligent efforts. Kudos to you!

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

I agree that one person would be more evocative but I think symbolism might have to trump art on this project. I want to encourage the young people to "travel together" somewhat at this stage. Junior high is a tough, tough age.

I printed it 8 x 10 and there are no glaring defects. Now, 16 x 20? We shall see.

 

[Maris Rusis]

I agree that one person would be more evocative but I think symbolism might have to trump art on this project. I want to encourage the young people to "travel together" somewhat at this stage. Junior high is a tough, tough age.

I printed it 8 x 10 and there are no glaring defects. Now, 16 x 20? We shall see.

It is a grand success when art makes thought visible. The "Bridge to Your Future" is a fine sentiment and now this thread shows an evolving series of pictures that instantiate the idea persuasively.

Instantiation is a powerful device in visual art in that it seeks to create or find a thing that exemplifies a principle or class of object. For example “green” is a principle or class and a green thing is an instance of it – a concrete instance of an abstraction. A picture showing a bridge with a path leading beyond it is a nice way of linking "further along" in space and, by implication, in time.

Western art, for maybe the last thousand years, has trafficked in pictures to instantiate abstractions. And the results have been an ornament to our civilisation. Then photography came along.

Instantiation is even more powerful when photography does it. The painters, whether in acrylics, oils, or pixels, use pictures to carry their message. Photography uses real things actually out there in the world. A physical bridge with physical path beyond it offers a tingle factor that a picture of a brige and path does not. And an original photograph is an affirmation that such a bridge and path exist. I could witness this bridge and path with my own eyes.

The material link between a photograph and its subject is termed the indexicality of a photograph. That's where the buzz, thrill, or horripliation associated with looking at photographs, but not paintings, comes from. I still think it is worthwhile to find the perfect bridge and path rather than sidestep the challenge by confecting a picture.

 

[Nichole Lampron]

You had a fantastic image to begin with but the progression here has been nothing short of remarkable and that last image I think sums up the title perfectly. The trees you have there now just pulls you in more and the children walking into the trees and the unknown feels serene.

I think you have a winner there and hope that it works as a 16x20.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Thanks for all the input. I also think the newer version is better.

Maris, I agree that the search for bridges should continue. This will have to do for now for my son's school, but when I find that perfect bridge, perhaps I can replace it. Ideally, I would like to see the other side of the bridge leading off into some sort of....eternity, endlessness, lack of boundaries. Hopefully, I'll know it when I see it.

 

[Rachel Foster]

I printed this (the photoshopped version) big today (16 x 20). To my great surprise, the photoshop alteration was not at all obvious and if one wasn't specifically looking for the alteration one would most likely not notice! I did a photoshop job that was decent! Yay me! (Ok, enough self-congratulation.)

I put it in a very simple frame and took it to the school principal today. He was delighted with it! It obviously is artistically and technically flawed, but if the criterion for success is pleasing the audience, this was an unqualified success.

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback and made suggestions. Special thanks to Asher and Maris.

And, of course, thanks to everyone who has commented on the work I've posted here over the past 2 1/2 years. Every comment, pointing out what I've done wrong as well as what I've done right, has been enormously helpful in helping my growth as a photographer.

Special thanks to several others who (I hope) know who they are.