Remembrance

[Cem_Usakligil]

Just busy processing some images at random, came across this one.

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[fahim mohammed]

Poignant image Cem.

Best regards.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Thank you Fahim.

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

Graphically, it's beautiful, Cem. Curious creature that I am, do you know why the 40 small crosses?

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Graphically, it's beautiful, Cem. Curious creature that I am, do you know why the 40 small crosses?

Thanks Maggie. If you look closely you can see that the upper 11 crosses have names of them. They each represent the deceased members of the parish this year. It seems that 40 is a limit which they don't expect will be reached within one year. The named ones are removed at the end of the year and they start again with blank crosses.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Just busy processing some images at random, came across this one.

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Cem,

I enjoy visiting the place of remembrance. I would have expected a less perfect and even illumination so that the candles are allowed to penetrate a mysterious darkness..........but then that's how I remember such scenes and today, they don't light modern churches as the olden days.

Asher

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

Thanks Maggie. If you look closely you can see that the upper 11 crosses have names of them. They each represent the deceased members of the parish this year. It seems that 40 is a limit which they don't expect will be reached within one year. The named ones are removed at the end of the year and they start again with blank crosses.

Oh, Wow... so your title, remembrance was very appropriate. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[nicolas claris]

Oh, Wow... so your title, remembrance was very appropriate. Thanks for letting me know.

So is "came across" Nonetheless Cem is a damned pretty good photographer, he also knows how to use appropriate wording!

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

....
I enjoy visiting the place of remembrance. I would have expected a less perfect and even illumination so that the candles are allowed to penetrate a mysterious darkness..........but then that's how I remember such scenes and today, they don't light modern churches as the olden days....

Thanks Asher, the illumination wasn't that dark I'm afraid. It can be done in the post processing of course.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

So is "came across" Nonetheless Cem is a damned pretty good photographer, he also knows how to use appropriate wording!

Thanks Nicolas, guilty as charged!

 

[Paul Abbott]

Another great image, Cem. I like all the repetitive elements in this one and your framing of all this geometry...

 

[Asher Kelman]

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Cem,

Looking at this image again, I was surprised that the essence of it seemed to get lost in a simple B&W conversion. Now I realize that there's bronze and gold for the crosses. (Perhaps for males or females). The photograph needs that and the muted color relatives one can discover in the wall behind them.

Still, I'd love to see a version where the candles seem to illuminate the crosses, as electric light seems to lack their spirituality.

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

​

Cem,

Looking at this image again, I was surprised that the essence of it seemed to get lost in a simple B&W conversion. Now I realize that there's bronze and gold for the crosses. (Perhaps for males or females). The photograph needs that and the muted color relatives one can discover in the wall behind them.

Still, I'd love to see a version where the candles seem to illuminate the crosses, as electric light seems to lack their spirituality.

Asher

Hi Asher,

Were you looking for something along these lines then?

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Another great image, Cem. I like all the repetitive elements in this one and your framing of all this geometry...

Thanks Paul, appreciated.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Here is another one for Asher, taken in 2009. This time the light is supplied only by the candles.

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[Asher Kelman]

Hi Asher,

Were you looking for something along these lines then?

Cem,

You're a gem indeed! (Only those who appreciate Turk pronunciation will understand the poetry fully).

Well, really a sport to tolerate my fancies. Thanks. Yes this has much more reflective spirituality. I like the light now. Maybe increase the power and territorial importance of the two tallest lights a tad. If your whim dares you to be really brutally artistic, snuff out the lights in the two on the left border.

Asher

 

[Tom dinning]

Thanks Maggie. If you look closely you can see that the upper 11 crosses have names of them. They each represent the deceased members of the parish this year. It seems that 40 is a limit which they don't expect will be reached within one year. The named ones are removed at the end of the year and they start again with blank crosses.

How quickly we are removed from the memory of others. Do they recycle the crosses or store the old ones in a box just in case there isn't enough deaths in a given year? Wouldn't you be pissed if you were the 41st person to die that year. I hope this isn't encouraging euthanasia among the old status seekers of the parish.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Cem,

You're a gem indeed! (Only those who appreciate Turk pronunciation will understand the poetry fully).

Well, really a sport to tolerate my fancies. Thanks. Yes this has much more reflective spirituality. I like the light now. Maybe increase the power and territorial importance of the two tallest lights a tad. If your whim dares you to be really brutally artistic, snuff out the lights in the two on the left border.

Asher

Glad to hear that you have enjoyed it Asher. I'll do some more editing later.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

How quickly we are removed from the memory of others. Do they recycle the crosses or store the old ones in a box just in case there isn't enough deaths in a given year? Wouldn't you be pissed if you were the 41st person to die that year. I hope this isn't encouraging euthanasia among the old status seekers of the parish.

Tom all very good questions. I don't have the answers. It would be even worse if 40 would have been a target instead, lol.

 

[Tom dinning]

Tom all very good questions. I don't have the answers. It would be even worse if 40 would have been a target instead, lol.

I hadn't thought of a quota. Can you picture a Sunday morning in church and the oldies are hoping the bloke sitting next to him will give one last cough and take the next number, er, cross.

See what you pictures do to my brain, Cem. Cheers for that.

On a more serious note, I stared at your photo for some time this morning while I was waiting for the air conditioner technician to turn up. He didn't. I'm pissed off with him now. Anyway, I wasn't quite sure what you were getting at with the picture, if anything. Was it one of those 'here's a reflection that looks interesting, I'll take a shot' or was there something a bit more subliminal you wanted to tell us. It's a nice enough picture and definitely has your mark on it compositionally but I always wonder if I'm missing another level. These sorts of shots are mostly very precise and ordered, like your architectural stuff. This one has a simple and effective contrast in the reflection and the reflector that is worth dwelling on. Maybe you'd like to add a few words of narrative so we can get a grasp of what was going through your head at the time or afterwards as you processed and presented it.

Personally, I think your watermark should be bottom left and confined to one of the wooden squares which, by the way, is probably some young architect trying to justify his building by including some natural texture. And Venetian blinds! Really, they are so 70's. Or is that retro? Would you frame it in black or beige?
Your therapeutic hypnotist,
Tom

 

[Asher Kelman]

Personally, I think your watermark should be bottom left and confined to one of the wooden squares ..........

Tom,

Is that sarcasm, or you mean it?

Maybe you'd like to add a few words of narrative so we can get a grasp of what was going through your head at the time or afterwards as you processed and presented it.

Really, Tom,

For this, we've enough culture in common, that we all can appreciate related emotions and narratives enough just by reading the image Cem has designed for us. What could another set of sentences add that our minds can't figure out and just feel? If you do a search on Cem's "Portals", then you'll see that remembering is also using portals too, they're just spiritual.

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Tom,

Is that sarcasm, or you mean it?...

I'm sure it is both Asher and I don't mind it in either case. I don't try to stick labels on everything which Tom writes. This is banter at it's best and I enjoy it a lot

....
Really, Tom,

For this, we've enough culture in common, that we all can appreciate related emotions and narratives enough just by reading the image Cem has designed for us. What could another set of sentences add that our minds can't figure out and just feel? ..

I agree Asher, thanks for that. But there would we no harm if I did add some narrative after all. I'll see what I can say about it.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

...On a more serious note, I stared at your photo for some time this morning while I was waiting for the air conditioner technician to turn up. He didn't. I'm pissed off with him now. Anyway, I wasn't quite sure what you were getting at with the picture, if anything. Was it one of those 'here's a reflection that looks interesting, I'll take a shot' or was there something a bit more subliminal you wanted to tell us. It's a nice enough picture and definitely has your mark on it compositionally but I always wonder if I'm missing another level. These sorts of shots are mostly very precise and ordered, like your architectural stuff. This one has a simple and effective contrast in the reflection and the reflector that is worth dwelling on. Maybe you'd like to add a few words of narrative so we can get a grasp of what was going through your head at the time or afterwards as you processed and presented it...

This was more like my subconscious telling me that there is a photo in there and I went through the motions of pointing the camera and taking a rectilinear picture (with too much bottom part which had been cropped). I wasn't feeling particularly spiritual or anything like that although in my mind I knew that this picture would speak to many people at that level. As you rightfully said, my better pictures usually have multiple layers (which, btw, I am not yet sure if this one belongs in that category). Nevertheless, I have seen multiple things coming together here, the patina of the wall, the light, the compositional distribution of the crosses and the candles, the spiritual level of church and religion and the emotional level of remembering and honoring the loved ones who passed away. This is a semi-conscious process which takes place in a second, I didn't have to think long and hard about it. Then the picture was taken and I have moved on to other things.

The picture has been left untouched in my LR catalog for some weeks. Like 99% of my pictures. Then one boring Thursday night, I was taking a random look at some of my pictures and giving them the basic processing in LR (WB, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, clarity, occasional cropping, etc), when I decided to process this one and I wasn't unhappy about the results. Neither was I sure about it, mind you. So I have posted it here to see how folks would react to it. That's basically the story behind it.

 

[Tom dinning]

Looks like I stuffed things up a bit; a lot. I wasn't referring to this shot but the other one; the reflection shot. Somehow I scrolled down too far and forgot what picture I was talking about.
Either way, bugger off, Asher. I can ask the photographer anything I like. It's got to be better than suggesting where he puts his banner or if the woodwork is permanent, for Christ sake.

If the picture is not doing anything for me, it always helps to know a bit of background from the photographer. I'm not all that astute. Sure, I can make up my own stories but, hey, what's wrong with hearing Cems? Why it might even help him understand why he does what he does. I'm still trying to figure out how he keeps his hair.

Sorry, Cem. I was talking over you like a corpse on a slab. It's not harmful to your health to use words with pictures. No one has died from it or suffered any limb loss. What am I supposed to do? Stare the at the picture until my brain goes dead or wake the photographer from his afternoon nap and ask him to explain himself?

I might move this conversation over to your other photo. That's the one with the watermark on it. Yes, the one I was having a dig at, along with the bit about the woodwork. That's the one I was truly interested in in the first place. This one has too many crosses on it for my liking.

Jeez! Is everyone so serious here? Still. And me an artist!!

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hahaha... that explains it Tom. I did think of the reflection picture based on the watermark remark you've made, but I did not realize that you have misplaced your post alltogether. Let's continue the discussion there in that case.

PS: we are not at all that serious and certainly not always. It must be you then!