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Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!
This weeks thoughts in picture amidst interludes of discourse.
- Thread starter Tom dinning
- Start date
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tom,
4 Great pictures packed tight with no space!
You deliver your fine pictures, stacked like a pile of unrelated Xmas presents dumped by UPS at the gate!
I took the liberty of adding 4 lines between images to allow each focused attention they deserve!
🙏
Asher
4 Great pictures packed tight with no space!
You deliver your fine pictures, stacked like a pile of unrelated Xmas presents dumped by UPS at the gate!
I took the liberty of adding 4 lines between images to allow each focused attention they deserve!
🙏
Asher
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This picture, at first I couldn’t recognize correctly: it seemed like a shadowed rock face or cave.
It’s quite extraordinary and in its unique form, speaks for itself.
This is thoughtful and well-considered work and makes my own efforts worthwhile for today!
Tom, you are like a cherry, but here, we have to take the hard sharp stone in our mouths long before the taste of delicious fruit!
Asher
It’s quite extraordinary and in its unique form, speaks for itself.
This is thoughtful and well-considered work and makes my own efforts worthwhile for today!
Tom, you are like a cherry, but here, we have to take the hard sharp stone in our mouths long before the taste of delicious fruit!
Asher
Robert Watcher
Well-known member
The third (black and white) is a remarkable capture. anticipation, composition, lighting and timing.
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nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
James Lemon
Well-known member
Yes I was wondering about the dog too?
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Yes, That dog must be a very fast at escaping!
Look at the EXIF
Looking at the direct shadows directly behind the tree and man, one thinks of car head lights or else camera flash!
At 1/4,000 second how is that hypothetical flash synchronized?
Perhaps the flash was set to strobing, but perhaps shutter leaves move horizontally and dog simply didn’t get lit?
Tom can you explain the puzzle
Asher
Don Ferguson Jr.
Well-known member
Yep, to me that line of leash is distracting and the photo not complete missing the dog.
Don
Don
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We do see the shadow of one dog, James!But in fact there are two dog leashes, one in each hand. The dogs are not lit by the car or street lights!
Adjusted to make out the dog shadow!
On second thoughts it’s even more complicated!
Look at shadow directions. One can see this is lit mainly from the left as the shadow of the tree comes from a light source behind the left shoulder of the photographer! That can’t cone from camera flash. A second light source appears to be making the old fellows shadow. The light there is coming from behind the photographer’s right side. That could be flash!
Or the headlights of several cars passing!
Asher
James Lemon
Well-known member
Asher
I see one dog leash not two and a strap for holding his cane in his other hand but I do not see a dog. Without the dog this image is a miss.
James
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
There’s a ring next to the walking stick handle! What’s that there for then?
Tom dinning
Registrant*
Firstly, let me reassure you.
The image is complete.
It may not satisfy your expectations but it does mine.
Those who seek technical details, on the other hand are looking in the wrong place. Nothing about camera settings will provide you with understanding beyond your own limited vision.
This photograph is one, for me, when all things appear to be interconnected in my thoughts. Often, when this happens, I simply point the camera and shoot. A fraction of a second later or earlier and the coexistence of my thoughts and vision will turn to muck.
Of course the dog is there. It’s external to the frame but we all know it’s there somewhere, in your thoughts. To see the dog you must look beyond the frame and into your memory.
Only an idiot needs to have everything in the frame.
The lighting is as it was. It’s not necessary for you to understand how, just to accept ‘is’.
The image is complete.
It may not satisfy your expectations but it does mine.
Those who seek technical details, on the other hand are looking in the wrong place. Nothing about camera settings will provide you with understanding beyond your own limited vision.
This photograph is one, for me, when all things appear to be interconnected in my thoughts. Often, when this happens, I simply point the camera and shoot. A fraction of a second later or earlier and the coexistence of my thoughts and vision will turn to muck.
Of course the dog is there. It’s external to the frame but we all know it’s there somewhere, in your thoughts. To see the dog you must look beyond the frame and into your memory.
Only an idiot needs to have everything in the frame.
The lighting is as it was. It’s not necessary for you to understand how, just to accept ‘is’.
Tom dinning
Registrant*
James Lemon
Well-known member
Tom
The picture is incomplete regardless of how you want to desperately rationalize its meaning. "Go sell crazy somewhere else".
James
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Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Of course its “complete”!
That’s the decision, by right of you the view/happenstance-sampler and image-creator!
Whether or not anyone else is satisfied is only relevant if and when we are paying for some work to our taste and specifications.
But you are just sharing. So those who find it insufficient just have to suffer whatever misery, angst or regret they reflexly generate!
I am happy with the picture and enjoy it as is. Of course I am fascinated by the curve of the man’s back recapitulating that of the equally old tree! This is a unique vision! I am delighted to see it.
Having said that I wonder, “How did it all happen?” 🧐
I would appreciate if you shared the circumstances that allowed the lighting and shadows to appear as they did!
Asher
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tom,
No, we don’t look at EXIF to read your acerbic mind, LOL, just to understand the lighting and shot conditions!
Asher
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Now to another strange picture!
Who thinks this is “incomplete”?
If I said the title of it was “Basking Seals”, you might point out that no seals are visible.
But neither is a common subject like a boy fishing with a cane and string, a boat docking or a girl sunbathing!
You might think it’s empty and then imagine he gave a title, for something that obviously isn’t in the picture!
But the artist might just want
Tom allows, each of us, our private choice! So I happen to think of the play, “Waiting for Godo”. That’s my fantasy!
..... but unless we actually commission the work and have to pay for it, we have zero say in its composition!
So yes, it’s “complete” unless Tom advises otherwise!
Asher
If I said the title of it was “Basking Seals”, you might point out that no seals are visible.
But neither is a common subject like a boy fishing with a cane and string, a boat docking or a girl sunbathing!
You might think it’s empty and then imagine he gave a title, for something that obviously isn’t in the picture!
But the artist might just want
- To annoy you.
- Have you think about the seals that used to be there.
- Have you think of seals that should be there - but life isn’t fair to our ignored empty dock!
Tom allows, each of us, our private choice! So I happen to think of the play, “Waiting for Godo”. That’s my fantasy!
..... but unless we actually commission the work and have to pay for it, we have zero say in its composition!
So yes, it’s “complete” unless Tom advises otherwise!
Asher
James Lemon
Well-known member
Asher
Sure we do! If one wants to make pictures for their own desires they should not bother posting it on the internet. They would be better served by taking it to bed with them and dreaming about it,then put it under the pillow and look at it again in the morning upon awaking. When one publishes a picture it becomes an image for an audience the same way when one publishes a book for all the critics to comment.
James
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Agreed! We can say we like/hate it and why. But saying it’s complete is the sole right of the artist unless we hire him/her!
If I have a sculpture and the City says they want a diver in it as that goes with their location. I just tell them no! But if you asked me from the outset for that same thing, I would try hard to please you.
But once I finished it all you can do is like it or not.
It’s not appropriate or acceptable for someone to say “You should have included a This or that!” unless I had promised and contracted to do so!
We share but at that point all we can do is like it or not. We don’t have a right to demand it should have been made according to our superior formula.
I will always defend your right to be the sole architect of your compositions. When you share it with me I may enjoy it or not. If you ask me why I am not enthusiastic and I trust you won’t blow my head off, I will tell you what about it I like and what gives me pause. But to be open and honest to someone in the same room, one has to have some history of two way openness or else someone takes offense.
Frankly, that’s what private messages are for, especially for work of those of us trying to sell our pictures! I wouldn’t want some remark of mine to negatively impact on the public image of any artist.
Asher
nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Ho là là!
When I first wrote this comment, it was just humor…
I just wanted to tease Tom, of course we have to consider this image as complete if it is Tom's choice and desire!
But we have a right to wonder about the dog's fate! And this could have been the question Tom wanted to suggest to us. Or not...
A good image can also leave us questioning or uncertain, isn't that also the role of art? Go beyond the simple description, stronger than a pretty decoration?
nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Tom dinning
Registrant*
It’s Verona in November.
The day has been warm and smothered with sunlight. It’s been surprisingly warm for this time of year.
The locals have ventured out to grab the last beams of light cutting across the Adige.
I stand at the edge of Ponte Cantena to cool in the early evening breeze.
From here the city is drenched in reds and oranges from the terracotta and the sunset spectrum.
The shadows are dark and hollow, the figures move as puppets, dancing across the textured backdrop of villa walls.
The old man steps from behind the aged trunk of a statuesque willow oak. He is lead by his dog who seeks a place to squat, away from moving foot traffic. The old man senses the need for his canine friend to relieve itself and allows the lead to extend ahead of him.
The old mans body leans as if burdened by his years, reflected equally by the ageing oak. He is a shadow of his former self as is his dog, shadow cast against the wall in ghostly form.
how much can I see here? How much is to frame? Symbols all. Metaphors of a past life and short future. Things we don’t see ahead or remember all from the past. Yet we weather on, crooked and slow, warmed by what light is left, escaping the shadows and keeping distance with lifelong companions.
I can let the camera choose in haste, before the moment passes, before the light weakens, before the old man passes back into the shadows.
What do I now see? My future? All our futures? Is this what we live for? Is this what we are left with?
Scraps of a day past, of a life past. The story is always incomplete. And the observer, me, can only ponder what is missing.
The day has been warm and smothered with sunlight. It’s been surprisingly warm for this time of year.
The locals have ventured out to grab the last beams of light cutting across the Adige.
I stand at the edge of Ponte Cantena to cool in the early evening breeze.
From here the city is drenched in reds and oranges from the terracotta and the sunset spectrum.
The shadows are dark and hollow, the figures move as puppets, dancing across the textured backdrop of villa walls.
The old man steps from behind the aged trunk of a statuesque willow oak. He is lead by his dog who seeks a place to squat, away from moving foot traffic. The old man senses the need for his canine friend to relieve itself and allows the lead to extend ahead of him.
The old mans body leans as if burdened by his years, reflected equally by the ageing oak. He is a shadow of his former self as is his dog, shadow cast against the wall in ghostly form.
how much can I see here? How much is to frame? Symbols all. Metaphors of a past life and short future. Things we don’t see ahead or remember all from the past. Yet we weather on, crooked and slow, warmed by what light is left, escaping the shadows and keeping distance with lifelong companions.
I can let the camera choose in haste, before the moment passes, before the light weakens, before the old man passes back into the shadows.
What do I now see? My future? All our futures? Is this what we live for? Is this what we are left with?
Scraps of a day past, of a life past. The story is always incomplete. And the observer, me, can only ponder what is missing.
Tom dinning
Registrant*
A famous Australia once said that all he wrote was the beginning of an argument, not a completion to any formal statement.
I don’t compare myself to such a person, only that I am pleased when an image raises questions, instigates discussion and leaves the conversation hanging unfinished.
Photographs can be ‘incomplete’ in a physical and mental sense. Such images are about ideas which, in the creative mind, are always being added to, modified, moulded, contradicted, reduced to rubble or expanded to accommodate.
although the image remains the same it becomes a starting point for the photograph to move from.
this isn’t always the case, of course. Some images end in the frame. The are all-inclusive. They need little or no further input beyond admiration or aversion.
Others are exclusive. They deny the observer visually and mentally. They are acronyms for resolution. The discovery here is not in the obvious. It is in the manner of the viewer. They are puzzles without answers.
I don’t compare myself to such a person, only that I am pleased when an image raises questions, instigates discussion and leaves the conversation hanging unfinished.
Photographs can be ‘incomplete’ in a physical and mental sense. Such images are about ideas which, in the creative mind, are always being added to, modified, moulded, contradicted, reduced to rubble or expanded to accommodate.
although the image remains the same it becomes a starting point for the photograph to move from.
this isn’t always the case, of course. Some images end in the frame. The are all-inclusive. They need little or no further input beyond admiration or aversion.
Others are exclusive. They deny the observer visually and mentally. They are acronyms for resolution. The discovery here is not in the obvious. It is in the manner of the viewer. They are puzzles without answers.
Tom dinning
Registrant*
James, how is it possible to produce anything without the desire of the maker being involved, either completely or partially?
My house is filled with my own images. I even have a few on the walls above my bed.
when I was teaching and my students didn’t understand why I was doing what I was doing I would suggest to them, in my best sarcastic manner, that I needed a better class of students.
If anyone in the class felt offended by my remark I would remind them that I was talking on,y to the students who’s thinking only extended to the tip of their nose.
Andy brown
Well-known member
Do I detect a hint of jealousy James?
Sorry, I can’t help myself.
Sorry Asher, I’d love to be coming in with ‘nice pic... nice pic!’
Sorry all the other cranky old coots on OPF, I’m getting old, my niceness filter is in soft focus.
James, you actually take a half decent B&W. Your subject matter of wannabe cool cowboy dudes who strike tragic poses, wannabe retro tattooed pudgy early middle aged women clinging to, to...well I’m not quite sure what leaves me a bit cold but I can see what you’re trying to do.
I’m the first to admit that my B&W efforts don’t hold a candle to yours and I do have to say though that as a B&W practitioner, you are not really qualified to shine Tom’s thongs.
That’s all.
Tom dinning
Registrant*
That’s a bit harsh, James. I’m not desperate, just disappointed. I’m sorry I crossed your intellectual line in the sand. It’s so barren on your side.
James Lemon
Well-known member
Tom
Photography is not about tricks,gimmicks, gazing inward,looking beyond reality, or contaminating them with our own ideas. They should teach us to look more closely at things through a corrective lens to our own flawed vision. Nothing harsh or disappointing about it.
James
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
“Should”?
James, my friend,
In the human brain we make connections: that’s how we are wired.
...and there is no simple “should” associated with taking pictures or choosing the ones to share: as each instance of a “should” we conjure up, as a rule, would, itself, be then conditional on something else!
Photography is merely the activity involved in making and exploiting the camera to record a scene from a viewpoint.
Beyond taking pictures, it’s already “photography”, even if the results are never seen!
So, as to what constitutes “photography” we should avoid “shoulds”!
But you still can list your own preferences and you can even report that you like or hate mine and why!
Asher
James Lemon
Well-known member
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So you you agree!
Great we’re on the same wavelength and Tom can once again gaze inward, outward or through the imaginary orifice of his choice, without your complaint?
.....or not?
Asher