Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Another beautiful morning at Scott's Run with Barbara and Nadine. Last night's storms interrupted my sleep (nervous dog) but except for a few slides on the mud all was ideal. Woods, wildflowers, and GREEN in many forms; turns out that human eyes are especially responsive to the green and yellow parts of the spectrum. (This according to NYTimes science reporting today.) No wonder we love the woods in spring.
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oooh,, Pam. Especially that first one! Just perfect in every way in my eyes. I also particularly love the 4th, the rhythm of the loops is so nice. The little ferns are so hard to capture--I tried as well, unsuccessfully. That one feels more conventional to me than the rest and less strong. Leslie
ReplyDeletePam. I find much to like in this series. You have found subjects you want to photograph; you have successfully made them the center of attraction in each image. That's a good deal of the battle won.
ReplyDeleteI want to offer a couple of thoughts; you may disagree; others may too; but I trust no one will find the comments disagreeable.
I'm looking, in particular, at pictures 1,4 and 5. The comment is the same for each, a tighter frame, perhaps, might help a closer focus on what appears to be the theme. In 1, for instance, my eye is drawn to the white flowers - I think everyone has the same initial reaction. Then, as it were, the eye zooms back and takes in the whole picture - and there is too much "whole picture"; one could dispense with a lot of the frondery, on the sides particularly, whilst still retaining the subject/theme and making it more salient. Moreover, there's a lot of detail in the ferns that one doesn't see because of the distance of the view. A closer framing would really make the white flowers stand out, whilst bringing out interesting details in the fern fronds. Of course, the photographer may have wanted to emphasize the isolation of the flowers in a sea of ferns; in which case the photographer succeeded. My preference is different.
Image 4 , with leaves curling over what appear to be stamens, is lovely in conception; there are a couple of lotuses in Kenilworth, for instance, where the petals fold over the stamens to protect from rain and sun; quite amazing the forms evolution favors. As I peer closer into the picture though, two thoughts strike. First the curling leaves aren't all in focus. Second, suppose the picture had been shot from an even lower position - the plane parallel to the vertical stalks. Would mean, probably, the photographer shooting whilst lying belly down on the ground. Well, that's too much to ask in sacrifice to the art. My knees creak far too much already to want to do it. But much less difficulty in suggesting to others they do it!
As to Image 5 with the curlicue fern fronds, this is really a fine attempt, and mostly succeeds. The challenge, I think, as you must have seen it, is how to make them stand out against the wash of green. I suspect, again, that closer framing, i.e. tighter cropping would help; there's a lot of extraneous stuff around the ferns; they would be enlarged in the frame if this surrounding stuff was gone, perhaps even foregoing the stalks and just capturing the unfolding fronds. But, again, this may not have been the photographer's intention.
Well that's a lot of comment, and I hope not unwelcome. I personally never return from a "shoot" without wishing I'd seen differently, tried different angles from the ones I did try, had been more adept at achieving sharp focus on the subjects of interest and so on. I don't remember the lessons and so I don't ever become a better photographer. But these comments are offered in a constructive spirit, and I expect dissent. Always happens. But pictures that are worth a conversation, as yours are, are always more interesting than ones one just passes by and ask why anyone would have bothered. Best, and hope to see more. Farid.
The flower focus suite is so apropos for this time and place – to save what is sweet and cannot last. The curling ferns, unfurling in sunlight with ramps background is brilliant! Rhythmical, the compositional focus on one fiddlehead just right. Maybe too conventional for Leslie, but capturing the sun’s energy through fern fronds is what the image is about and I like that a lot. Jacks cluster with profiles is a un trio pyramid so much tender spring green loveliness. I like the see-through, the drops, the light n the drop.
ReplyDeleteFocus is so tricky. I will show two examples of recent missed focus – either too far or too close, neither what I wanted.
Of course the angle, the spiraling birch bark, the cut log’s rings, catches my attention.
Reviewing Farid’s comments, as to the first dicentra, I don’t mind the field because the repetition of feather foliage and drops is a good foil for the flowers, only would tame the brightness of the background leaf on the left. I like the pattern of shadows. One thought about shooting flowers is to be at eye level as you are with the jacks. Here, your vantage is working for me. A closer portrait would be a different kind of picture.