* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #793 / Revived #013 on 2023 06 28 *

Here's another similar one. I can't decide which I like better.

I like them both, but for different reasons:

The first shot is more interesting to me in terms of what is happening/what it can be interpreted as.

I prefer the second one in terms of composition, balance and tones.

I definitely like the second version.

But, and I ask your indulgence . . .

I think that this crop is the story. The interaction of the two figures in the phone booth is too important to leave them so small in the frame. In fact their relationship is the image. There's enough of the surroundings left to give them location.

Their forms and the booth repeat in the gas pump.

Rich

I like both of these images Jim. They both have an old time vibe that brings thoughts to mind. Thinking of musicians it would fit well with an early Bruce S. or John M. They both wrote songs that told stories that seem to relate to days long since past.

For myself, I would crop the second differently, more in line but not exactly the same as the first. I think together they can tell a story so might benefit from identical crops and treatments but that is for another day.

Andrew

How I might crop it, but tomorrow it could be different! Perhaps too much off the bottom as in theory it is not necessary to the image but it does seem to impact the over all feel.

Fantastic to have this photo op to begin with, but the changes you see throughout the day and year? And with all the editing possibilities? It's like MinnieV's dam birds indoors!

😁

Rich

How great that they changed positions so dramatically. Do you have more?! A really long phone conversation, perhaps? 😃 I like Rich's crop very much. The woman's body language, including her left foot being out of her sandal, is just too marvelous to keep small. One could write a novel based on these two photos alone.

Initially I wasn't happy because of the oof foreground. I did really like the detail of the one little bud in the centre. It being like a gift offered to the world. The shots with focus on the petals were not much as the backlight made them look a bit washed out and the buds were then not as sharp. I went back there a few days later with a plan to somehow fold down that petal but the buds had lost their crisp look. I was going through those pics again the other day and because I can ignore the distraction and just see the main element, I decided to post. But yeah it is an unfortunate distraction...

This week I’m experimenting with responding after using the Reply button and the names of those replies I have read. I’m trying to find a way to keep links together rather than have to go through the pages over and over.
No. The above didn't do what I wanted so I'm reposting and attaching to the OP.
A WA lens at close quarters and the low angle have made the people look big. There are two consequences. The viewer shares a feeling of claustrophobia and the viewer feels small. Together give tension. Add the limited lighting and the dark spaces. Usually having more than one bright area in an image gets takes the viewer away from the subject. Here it's a virtue. We explore the surroundings. Exactly right for the subject. Still plenty of dark spaces that things might be hiding in. Maybe snakes Roel?

This week I’m experimenting with responding after using the Reply button and the names of those replies I have read. I’m trying to find a way to keep links together rather than have to go through the pages over and over. I'll start with the name of those I'm responding to in the posts.
No, the above didn't do what I expected so I'm reposting and attaching to the OP
Lou.
The isosceles triangle with the apex at the top is an effective way to direct the viewer.. Here it takes us to the face and Lou's substitution of a mask gives a face that can't be missed. The face is human but dehumanized and it is not happy. I'd take that as a comment on plastic in oceans in general. Plastics can be recycled into jackets but it is a mere drop in the ocean in the scale of the problem.
The background is sombre with hints of the city in the reflections. The ocean is overwhelmed.
A message to be digested.

This week I’m experimenting with responding after using the Reply button and the names of those replies I have read. I’m trying to find a way to keep links together rather than have to go through the pages over and over. I'll start with the name of those I'm responding to in the posts.
ChrisOly and Linda.

Interesting note from Linda on the hazy background and the use of dehaze filter. The hazy background works well here because it helps isolate the foreground figures that are the subject. Where I am at the moment I'm shooting landscapes where I want more of the landscape detail and I'm battling quite a bit of haze. Whether to use a haze filter, when and how much is a topic on my mind.
I very much like the island position of the subjects when it is added to the hazy background. Our fishermen are isolated in time and space. fishing does that to your head.Doesn't matter whether they are biting or not.
I like the big rocks at the front. They help set the subjects in their fishing apart from the many cares of the world at large.

This week I’m experimenting with responding after using the Reply button and the names of those replies I have read. I’m trying to find a way to keep links together rather than have to go through the pages over and over. I'll start with the name of those I'm responding to in the posts.
No, the above didn't work so I'm re posting my comments and linking back to the image
Linda.
Love it on many levels. I really admire abstractions where the subject has been reduced to absolute basics and the artist has shows us the skeleton of the lines and tones at work. Applause for the formatting. I never see any reason whatsoever to be bound by the conventions of frames.
Would you consider simplifying this even further? Perhaps eliminating the details in the black area below the bikes? Maybe getting rid of the bikes as well. All the frames below the handlebars become a bit of a tangle that is at odds with the purity of the upper 3/4. Maybe, for something really daring, just the handlebars at the bottom?

This deserves an award for photographic braveness. Minniev has described what you have done and it all defies convention. I think it comes off. The tip of the purple flower gets us to the points on the crown of the bulb that gets us to the micro details. The subject is located well away from our usual rule of thirds but we find it with ease and the overall trianglat composition gives balance.
Well done.

Scratching my head. I can't find a position on this. there are elements of a still moment from an animation, and things that make me think of
a breakfast cereal advertisement. The orange morsels strike me as a formation of crunchy bits flying in to tell me they should be in my breakfast bowl.

That says it perfectly Simplejoy.
Larry McMurtry's "The Last Picture Show" in a single image.
The little rectangles suggest many stories. They are discrete but linked. All within the reality of the decaying setting.
The back to back figures looking outwards from each other while one phones somewhere else, further convinces that this is not a place with a future.
It's a photo that might easily have been taken in many Australian country towns.
B&W gives age and the feeling of documentary reality.

As Jim said.
Windows are potent symbols as well. They carry the idea of looking out and looking in and here we do it from many perspectives.

There were many new Unicorns that could have been chosen and the reason for this choice is obvious. I wouldn't want to give the impression that the contrade is now a multinational organization, it is very much a local tribe still.

I'm open to all ideas and suggestions, especially given that my original vision was not at all cropped this severely. What I loved and photo'd in the moment were the shadows and light. Over the years I've changed from giving a great deal of thought at the moment of capture to exploring different stories after I open the raw file in my editor. Something about left brain/right brain, along with physical limitations and other. I appreciate your time and interest!