* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #795 / Revived #015 on 2023 07 12 *

This image is "made" by the two patches of bright colour in an otherwise fairly industrial looking environment : the canoe and the umbrella.
Two ways of enjoying a day in summer near the water. A fun image.

This is a very neat abstract, almost hypnotizing.
I always love it when photographic tools are used in unexpected ways to create results that puzzle and dazzle at the same time.

(On a side note, let me tell you what your image reminded me of: it looked to me like somebody with a car with tires caked in chalk, had made beautiful patterns on smooth fresh black tarmac.)

I really like very selective focus in this kind of portrait, making the eyes stand out and DOF slowly going OOF already towards the mouth and ears.
I've made portraits like those with some very fast lenses, and also with a dirt cheap Lensbaby lens, which is kinda like your tilt/shift but yours is higher quality.

So you have a great tool here for making striking portraits.

Composition-wise, I am not the biggest fan of the photo shown here: it is very centered, but then the chin is chopped off. Because you used landscape orientation instead of portrait, that missing chin feels like an error more than a deliberate choice. Just not the greatest composition.
Sometimes, a crop can be used to remedy that. I've often had occasions where my in-camera composition was lacking (because I had cut off some part of something, especially after tilt correction which I often have to apply). And in most cases, taking the crop a step further, was an improvement.

In the case of this portrait, if it were mine, I would not hesitate to go totally overboard with deep cropping and focus on just part of the face: e.g. make the crop square to make the image less centered, and then crop even higher on the chin (maybe even just half the face) to make the composition look more deliberate.

Something like this maybe :

Enlarging this image, it becomes possible to appreciate the very intricate different textures of the structures.
The bird shows us an unusual pose, and am I correct in thinking that there is a shape stuck in his neck, like he has just caught a fish and is still in the process of swallowing it?

This is a wonderfully warped image and I am not even really sure what it is that we are looking at: the inside of some kind of silo maybe?
I'll look at other people's comments later and see what they think (if they write about that at all).

The colour scheme is excellent : the blue sky is a match made in heaven with bold orange.
The moon in the blue sky is almost too good to believe.
If you tell me that this is not a composite, then I would be wowed!

The shape of the blue sky patch with the moon is almost like an eye with iris looking down on us.
Very intriguing.

That is a great idea that I have seen applied for 3D works of art (like statues or buildings, with a smaller version that you are allowed to touch, and with braille caption), but not yet for 2D paintings. There's an artistry in itself in such an approach.

Your image presents us the actual artwork and the 3D representation together in a tight geometry.
Very nice, but something tells me that I would have liked it even better if you had a person in the frame doing some actual touching.

That sculpture is quite something. Apart from the repeated dark / light bands it is really disjoint. I actually wonder if the creator doesn't like bricks and was making a comment...

I do also like Andrew's brighter version.
But it is still a toss-up, because I also enjoy the bold shadows of the original.
Tough decision for me.

Thank you for showing us the raw material from which you crafted the warped mystery.
You had both Mike and me fooled, into thinking we were inside a silo.
Obviously, your title plays a big part in that wonderful deception : "escape" implies enclosure.
Very creative image-making, that is for sure.

Jim,
Thank you for these great thoughts: it is almost an essay (well, delete the "almost").

On your words about HCB, contact sheets and the footwork that good photographers do to explore a scene, allow me to point you in the direction of a favourite book : it is the "Magnum Contact Sheets" book, and it illustrates exactly what you also describe : the exploration of a given scene (often static, sometimes even a dynamic scene but then the photographer must think, move and work fast!).

And I was pleased to read that there are also HCB contact sheets that can be admired in some place.

In the book I mentioned, HCB is represented not with a true contact sheet, but with one of his own collages of images.
I understood from the book that HCB had a habit of destroying the bad shots from a roll of film and keeping only the good ones.
I always figured that this was related to his theory of the "decision moment" and more specifically, to maintain his own myth that he was the master of capturing those moments (and not the lesser moments before and after that).

Another interesting capture in the dam birds series. I like the different shapes and the almost black cube at the back, with it's own little waterfall. The bird speaks for itself.

Thanks you so much! That‘s a great suggestion. And you‘re right: it‘s challenging getting it right in camera with tilt + focusing on the right thing, so I probably shouldn‘t hesitate to get further away and then crop… feel like that would give me more to play around with. I think your crop works well - thanks!

If I would take a shot of someone else, I would have to consider a couple of additional things also, particularly the surroundings.

Having a short conversation with @JonesLongshot about his excellent portraits (joneshendershot.com/) in the Adapted Lens Subforum reminded me how important that aspect can be…

A wonderful shot! The shape of that bird in flight is pretty incredible - it almost feels like some sort of symbol or letter on the dark background. I‘m starting to get your fascination with the dam and the birds - excellent work!

Got to agree with everyone else here - truly inspiring seeing what you were able to create with this shot. It takes a creative mind to come up with that and I feel like it works perfectly as intended!

I like the crop and the thinking behind it.

I'm very grateful for the interest and time you all have shared with me! I continue to learn and be inspired by your work, but most especially your feedback on everyone's photos (I read all of it!). I will definitely keep in mind the advice about magicians and their secrets 😁

I really like the colours with their reflections in this shot. Also the overlapping circles providing venn diagram like additive areas. Is it correct to refer to it as bokeh? It suggests a quiet, calm evening - taking in the sounds of the waterfront.

I was wondering if it was taken with a fisheye. The cues of container ribs are there but the illusion of a silo cone or similar overrides them. But then the ladder shadows cast doubt as what it actually is. I'm glad you explained it. I wonder if the software could make a circle at the top...