Your processing has given the photo a painterly look and an air of being hand-made or crafted in a most attractive way. The blue and white theme also works very well and embeds the car in its surroundings, which is very appropriate, given that Cuba is famous for its beautiful old cars and old buildings. These aspects combine to produce a very retro and nostalgic feel, where even the street scene itself plays a role and, apart from the car, the street is dominated by leg power and only one other motorised vehicle hiding in the background.
Given the high angle of view, I suspect this was taken from a bus, but the photo has so much more than a thoughtless drive-by record shot.
There is something amusing about this photo. I am looking for a carrot dangling from the man’s fishing rod to encourage the woman to keep going!
The group are all on the left-hand side with an empty right-hand side, and the people are heading out of the frame. As usual, this breaking of an established rule causes the viewer to stop and think why, which is a good reason to break a rule. The rule states the subject needs space to move into, so by breaking this rule, it suggests how far the two have come, which makes us aware of their effort. It also suggests that they are nearer to their destination than the beginning. There is a welcoming empty bench just in front of them, but they seem to be determined to carry on (or they are blinded by tiredness!).
The bench and the rod break the horizon lines separating the layers of sand, sea and sky, providing visual bridges between these areas.
Despite the exertion of the subjects, it is a nice peaceful scene for us viewers.
These are two very different treatments of the same subject, but the processing in both grabs attention and enhances the image, rather than being PP for the sake of it.
The processing in the first seems to enhance the fine detail, because the negative effect make the lines bright instead of dark. It also gives the building an internal light, which gives it life to such an extent, that it almost seems to be on fire. Whether intentional or not, the clouds look as though a giant bucket of water is being thrown over the building.
The second is a great photo. The graceful curves of the vaulting are contrasted with the straight lines of the shadows, which neatly fill the dead space of the foreground, and combine in a very satisfying composition. The colours seem to have been selective in processing, highlighting the smooth, pale stonework against the warm, intricate brickwork, and blue light drawing the eye to the end of the colonnade. It could also be without any colour manipulation and completely natural, which is a neat achievement, if PP was involved.
Images like this tie me in knots. Don't expect a coherent response from me here because it is an area where I am unresolved within myself.
Impressionism is my favourite art style/movement. I could write an extended piece on why this is so. I'm happy for photographs to be impressionistic where the capturing of the image has created the result. For example, as a result of deliberate camera movement or maybe when reflections or fog, or other conditions have created an effect. I don't know how LindaS made the shot. If it was done by applying a filter of some sort to a photo, I get uncomfortable. That kind of manipulation seems counter to the point of impressionism. If it was done (I don't think it was) by photographing a reflection on, say, misted glass, I'm comfortable.
Without much trouble I can find holes and inconsistencies in my argument here.
Irrespective of the above, here, I like the difference between Stella and Me. Me is vague, a suggested shape with enough info to recognize a photographer at work. Me is easily the largest part of the image. Stella needs to be discovered. Relatively small and tucked in a corner. Her warmer hues and position in the corner lines ensure that we will find her. Stella is treated differently. She's sharp and detailed. Conclusion. This is a photograph of a relationship with the photographer. Stella's important in the relationship.
An unusual view of a rooftop that is almost an abstract, presented with a nice color palette and plenty of negative space. The slight upward roof tilt would normally be a visual bother for me, but because the whole composition is so unusual, this works too. It has a feeling of being about to launch itself rightward and upward.
One of my favorite photographic subjects: the great blue heron. I have spent a goodly percentage of my photography field time the past 5 yers in chasing, observing, and gaining an understanding of these beautiful dinosaurs, and I have thousands of photos to prove it. Nice sharp capture in a good GBH pose with beak barely touching the water to give you a lovely, clear reflection as if he's placing a kiss on his own image. I can see some of the background in the reflection and would like to see a bit more behind the bird himself, but I know that is just my personal preference to include context for birds, and probably more viewers prefer to see as much bird as possible in great detail as you've presented this one. Perfect color, not easy since their coloring is subtle and can easily get a bit "off" especially when they are in shade like this.
At first glance this seems a nice collection of architectural photos, but on closer examination the different artistic approaches to each image become apparent. It makes a fascinating collection. The first is a mix of geometry and environment but the dramatic clouds are dominant even to the spire. The second feels more like a street photography type architectural shot with the hum drum of daily life, signs, people, construction taking prime billing and the silent spire in the background. The third is almost abstracted with the lens distortion turning the spire into a whole new shape. The fourth presented the spire in reflection, but severely distorted and more abstracted. The final one is a classic Pete shot framing the spire creatively within a shadowed edge of some other structure, with leading lines going not to the subject but to a place where we know we can observe it - the kinds of subtle visual tricks you often play on us. Very nice series.
Beautiful scene. I've been there but it was before I did photography and I don't remember this wonderful view. I've not seen it photographed either, so you've found a rather unknown iconic view, something very hard to do in today's world. You've done a really nice job of capturing its beauty against the backdrop of the flat landscape below, and with a pleasingly detailed and colorful but unobtrusive sky The partial framing with the foreground rock is very effective.
I kinda think you're new to the Wednesday C&C project so I'll offer you a hearty welcome, and encourage you to return to share more images and also your thoughts about the images others have posted. We thrive on conversation here.
I am confronted with quite a visual puzzle here. Frothy magenta foliage is strange enough, but I've seen these cherry syrup trees in some of your other compositions. But I'm totally befuddled by the concrete (?) barrier I'm looking at the scene over. My mind tells me it is the side of an overpass. But it is full of what looks like reflections of both the cherry syrup trees and other greenish foliage. So I am really unsure about what I'm looking at. Which is not a bad thing. Part of the charm of your creations is that we are often confounded by them.
There is a barrier here that prevents us from viewing the frame easily. But it is not insurmountable, and the leading line picks up on the other side so we are oriented to the scene sufficiently to appreciate it. An interesting and engaging creation.
Other than the graphic quality or composition of this image, which may or may not work for anyone else, a very compelling aspect is the rendering of the GF 110/2 lens on my GFX 100s here at f/6.4, right in the center of its wheelhouse for sharp.
I've made a point, before that sharpness is a highly overrated aspect of photography. I really believe that.
Except when it isn't. And then, it's really everything and can carry an image for no other reason than, well, the sharpness.
I've done a lot of LF work. Mostly 4x5 but also a fair amount of 8x10. As a drum scanner operator, I've handled many thousands more LF images from other photographers, ranging from reproductions of artwork destined for limited edition print runs on offset lithography, to original landscapes, portraits, still life, abstracts.
One of the things the photographer strives for in LF work is sharpness. After all, there's really no point in setting up the huge beast if you aren't going to focus the darn thing. Even in an image deliberately composed to have very shallow DOF, the lens is focused somewhere, and that image plane is sharp. For reproduction of artwork, aside from accurate color, the camera and film have to get out of the way and use sharpness to convince the viewer that the reproduction is the original.
Sharpness in a LF image is different from sharpness in a small image. The lens is being "taxed" very little. A 4x5 image reproduced at 8x10 is only magnified 2x. Even at 16x20, it's only 4x. LF images look simultaneously sharp yet relaxed. They have a stateliness, a dignity. Technically, they are riveting while simultaneously, quiet.
Small images can also be very sharp. Sometimes sharper than LF images. But they hardly ever have the quiet, relaxed quality that a very sharp LF image can possess. They look strained, nervous in achieving their sharpness.
The sharpness of a LF image can be extremely pleasing to view in its own writ. The original thing itself being imaged is right there in front of you. The more you look, the more you see. Every detail of the original is easily discerned. Quietly and effortlessly, not surprisingly in a field of grain or noise, but smoothly and pleasingly.
The GF 110/2 lens, as well as a few other GF lenses and adapted (Zeiss) lenses come very close to a LF "look" on the 100s. As soon as I looked at this image in Photoshop, I was struck by the easy, relaxed, but sharp detail in the patina on the metal cladding of the chimney and in the roof shingles. Want to see more detail? Just look longer. It goes on and on and on. Effortlessly.
I have more GF110/2 images where image detail alone makes the image very enjoyable, beyond any other image attributes. IMHO. I'll post them in coming weeks.
There's so much I love about this photo! The distorted reflection is ultra-cool, as is the musician's profile, including that sparse tuft of hair standing straight up on top of his head.
Question about the cropping: having both the side and top of the instrument cut off seems to be more effective than I imagine just one side would be. I'm thinking about the times we accidently cut something off and are advised to chop more - to make it appear an artistic choice rather than a mistake. Was there any consideration on your part to leave one side intact?
I'm pretty sure I've yet to see "nothing special" from you, simplejoy. Your engaging and uplifting creativity is so inspiring!
This is another visual treat with the colors and curves that feel like a warm hug. Like many folks, I'm enthralled with the moon - in any form.
It's also fun to know you enjoy creating titles because I've done a tiny bit of that with some of my postings to the forum where I've spent most of the past decade. For the first five or six years there was no way to see thumbnails, so a title was the way you caught someone's attention. But you didn't want to oversell and have them angry for wasting their time 😏
And thank you again for providing all the info about flickr groups!
This is one of those pictures where I like the idea but would really like a lower angle against and more of the building behind it .. I think .. But like all critiques of this nature --- I wasn't there!!! .... and such was probably never an option!! .... I think the picture as is a nice view of Cuba and may give us some insight into that country as I look about and think of that old Cadillac on a mostly empty street ...
..... and like all pictures here this needs to be seen inthe gallery view .....
