Photographer, writer, teacher :: Live honestly. Progress through knowledge. Achieve by teaching. Communicate in writing. Speak in pictures. Every day, improve the world a little...
@bruni - Thanks. I don't get enough time to do much photography for myself these days. Most of my camera work is for clients. Still fun, but I cannot post most of the work I do for other people.
Oooh, I do like the way the live human figures work in this! They make a lo-o-ovely, strong, implied diagonal that pulls the comp. together - and the contemplation of the nearest two figures invite the viewer to contemplate too. Clever stuff!
The reflection of the bust in the portrait front right (not left, duhhh!) makes it look as if the subjects are holding a conversation.
@dulciknit - Well spotted on the compositional components in this. I had to work quite hard to get it right - nearly ten minutes waiting! I have been to this particular spot dozens of times now and never seem to have got the composition right until now. My one regret is that the bust 'image-front-left' is not quite sharp enough. The light was very low so I had to use a very wide aperture which gave a shallow depth of field. Nothing is ever perfect in photography!
@netkonnexion "Nothing is ever perfect in photography". Nothing is ever perfect, probably - what's 'perfect', after all.
I appreciate your frustration but I feel that the foreground-left bust doesn't detract from the image because, whilst the eye registers it and it provides balance, the lines in the rest of the image are strong enough that the eye doesn't actually rest on the bust long enough to become distracted by its being out of focus.
@dulciknit Yes, waiting is relative. I have been there a lot of times and always found this corridor attractive to the eye. So, yes, it has taken a lot longer than that. But I am still waiting on one place. I have a spot in Cornwall that I have visited for more than 30 years and only seen it the way I wanted it once! Sadly I had no camera with me. But I will get it one day. LOL.
Re: your observation on the sharpness, personally I cannot agree. It spoils it for me. But then, if I waited for perfection I would never, ever, publish a photograph.
@netkonnexion Oh, I understand completely that it would spoil it for you and I know from experience that that feeling of wrongness will always be there despite any positive comments anyone else might make.
I think we all have ones that got away, don't we? Like anglers and the fish that escape the rod. I'm still kicking myself about the lightning storm in the sky over Pitstone windmill I failed to capture because I didn't have my camera to hand. One day...siiiigh.
@dulciknit - Yup! I have 4 or 5 images in my head that I never got - and these ones I never will! Such is the photography experience. LOL. I empathize with your siiiigh!
@netkonnexion The only consolation is that we, like anglers, can get together, swap stories and boast about how unlikely and wonderful the subject matter was - cf the size of the fish that escaped.
@dulciknit - True, true... but, unlike the angler we cannot hold our arms open wide and say "it was this big". For us it is always un-measurable, intangible and ephemeral. Siiiigh!
The reflection of the bust in the portrait front right (not left, duhhh!) makes it look as if the subjects are holding a conversation.
Hmm, so you've really had to wait a lot longer than 10 minutes?
I appreciate your frustration but I feel that the foreground-left bust doesn't detract from the image because, whilst the eye registers it and it provides balance, the lines in the rest of the image are strong enough that the eye doesn't actually rest on the bust long enough to become distracted by its being out of focus.
Re: your observation on the sharpness, personally I cannot agree. It spoils it for me. But then, if I waited for perfection I would never, ever, publish a photograph.
I think we all have ones that got away, don't we? Like anglers and the fish that escape the rod. I'm still kicking myself about the lightning storm in the sky over Pitstone windmill I failed to capture because I didn't have my camera to hand. One day...siiiigh.