DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 
Challenge Entries
Portfolio Images
This image is not part of a public portfolio.
Shipwreck in Pennsylvania
Shipwreck in Pennsylvania
mcaldo


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2012-02 (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Samsung GX-10
Lens: Pentax SMC DA 35mm f2.4 AL
Location: London
Date: Feb 26, 2012
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/125
Date Uploaded: Feb 28, 2012

Undecided about this, another half cooked study in black and white. I simply don't manage to go with the light while processing, perhaps I can try harder.
Taken from the window of a tiny shed. A sign on the door says that no motorbikes should be parked in front of the door, as the owner has mobility problems. Therefore, I take he is the one in the photograph. An agile mind, judging from what he reads, and a bird watcher.
I found it touching, in the good light.
Whoever you are, good luck. I like your bookshelf and your toy birds peering at the windows.

-- Post challenge

I would like to do something unusual here and explain why I have taken this image and what I saw in it.
Not because the image actually reflects that all that well, quite the opposite, but for my own record. I would like to come back and have a look in a while, and see if I still feel the same when not that engaged with my idea anymore.

I found it striking what this man choose as his favourite portrait of himself.
Not an image of the past, him with his smiling friends, perhaps, a fish and a rod, or a bird watching scope in his hands. Not a close crop to frame a smile and exclude a wheelchair.

It's him on his wheels, facing away from the camera, alone, unscathed, an empty track bending to hide what lies ahead.

As for the framed image being so centered into the frame, it's simply that he himself choose it to be that way. He put it over his work desk, right in the middle and in front of his eyes, all the time, unrelenting. Is it a portrait? Or a stern reminder?
I couldn't have changed that, and I choose a square frame to keep it as it should be.


Because, after al, this man doesn't care about me, or you, watching through the eye of the camera. He doesn't care about his books and memories. Or that he's alone, a Crusoe who learnt to live off the remains of his shipwreck. And grew impatient.

He's pulling off..

He did it already, actually. The room is empty, after all..



Is it wrong that I so much elaborate over a man I never met?
Is it strange I feel admiration?


One day I might go back to the tiny shed on the dock, and give him a print of thsi as an apology.
For him to keep or throw away, as he prefers.


Statistics
Place: 221 out of 296
Avg (all users): 5.4336
Avg (commenters): 7.4286
Avg (participants): 5.4510
Avg (non-participants): 5.3902
Views since voting: 476
Views during voting: 247
Votes: 143
Comments: 14
Favorites: 2 (view)


Please log in or register to add your comments!

AuthorThread
03/11/2012 11:46:44 PM
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I am so jealous. This is the kind of shot I love to get, an image just full of details to be found (like the book on nature photography :-) The glass fishing buoys with the rope wound round them, the bucket of paint, the electric cord for a charger or similar item and of course the framed photo of presumably the home's owner. Great use of b/w to catch the details, there was probably tons of colour in there. The shelves are at thirds. The title sets us looking for a shipwreck in Pennsylvania and even if it really isn't there, it sure is fun looking for it. I can see why some think it cluttered, and it verges on that. But it's a careful clutter, it isn't as disorganized as it looks.

IMHO shots like this get robbed far too easily. Free Studies are brutal unless you have an image that says POW! in one way or another. The technicals seem perfectly fine for a handheld shot in ambient light. The only possible thing I'd change is to make the photo less centred as he wheels into the world of knowledge around him.

Thank you for this image. And keep shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/08/2012 08:46:05 PM
I looked and looked and looked at this... so much to see and it all comes together in the end.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/08/2012 08:35:02 AM
Intriguing. A story captured so well. Like your b&w processing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/08/2012 02:00:27 AM
A little deep for DPC. Keep it up!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/08/2012 01:32:03 AM
holy catfish. what a steal! what a story. thank you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/08/2012 12:39:02 AM
Plenty of stories to think of here. Thanks.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
03/07/2012 11:38:45 PM
Thrilling boredom. Masterly artlessness. Damn good. Thank you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/07/2012 03:49:58 PM
Love it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/06/2012 01:54:12 PM
interesting tableaux, I hope I'm using that word somewhat right
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/05/2012 06:19:20 AM
Very pleasantly image too look at love the B&W feel good sharpness good love the lighting good composition you made a simple image look grand ..Very well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/03/2012 06:09:28 AM
Your title give the viewer direction in what to study. I lIke the wheelchair photograph included dead center.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/02/2012 02:40:00 PM
Love the black and white and the detail. The organized mess is really cool looking. Great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2012 10:36:07 AM
Riveting!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2012 02:20:32 AM
Interesting B&W study but a little too chaotic and busy
  Photographer found comment helpful.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 04/19/2024 03:56:18 PM EDT.