"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still" - Dorothea Lange
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JakeKurdsjukComment by JakeKurdsjuk: Originally posted by tvsometime:
Congratulations on the ribbon, but I think it could have been even higher without the texture. If possible, can we see the original without texture? Maybe it will show I'm wrong. |
This is going to sound somewhere between completely arrogant and slightly antagonistic, so please forgive that up front because that's not my intention, but your comment has become the vehicle for me to speak on the purpose of my photography and assumes that one of the reasons I made this photograph was to score high from the forty-something voters here.
I have hundreds (literally) of hummingbird photos from this summer alone and 13 usable ones from the ten seconds that this guy buzzed around the feeder. If my intent was to make a pretty bird photo I would have, but it would have been just that and for me the purpose of the challenge was to tie an image to a meaningful photographer quote. As I've explained above, the texture and blur was added to evoke the feeling of "an instant out of time" - a split second that literally stood
out of time. We've all seen old 16mm movie film grabs with their scratches and spotting and I wanted to convey the idea that this was a moment that exists only in that frame and nowhere else, and unless you look at it singularly it's just a repeated 10 second blitz of blurred wings at a feeder. I think it speaks much more succinctly to the Lange quote, and if the treatment means that it cost me a point or two from you and others I suspect the lack of treatment might have done just the opposite for those who saw it as intended. I'm proud of it, regardless of how it did here, because it was shot and processed with singular purpose and preconceived vision, and it was well received by photographers I respect - which has much more to do with the comments than with the finish position.
Again, no offense was taken by me from your comment, and none is intended.
And since you asked, here is the photo before B&W conversion and before adding texture and blur.
Message edited by author 2016-08-12 10:22:05. 
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