Bonsai Kai: November Cotoneasterby
ImagineerComment by e301: From the Critique Club
Now here's a thing, my friend: haven't written a club critique for some time, and look who pops up for my first one back.
I wondered, as I voted, whether this was a shot of yours (simply from knowing your bonsai enthusiasm) - I think, if memory serves, that I decided it wasn't, as it seemed far too straightforward to be your work.
The light is decidedly regular for a 'painting with light' process - perhaps too regular? It has, largely, the feel of a simple, well-lit image, and there is little to give away the technique, and perhaps little that really benefits from the technique: one would hope for more high-lighting, more emphasis, more effect, in simple terms. There are of course areas where the use of light shows - the dappled nature of the moss (?) in the pot, a slightly organic sense to some of the light across the leaves: but i think this might have benefited from a more radical use of the method, more light and shade, perhaps.
As an image, without knowledge of the techniques, it seems to me little more than highly competent studio work. The blacks are black, the highlights add definition and three-dimensionality just where one would want them. The colours are strong, well-organised. The composition is fine - you've chosen a strong angle from which to shoot the tree. The balance of the red berries and the blue pot makes for a satisfying counterpoint to the profusion of green. The detail is all present, and the processing is accurate and precise, and well controlled. The subject - and as you know i know little of the way of bonsai - seems like a good example. That kind of purity of form and structure would be as I would imagine a fine bonsai to need to be. And of course, in terms of the challenge, the berries add a suitably seasonal note.
The score? Well, I don't know. It seems to me we're in the grip of one of dpc's periodic dalliances with the cute and with the blatantly dramatic, and with photography magazine images. There was a time when a shot such as this would garner a deserved 6.2, or .3. Never winning, unless you happened to have hit on some bizarre magic formula, but at least garnering the kind of high average score that such competent work deserves. I mean - look at the results from this challenge.
That said, there is grounds for considering those shots as suitable winners. Isn't the cute, the blatantly dramatic, and magazine photography just exactly what the calendar compilers would put together to find a big seller? It left difficult open territory as a challenge: those who put out a bit further, who avoided the mass market, were marked down for it, as far as I could tell. This of course, was a perfect calendar shot - as was, for instance, Tony Wright's shot. Both of you scored in a similar region.
But I know that's not your concern, really. It is, however, a fascinating area of study :-)
My final judgement on this shot would be (and what's the point of a critique if not to pass judgement? Oh, the
power...): Documentary, and certainly so by your standards.
All the best
Ed
Photographer found comment helpful.
