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12/17/2002 05:18:33 AM · #1 |
This photo, by Gracious, was one of my favorites in the Free Study challenge for last week. When I first saw this image, I immediately thought about some photos I had seen in the past from some great photographers. The first set of images that came to my mind were some of THESE from Edward Weston's Point Lobos photos.
Grayce's photo here struck my interest in the same way the Weston images did. The simple study of curves and shapes is nicely accented by the high contrast of the black and white image. The photo is aptly titled "Driftwood", but, to me, the image is much more than just a piece of wood she found laying on some beach on this third stone from the sun.
After I finished looking at all the smooth curves and contrasts in the driftwood, i found myself coming to rest on the hole in the center of the wood, where another mystery was uncovered. I'm not sure what I'm looking at through the hole, but it almost seems like a man with a hat that has been lost in the blur of the distance. It's probably just an illusion of the image, but, none-the-less intriguing :)
Finally, after studying the detail of the curves and the mysterious center, I examined the entire image and uncovered yet another mystery. When examined as a whole, I believe that I'm looking into the angry eye of some mythical monster :)
Some images simply draw me in. It's easy to get lost in some when you give them the opportunity.
Congrats to Grayce on a great shot...
John Setzler
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12/17/2002 06:11:15 AM · #2 |
This was one of my favourite images from that challenge too. I really liked the curves and strong contrasts.
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12/17/2002 06:23:58 AM · #3 |
I really loved this shot, and was sure it would be one of the top 3. It's a wonderful photograph.
Linda
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12/17/2002 06:29:53 AM · #4 |
I agree with John. It's a really nice photo which is very inspiring and incites (correct word?) your fantasy. It also made me think that the compositional elements "framing" and "curved lines" are way too underrepresented and can be very effective. I think I'll try to use that more. Congrats to Gracious to an excellent black and white!
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12/17/2002 07:22:21 AM · #5 |
I loved it too, it was one of my 10s. You can see from my comment I picked up on the same things - the wonderful composition, the age and texture of the wood, and the sense of mystery about what lies through that hole. It evokes the same kind of sense as a Chinese landscape painting, where the composition invites you to take a little mental journey through the painting. That's what this photo does to me, but the journey starts by traveling around the wood grain, and ends by zooming off through that hole to see the rest of the world :).
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12/17/2002 07:39:22 AM · #6 |
i really liked the pic, too.
from an image processing perspective, i thought it was oversharpened.
maybe grayce can fill us in on what we are seeing through the hole?
:)
thanks
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12/17/2002 08:12:28 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
Finally, after studying the detail of the curves and the mysterious center, I examined the entire image and uncovered yet another mystery. When examined as a whole, I believe that I'm looking into the angry eye of some mythical monster :)
John Setzler |
Amazing how you saw that, and very interesting how I saw 'almost' the same thing. While your mind sees the 'evil' look, mine automatically saw a someone sad puppy's eye. CLICK HERE to see what I mean (I saw the bottom one).
This is indeed a great study on texture, curves, and lines. Photos like these deserve to be looked at for longer than 10 seconds as they have so much to offer.
Thank you Grayce for a lovely image.
zadore |
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12/17/2002 08:48:31 AM · #8 |
I loved this shot, too, Grayce. It was one of my three favorites of the challenge.
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12/17/2002 11:41:13 AM · #9 |
Thanks John for the wonderful critique, and all of you for your nice comments.
About this picture: In Vero Beach there is a place called the Driftwood Inn, that epitomizes rustic. It's right on the ocean and was built by an eccentric years ago. Just by it's nature it is photogenic, and I knew that was where I wanted to go to do my free study.
One of the problems I encountered, however, is one that is common to digital photographers. For many of my shots I couldn't see through the LCD because of glare. It was an overcast, but extremely bright day. In my original of my entry, I really couldn't see at all, and I had to get quite low to look through the "hole" in the wood. Physically, I really couldn't do that, so I sort of shot blind. The result gave me a deeply angled horizon.
In PS I rotated, and cropped, and increased contrast, and used unsharp mask.
The mystery is "What in the world is that shadow through the hole???" It is the ocean out there, but we didn't see anything out there in it. I am as mystified as can be about what is in the water. Maybe just a sand bar?
HERE is a link to the original, plus some others of the Funky old Driftwood Inn. They use driftwood and aged wood every where.
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12/17/2002 03:58:05 PM · #10 |
Grayce, there are a few companies that make some neat little attachment 'hoods' that help you see your lcd when working in bright light... they may be worth a try for you if you can find one...
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