A Few Interesting Shots... - DPChallenge Forums

09/24/2002 04:33:01 PM · #1

My brother is a photographer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I was looking through some of his shots, and thought I'd share a couple that I think relate well to the current challenge. This first one is one of my all-time favorites of his... I'd be curious to hear from folks about how they'd rate it if it had been submitted to the "reflections" challenge:

Photo 1

This is another one I think may have done well here:

Photo 2

And while I'm at it... I think this could have been an interesting submission for the "Negative Space" challenge:

Photo 3

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/24/2002 04:35:47 PM · #2

Yikes! I don't know how I managed to post this three times at once... but sorry...!

Niten

Canon EOS-20D

09/24/2002 04:44:12 PM · #3

Good photos, No.1 is one of those in its own class. I would give it an 11 at least. No.2 is a 10.

Tim

aelith

Olympus C-3020Z

09/24/2002 04:44:31 PM · #4

You have a very talented brother Allen :)

justine

Canon EOS-50D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

09/24/2002 04:49:23 PM · #5

He sure has an eye Alan. I like all of them.
#1] is my favorite also but #2] is really good also. I would voted either of them a 9 or 10.
#3]I a winner for NS.
Don't give him dpchallenge URL. :)

just-married

Canon EOS-10D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

09/24/2002 04:55:04 PM · #6

I agree; all are good. #1 is INCREDIBLE. Would also have met the candid criteria.

Great person to learn from!
Dawn

psychephylax

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

09/24/2002 05:44:49 PM · #7

This kind of photography that inspires me...

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

09/24/2002 06:00:20 PM · #8

These pictures are all excellent.

Something that often bothers me on here is that we don't get to
attach a 'blurb' that gets seen by the voters. I.e., the details
field should be visible when voting.

In each of these cases, while the pictures are good on their own,
I think the impact is much higher because of the one line context
under each picture.

Something to think about.

Swashbuckler

Sony DSC-F717

09/24/2002 06:30:42 PM · #9

Ditto, great shots!

Gordon, ditto to your adding comments, too. I would like to see the section of submission with two comment fields. One for shot details, like it's set up and the other for the "artist's story". The second section would be on the voting page, near the bottom, so it could be ignored if desired.

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

09/25/2002 09:34:35 AM · #10

Thanks for all the comments -- I'll have to pass along the kind words to my brother!

magnetic9999

Canon EOS-20D

09/25/2002 09:56:00 AM · #11

nice. i really like 2 and 3.

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

09/25/2002 12:47:53 PM · #12

** Moderation has entered this discussion ** Comments that are of a personal nature have been removed from sight...

Jak

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

09/25/2002 12:49:50 PM · #13

Sorry to simply join the crowd, but #1 is superb, especially with the back story attached.

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

09/25/2002 01:16:54 PM · #14

I might also add that when we were growing up (around the time I was starting college and my brother was in high school) we both worked part-time as photographers at our local newspaper, The Punxsutawney Spirit. Back in those days he had some pretty questionable skills as a photographer. For example, if he was asked to take a head shot of someone, he'd basically stand the whole way across the room!

As he went through college (as a journalism major with little interest in photography at the time) he began to show some amazing creativity. He seemed to learn a lot by watching the work of other people, and he attended a couple seminars along the way.

Now, less than 10 years later, he has won countless local, state-wide and national press awards, and he is one of the leading sports photographers in Pittsburgh.

I say all of this as encouragement to those who participate here who feel that they may never attain higher scores, or who feel that their creativity is lacking. His early photos, I can assure you, were quite unimpressive... but by being dedicated to learning from others, he improved by leaps and bounds.

I can't begin to say what an incredible tool this site is for developing skills and "an eye" for photography. By participating in this site for just over a month, I already feel my eyes "opening" a bit further to what's around, and that has made this a lot of fun!

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

09/25/2002 01:23:16 PM · #15

Originally posted by alansfreed:
He seemed to learn a lot by watching the work of other people...

I would love to hear what he has to say about this issue. I feel the same way. I have learned MORE from watching and reproducing the work of others than I have from any other single element of the hobby.

Ask your brother if he ever tried to reproduce images he had seen in the past in order to learn the method....

zadore

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/25/2002 01:30:28 PM · #16

Originally posted by JohnSetzler :

Ask your brother if he ever tried to reproduce images he had seen in the past in order to learn the method....

I tried that, got in trouble for asking a bunch of kids if they would please hold their breath and put their faces in the water so I could take a picture...I'm not allowed at my local pool anymore... :( hehe

* This message has been edited by the author on 9/25/2002 1:28:51 PM.

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

09/25/2002 01:46:05 PM · #17

I think improvement through trial and error is a great way to learn in digital photography. It certainly doesn't cost much to make photos...

THIS photo is something that I just stumbled upon a few weeks ago, but the way it is done is almost a direct duplication of a photo I have seen in the past.

When you see something that you REALLY like in a photograph, have you ever tried to recreat it yourself? If so, were you successful? not successful? Did it take a few tries to get it right? What did you learn from the experience?

I did one photograph in the past that was relatively well-like by those who have seen it. It wasn't, IMO, a perfect shot either. I plan to do it again until I get it right.

THIS photo had a high impact on some people and a subjectively poor impact on others. It scored well here on DPC, but it's not a finished product. It's also a concept that is done quite frequently. It's NOT a unique idea, but there is a difficult lesson to learn in perfecting this shot. Maybe when I figure out exactly what that is, I will share it here :)

Trial and error... Trial and error... each mistake I make tells me how NOT to do it next time...

Jak

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

09/25/2002 01:56:04 PM · #18

The picture that I will almost certainly enter this week is of an image that I photograph on five separate occasions each and every week. The image occurs where I catch the bus each evening on my way home from work, and I take many shots of it each day.

While determining exactly what I needed to submit as a good piece of work, I went back over the literally hundreds of the same shot I have already taken. It is simply amazing how much better my shots last night, for example, were than those I took four weeks ago, or even two weeks ago. The discussions here have been an enormous help in that improvement; but so has the simple repetition of essentially the same shot under differing conditions, and the study of each repetition.

(Huh, well we'll see how the voters think of it next week!)

Gracious

09/25/2002 02:21:11 PM · #19

Originally posted by JohnSetzler :
Originally posted by alansfreed:
[i]He seemed to learn a lot by watching the work of other people...

I would love to hear what he has to say about this issue. I feel the same way. I have learned MORE from watching and reproducing the work of others than I have from any other single element of the hobby.

Ask your brother if he ever tried to reproduce images he had seen in the past in order to learn the method....

John, I know this question was addressed to Alan's brother, but I must say that I am learning by the same method you mentioned. "reproducing the work of others" Offhand two come to mind from this site..your one with the American Flag, and one I think is Gordon's, the "wine glass" image. I also have found and reproduced the work of photographers on other sites as well. Some of my best learning has been by imitation.
HERE are some of my pictures for all to see and comment on.

09/25/2002 02:34:52 PM · #20

Ask your brother if he ever tried to reproduce images he had seen in the past in order to learn the method....

I fired off an e-mail to him to let him know we've been discussing him :) I posed this question to him, and I'll post his response.

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

09/25/2002 02:36:33 PM · #21

Originally posted by Gracious:

John, I know this question was addressed to Alan's brother, but I must say that I am learning by the same method you mentioned. "reproducing the work of others" Offhand two come to mind from this site..your one with the American Flag, and one I think is Gordon's, the "wine glass" image. I also have found and reproduced the work of photographers on other sites as well. Some of my best learning has been by imitation.
HERE are some of my pictures for all to see and comment on.

This is certainly something I try to do a lot. Usually I start off
with a picture I like and try to understand the technique used to create it.
Along the way I usually go off in a different direction and end up
making it 'my' shot, rather than an attempt at a straight copy but
usually learn a new approach along the way.

Trial and error is certainly a key, and a great advantage of digital.
But you have to look at your errors and learn from them ! If you just
make lots of mistakes, you'll keep making them. I spend quite a lot
of the time looking at what I did wrong to try and work out how to do
it better next time.

Certainly I feel this is the two key advantages of digital
1/ free to do
2/ very quick feedback in the shoot/ review/ shoot again loop, rather
than having to wait for development. I can see the impact of camera
settings straight away, rather than having to keep a log and try
to remember what I did. EXIF data is wonderful in this respect too.
I really hope people are using these features of their digi-cams to
learn and improve.