Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well Ted, it will be an honour. First, I want to thank you, and all those that responded. I somewhat predicted the outcome, but it was an interesting experiment proving that the audience doesn't always agree, even if you like a shot. And, in the end, and unless one would like to spend his life in complete excile, the audience is the most important. I will not go into describing of what makes an audience, quid quantifying and qualifying 'target groups', because, just like statistics, it can prove about any axiom. Which is a contradiction anyway. But let's not wander off. About the first posted, then withdrawn, then reposted image (and only for comparison reasons). Yes, it has smooth tonalities, yes it captures the boy's aiming, yes it captures a typical boyish action, yes the composition is OK. But i find it terribly dull. And not at all capturing the essence of kids. Being: never a moment of rest when awake. Which brings us to the second -and my preferred but very rightly put into question- image. Before I try to explain why I called it 'composition', which IMO it is more than anything else, something about how it originated. It was shot on a photographically very productive weekend when we went visiting one of my 2 brothers. Both of them have only boys, and it is always interesting for me to observe them, having 2 daughters myself (and coming form a nest with 3 boys). My youngest brother lives close to the Belgian coast. All Belgians do BTW: max distance from any place in Belgium to its -only- coast is about 120 miles. But he lives in Bruges, and that's just a 15 min drive. So when we're there, and the weather's fine, off we go. Boys and sand are a magical combination: they immediately start digging, building, making camps etc. It takes them hours, and never they pause.: always acitve, never a moment of rest. It must be a Jungian thing... Being used to my daughters, who BTW were gently playing on a beach towel, or just sunbathing, this was like my own youth coming back to me. One difference though: being used to our girls, I found it quite 'exhausting' to constantly follow the 2 boys in their action :-) This lead to a mental state of looking, but not very attentively. In such case, the eye tends to focus on the background (infinity focus, so to speak): every foreground motion will be noticed, but OOF. Until the OOF motion gives alert signals: then the eye will refocus. In other words: looking to this scene through my VF, my mind wandered off, and I shot it almost inconsciently. When revising it later on, the shot grasped my attention: it captured exactly what I was seeing (and feeling) at that moment. I judged it interesting, because even in that case (completely OOF in classical terms of speaking), it not only captured what I saw, but it also exactly showed what the boy (Jules is his name) was doing, with a minimum of information. Which, for me, in about any form of visual reproduction, is paramount: give as much information as possible, with a minimum of elements. It's so much more exciting to leave the (exact) reconstruction of a scene to the viewer instead of giving him so much that his personal interpretation becomes irrelevant. Secondly, when revising, and knowing that it was shot inconsciently, I found it remarkably well balanced. Which is also a big thing for me, because I have too much a tendency to (painstakingly) compose, thus literally construct an image (one of the reasons why I love an M, BTW: it just forces you to shoot pensatively). And I'd love to get to a point where composition comes naturally. Because it will make my images more natural. I think. That's why I called it 'composition'. I tried to show what makes it into (IMO) a composed and balanced image here: <http://www.fullflavor.be/_POR0869_comp.jpg> What it all boils down to: it is full of repetitions (tone and form), parallels, and balanced proportions. Which is pretty remarkable for a completely intuitive shot. So yes, I'm pretty proud of it, and I hope later on it will prove to be a benchmark in my photography. Ahem. BTW: some liked it too. Strangely enough offlist ;-) Hell, maybe I should become a Lomo adept again? ;-P Philippe Op 30-jul-07, om 23:50 heeft Ted Grant het volgende geschreven: > Philippe Orlent showed & asked: > Subject: [Leica] IMG: composition > > > >>>> That's what I consider it to be. > > I won't pull this one back like I did with the former posting, rest > > assured. > > But I'm suspecting that I might be one of the few that like it. > > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/phorlent/_POR0869.jpg.html> > > > > Philippe mon ami, > > > > Before I offer a critique, a question? As I'm sure others may wish > to know > also. Would you please explain why you cropped or shot or why you > like the > composition in this manner as it is? > > > > In that fashion we the viewers will understand how you see and feel > about > the picture. Certainly more so than one word "composition." Thank you. > > > > ted > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >