Schnee ist gefallen!

Poststructural Pub
21

Cran, a camera is only a recording instrument. It is extremely literal - good image, bad image, it doesn’t care.

A good image is something you see in your mind’s eye. That’s the “natural eye” I think Joseph is talking about. It’s also the eye you used to determine how to frame the photographs you shared. While it’s in your mind it is still only an image.

Most people have the ability to recognize good images - that’s why photography is appreciated as an art. Very few people have the natural ability to capture the (extremely subjective) image they see in their minds eye with a camera (a very literal recording instrument). Some of us (like me) take classes like History of Photographic Art, Color and Composition, Photo Lab, etc. to learn, or tune, our ability to capture good images in a photograph. Then the rest of us take snapshots.

I will try now, treading carefully, to explain the difference between good photography and dynamic images.

Now Emmline provides some beautiful photographs in which the rules of composition and level horizon are followed. Take a look at them. The trees and lamppost are vertical, other horizon references are horizontal or correct from a normal perspective reference. Emmaline’s images are beautiful and faithfully capture the beauty of the subject - we are looking at the same (or close to the same) image she saw her mind’s eye. Whether natural ability or trained, Emmaline took some beautiful photographs.

Now look at your photographs. All the images are faithfully captured, but there is something inclusive and dynamic in your photographs - let me see if I can describe why. In the first photo the trunk is leaning toward us (not vertical), the branches reach for us and surround us. In the second photo it feels like we are leaning over a balcony rail and around a tree to spy on a private space - it’s almost voyeuristic. In the third photograph the near branches on the left almost touch us, the tree trunks lean one way in the foreground and another in the near distance, a path crosses the image separating the foreground from the near distance, another path on the right leads away into the far background and disappears - you can effectively feel the space, and the silence.

Your photographs capture both the image you had in your mind’s eye and a feeling as well. They are dynamic because of the feeling that we are standing IN rather than looking AT the photographs. Does that make sense?

And if I understand correctly, you captured some dynamic images of a very still subject without any training. I would recommend that you consider taking some photography classes. You took some really nice photographs. Your photographs will improve when you know the rules of composition and framing, and know when to break the rules.

22

Yes, I agree, regarding Cran’s photos. The second, in particular, presents an interesting composition of shapes regardless of what literal image is being represented. It could even be just an abstract arrangement of colors/shapes, and would still be interesting to look at. That it is a recognizable thing–a walkway in the snow–adds to the intrigue of the photo because we can relate to it on that level as well.

Mine were just taken to show what my house looks like all snowy. Reasonably well framed, but not an attempt to be artistic.

One of the valuable things I learned in my brief stint as an art major (among several other majors,) was to get over my tendency toward triteness–evenly framed, portrait-like drawings…nice but boring–and instead instill pieces with the dynamic quality Daniel is talking about. Sometimes that just involved doing things in an unexpected way.

23

Hmm…I understand what you are saying.

I honestly think emm’s images are rather ugly, but I couldn’t tell you why. I think her house is pretty (don’t get me wrong) but the images themselves don’t stand out to me. My own 3 snow pictures just sort of looked like something Walden would post (he would not post emm’s images, I don’t think*).

I’ve never had training. I’m taking an art class right now, though. It’s a combination landscape/art class, but we’ve only been in it for..oh..about 4 days.

*I love you emm, please don’t be mad at me!!

24

please see the middle of my edited post, above.

25

Mine eyes do seeth.

26

Tell you what I think about this issue Emm. I think the color, light, and contrast in your photos could be worked in Photoshop to make them quite magical, “postcard” quality. They have a Normal Rockwell feeling. :thumbsup:

Send me the high res files if you want and I’ll see what I can do.

27

That’s so funny you should say that–because it’s exactly what I did. I was on some balcony somewhere and looking over into the space below, for things or people I wanted to take pictures of. I never thought I was being “voyeuristic,” though, but I guess I was. Haha. :slight_smile:

There were no people outside at all, or I would have taken pictures of them.

Your photographs capture both the image you had in your mind’s eye and a feeling as well. They are dynamic because of the feeling that we are standing IN rather than looking AT the photographs. Does that make sense?

Yes. I was actually standing in them.

And if I understand correctly, you captured some dynamic images of a very still subject without any training. I would recommend that you consider taking some photography classes. You took some really nice photographs. Your photographs will improve when you know the rules of composition and framing, and know when to break the rules.

You understand correctly.

28

T’isn’t necessary. They’re just pics.(I was posting under the “schnee ist gefallen” heading, not under the artistic sub-heading.) Post cards, though, almost by definition, are a portrait of a place but are typically artistically static.(like the pics of my house.)

Norman Rockwell, also, generally framed his subjects in non-surprising ways. What makes his paintings sparkle is the attitudes and expressions on the people. They are so charmingly real and recognizable as us, or people that we know, that we want to immerse ourselves in the scene somehow.

29

This hangs in my doctor’s office:

30

I took this one today. Besides the fact that it’s small, there’s something wrong with it and I can’t figure out what. Mabey it’s too cluttered. I especially like the pokey berriless branches in the top left corner, though. I think they have character.

31

This is lovely, Emm. Your home is delightful, but the photograph is very nice.

It’s balanced, yet just off-center enough in two dimensions that it has interest. There are strong vertical lines reaching clear out of the top of the scene, and a strong horizontal line. There is a “come home” quality to it, which I think may be because the eye moves over the scene, but is continually drawn back to the house. You follow those lines, but keep coming back. There is just enough light reflecting off the snow to balance what could be just a gray shot.

The house itself is the centerpoint of the scene, and has substantial mass which is incongruously balanced by the weight of snow on the delicate tree branches.

There is a strong sense of contentment, fullfillment, and serenity. The house appears wrapped in snow, snug behind the snow-laden trees. There is a weighty-ness and depth to the snow on the branches, which drag toward the ground, and to the snow on the roof, which obscures most of the house, adding to the “snugly bundled” quality. This gives the photograph a full, almost maternal, quality.

The tree branches in the foreground have a snowflake quality to them. They are delicate, branching, and glistening. So, there is snow on the ground, but there is a snowflake of branches telling us of the nature of snow. The delicacy contrasts with the solidity of the house.

There is a lovely sense of tension, resilience, and of time being suspended. There is an emphasis on transience. The weighted, drooping branches appear at the limits of what they will bear, poised in time. You instinctively know that this moment in time won’t last.

I think this photograph has a lot to recommend it, and I agree that it would be an excellent candidate for a Christmas card! It’s very inviting.

I like it a lot. It’s clear that some thought went into it. That is, you didn’t just stand out on the lawn and snap.

If you ever want to sell your home, this is the shot you should use.

32

The picture is too much “centered”: I mean the berries and the tree behind them are in the middle of the picture. Try shifting the cam a bit to the right or left (depending on rest of the picture).

Cheers
Silvano

33

Hmm…I will when the sun comes back out. It’s hard to get up in the branches just right and hold still enough to look through the peeky hole on the camera. :stuck_out_tongue:

34

No flash on your cam? :laughing:

I was actually meaning the next time you try..

Silvano

35

No, that is a great image, and here’s why (imho!):
the berries, at first glance, appear to be blasting toward the viewer, like the stars in the warp speed scenes of Star Wars and such. Then, you look more closely, and realize that it’s simply a winter still life. Cool contrast.

36

p.s. Thanks, Lamby, for your careful analysis! :slight_smile:
Funny, ain’t it though, how Silvano and I just completely disagreed on the berry photo?
Art is subjective, if anything.

37

I hadn’t noticed, but you’re absolutely right.

38

Holy Cow!

Is that real?

There are absolutely things “wrong” with it from a traditional composition point of view.

  1. The berries are a color saturated splatter with no structure or pattern. They are totally a distraction from the tranquil background;
  2. The background is monochrome, tranquil, and detailed. It is a distraction from the berries;
  3. The hairy arm crawling away from the lower left corner is disturbing;
  4. Etc., etc.

It’s uncomfortable. The subjects in the foreground and background are struggling with each other.

Having said that, I like it. It would make a good album cover for Oingo Boingo, or hang it alongside a Salvador Dali and it’s juicy.

It would be cool printed at 3" x 3", in a pristine white linen mat, framed in rusty recycled black wrought iron. But then you would need a really industrial interior design to go with it. haha!

39

that’s a branch!

We agree!

40

We hardly ever get snow on the north Cornwall coast, but after 19 years’ waiting I got this pic in my garden at the end of November (my wife got stranded overnight 30 miles from home that night!)

Steve