Paul, you have a unique way of seeing the landscape. It might take me a while to appreciate it. It is a situation where I would have to live with the prints on the wall for a few months to decide if I like them or not.
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Paul, you have a unique way of seeing the landscape. It might take me a while to appreciate it. It is a situation where I would have to live with the prints on the wall for a few months to decide if I like them or not.
I can appreciate that, and thanks for the honest appraisal. Sometimes I don't think my take on landscapes is unique at all, and I struggle to "find my voice" after more than a decade of not making "art" photographs. Perhaps you sense my unsettled nature?Quote:
Originally Posted by Vaughn
Mostly I am fighting my own bias. With the last images you have shared, and going through some of your images on flicker, you have a consistent way of presenting your landscapes that is quite different than mine. I feel something is lacking, but I suspect that living with the prints, I would come to appreciate them. What I feel is lacking is 3-dimensionality. While compositionally I want to be led into your images, the light is too flat -- perhaps a better word would be too uniform since you have plenty of contrast.
At Smith Rocks, the river leads me forward but without any atmospheric distance, my eye falters at the foot of the mountains (I prefer the horizontal image of this scene with a little foreground to give me a visual launching point). The same happened with your image of the waterfall...beautiful image and my eye is of course, drawn to the waterfall, but I do not get the feel of the shape of the land around it. What I suspect is that my reaction would be different seeing the prints themselves...that your vision would shine through in its unique way.
Hi Paul and Vaughan!
I read your criticism on Pauls two pictures and I have to say I have similar feelings about them; like Vaughan said. To make it very clear, I like the pictures both and they show clearly that you are a very good photographer with excellent technical skills and a good eye for the subject. But in my eye both pictures lack for one thing that is important for excellent bw pictures and that is global contrast. Both pictures have excellent and very fine tuned local/micro contrast but they don't have (enough) global contrast. Both don't have a real white or black in it wherease (In my opinion) it is this aspect that matteres most in bw. The bottom line ofBW is the interaction between local and global contrast. I don't think that this is a problem that lies in the negatives but of the Scan and its inversion in postprocessing. I hope this doesn't offend you in any way and I hope you will show us more of your work in the future.
Best regards, Sebastian
I don't disagree with the criticisms voiced here, but to some degree its also personal style. Also, I drove 3 hours to make this photograph - the vertical view into the riverbed at Smith Rock - and lighting conditions were far from what I'd hoped, but I decided it was better to go home with ANY image rather than pack up the camera having made NO image. Sure, its not what I had hoped to get, but its better than nothing. There's a reason why most landscape photographers return to the same place again and again, after all! I would also like to mention that I acquired my 8X10 Deardorff only four months ago, and I am still learning how to use it properly, and how to SEE landscapes with this camera. Its a new experience for me, and although I am not having too much trouble technically, I find I am learning how to see almost as if for the first time. Part of my problem is that I want to capture the magnificence of local (and local-ish) landscapes, and I tend to make the assumption that the view is magnificent no matter what the conditions when in fact, luck and timing play a huge role in the outcome. I need to be more like Clyde Butcher, and return to these places again and again, to seek out the best lighting and conditions, to get better results. This new experience makes me feel like a bit of a novice, I will admit.
Perhaps this has a bit more global contrast for your tastes?
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4316/3...ceb0fd29_k.jpg
PS: this was the second of two sheets of 8X10 I exposed that afternoon, and the first I processed normally and I got a very marginal negative from it. So, I opted to employ a technique I am not often inclined to use: stand development in dilute Rodinal. In this case I let the negative sit in 1:100 Rodinal for 90 minutes with a minute of agitation at the outset, plus a couple lift-and-dunks at the 45 minute mark. Shadow and mid-tone densities were improved, but you can still tell this is at least 1/2 stop underexposed.
Paul, great image, peaceful and dynamic at the same time. I subscribe to the idea of personal style and that it can be seen in one's work. Good fodder for a thread in the Lounge or On Photography fora.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulbarden
Great! That is why I hesitate to judge your work by my 'values'. You have a good eye and vision. Your have your own style and people respond well to your images. They work.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulbarden
I was hoping to spend some time at Silver Falls this past spring...perhaps next winter!
One from there that did not quite work due to technical difficulties (underexposused, not good light) resulting in poor image quality -- I would like to re-take it (I have an 11x14 now!)
8x10 carbon print;
It's easy to make variations. Here's one with a little more texture.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulbarden
It lacks the refinement and subtle glow of the original, but perhaps it has more of the "West Coast" look which some expect from monumental scenery.
@ post 12615
Paul it is interesting in your photograph to see a part of a tree on the left swaying quite generously with a very localised zephyr. It is sooo difficult to be somewhere and have the movement of air across the whole photograph be still just for that small window of time!
Well done. I'm sure the other trees were about to follow and sway wildly.
http://i013.radikal.ru/1707/44/fc5a3120b3a4.jpg
Sochi 2017
Nagaoka 4x5/nikkor90/polar/V50
@shlein_filmphotography