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Thread: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

  1. #1
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    Gowland PocketView, Caltar IIN 150/5.6, Kodak Royal Pan film
    f/32 at 1/8 second, no filter, Normal development
    16x20 print on selenium toned Ilford Gallerie, glossy, grade 3

    A very important image from my bicycle trip through New Zealand, one that it felt everything came together when it needed to after a long photographic drought. So I am interested in hearing opinions, thoughts and other considerations about the image, as I am certainly biased in the way I look at it.

    PS...you can assume that the print is sharp in all places, tonality is close, and is a little cleaner and crisper than the on-scree example. Also, this was back when I did a lot of burning and this image receive quite a bit.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Truman Cove, NZ_16x20.jpg  
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    I like the tones, I like the composition, But I feel it's leaning left. The lines in the back immediately make me feel the horizontal is off.

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    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    If you are happy, I am happy

    However I would not buy that print as it does not speak to me

    Perhaps in a correctly lit gallery I would

    Rethinking the Peter Gowland Pocket View Camera
    Tin Can

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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    I struggle to find the center of interest in the image, the impetus that made you capture it. My eye starts at the lightest object, the bleached driftwood, but then I get distracted by the ridged background, and then the plants on the right side. I suspect that an image concentrating on the driftwood would have been more interesting for me. (I realize that what I am commenting on is whether I like the image, not on any technical issues.)

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    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    I am vehemently against this critique thread

    IF IT must proceed treat it like a rogue ART contest

    I submitted a lot of OP ART 10 years ago

    Every contest has rules, like size!

    Here is what the Smithsonian requires

    The Mods are not judges and don't need more free work

    https://photocontest.smithsonianmag....contest/rules/
    Tin Can

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    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    Vaughn: It does seem tilted to the left. I can't identify what I'm looking at in the back and it seems to complicate the whole picture with too many details. You said that it was a very important picture to you. So your comments as to why it is, is more important what we might think. Why is it?

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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    Vaughn,
    I think the image is well organized. I have no feeling of tilting to the left. My only minor suggestion is to burn down the top of the rock on the left a little more, which I believe will focus the view more on the driftwood. The surroundings are appropriate and necessary,
    I wish I could met up with you in the Redwoods again, but with my friend Ken gone, and my very advanced age I no longer expect to make the long trip.
    Keep up the good, and beautiful work.

    Jim

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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    My eye sees 4 distinct zones in this photo, corresponding roughly to north / south / east / west. Each zone within the image has elements that point towards my eye towards the next zone(s), which to me makes for a dynamic and interesting composition. Meanwhile, the entire image has a head-on, "flatness" to it which is at odds with what is clearly a 3D scene. I still can not figure out what is in the upper left quadrant - it looks roughly like waves coming up to a beach in the foreground behind the rocks, but frozen in time. It's very intriguing! I find this visually interesting and makes my eye wander all over, which I consider a good thing in this context.

    I also especially like the rock at the bottom left pointing squarely at the corner, rooting the composition to that point, especially as it is the closest object in the scene to the camera.

    Because of the feeling of the upper left being "waves," I interpret these 4 zones as being something like "Rock, Ocean, Forest, Sand" - starting from the left and proceeding clockwise. Perhaps even "birth, life, aging, death" or something like that. An ecological clock. Perhaps one could even attribute commentary about our current ecological position in time and perhaps a march towards sand, desolation, death.

    I don't think you showed this one to me when I was at your place last summer. The more I look at this photo the more I see and get out of it. Not trying to flatter, just enjoying this one immensely. If I had any slight change, the one piece of driftwood that sticks slightly into the rightmost "zone" seems a bit off. It may not have worked, but perhaps an ever so slightly higher POV would have gotten that into the bottom area more cleanly, but I wouldn't want to disturb the placement of the rock bottom left so perhaps impossible. It's a minor thing anyway.

    Thanks for posting this one!
    Bryan | Blog | YouTube | Instagram | Portfolio
    All comments and thoughtful critique welcome

  9. #9

    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    Ha, if you promise to let us borry that time machine when you ain’t using it, I imagine several of us would pony up for a 5x7 for you to take back and maybe even help you yeet that stupid driftwood out of the frame.

    Seriously though I can imagine you having made this a useful pedagogical tool over the years. I think it raises issues about aspect ratios and our expectations that affect how we read a photo—a square crop might bring out the graphic symmetries of the four salients, for instance; or perhaps because I’m an inveterate contrarian, a portrait oriented 4x5 emphasizing the rock fissure bottom right might make for a more dramatic study. As was said though, I am most interested in what this particular image did for your artistic development.

  10. #10
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

    Thank you for the comments so far!

    Tilting the image to the right would make the waterfall seem a little odd.

    There is no object in the scene which I consider the subject (viewers are welcome to create one, though). I thought quite a bit about the relatively small round black rock for awhile. It was so tempting to center it, cutting off that part of the driftwood tree on the far right and giving the image a stable center...but in the end I thought that would be boring and I off-centered it for more tension in the image. The eye is not suppose to rest anywhere. You have your back to the Tasman Sea, don't get comfortable! LOL!

    I enjoyed Corran's and Creationbear's assessment of the four 'salients'. How those four very different areas work together and form their own balance is a major part of the image. Jim's suggestion about the top of the rock on the right is sound, but I feel there needs to be significantly different feeling of light (and thus texture) from the other three areas. And this being graded paper, I do not know how much I could have brought down the high values without creating areas on top that are too dark.

    I do not mind an image being beautiful -- I just don't want to make them pretty. A thin line!

    Carry on!
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

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