Monday, May 29, 2006
Inverewe
Comments:
If you took this picture recently then your bracken is ahead of ours!
I find it a bit difficult to comment objectively about this as we have lots of this and this image doesn't show me anything new or present the bracken in an unusual way.
I find myself taking a lot of plant pictures like this, and they are never quite successful.
The b&w is well executed with a full range of tones, but there is no center of interest. This image seems to be mostly about the texture of the plants. Sustaining the viewers interest with texture and pattern is hard when the textures and patterns are this complex. The pattern of the leaves of a single plant would perhaps be more successful.
Ferns, Rex, ferns! It's a good year for ferns and the recent rainfall has led to Amazonian porportion plants out here much like in the photo. I don't think that this needs a centre in any classic way. It's not easy putting monochromatically coloured plants into b/w and this, while 1% off being as magical as the bracken on your site recently, is still very captivating. I like the complexity: wandering round all those fern heads is a pleasure, the whole is static yet full of movement. Also a well-chosen DOF.
I like the repetition of patterns captured here and the DOF. I see it more as a pattern shot so do not worry too much about a COI.
I like the repetition of patterns captured here and the DOF. I see it more as a pattern shot so do not worry too much about a COI.
Another good B&W conversion but I can't help feeling the ferns fighting against composition in the wild. Not that it's a bad one, just that I can't help feeling there is more potential there. The problem for me may lie in the mass. I can imagine this with just the central few ferns visible on a dark, perhaps black, background. There's an ethereal feel to the B&W of this subject and a little isolation on black may help to bring that out.
Yes, it would likely require some kind of set up or even indoor manufactured shot but hey, the ferns deserve it.
Sorry for rambling.
Rex: it is not bracken.
Matt: tones - all a computer fiction. The whole file, without interpretation, spans about three stops and most of that is in the darker patches on the left. I've a shot from a slightly lower perspective that Christian (wife) describes as like water running down glass. I agree that a single plant or, indeed, a single frond, would be a more classic composition. I might do that one day, in a studio. However, this was a walkabout snap. It is my reaction to these plants.
John E: I agree about this picture vis a vis the bracken shot on my photoblog. And compositionally there was a pesky hosta in the bottom left which left the whole slightly unbalanced. I like your phrase 'wandering around'. That puts words on my feeling.
John L: thanks. The DOF was a bit of a compromise (hand held and all that) but it worked well. I visualised another inch or two of depth to complete the separation between the plants, but it is always a bit of a guess when not using an SLR.
JohnJo: it is not a conversion. I think it is in the nature of ferns to fight against a composition, so to the extent that I've provoked that reaction, the shot is successful. As these are National Trust ferns they might not make it into the studio. However, the shot you are imagining is a distinct possibility later in the year with bracken.
"tones - all a computer fiction"
Computer fiction, silver fiction as long as it looks good, it's all the same to me.
The left third detracts from the patterns created in the right two thirds. My interest is in the curled 'leaves' (sorry no botanist here) atop of the 'plants'. There is texture by the truck load and good light a plenty here.
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I find it a bit difficult to comment objectively about this as we have lots of this and this image doesn't show me anything new or present the bracken in an unusual way.
The b&w is well executed with a full range of tones, but there is no center of interest. This image seems to be mostly about the texture of the plants. Sustaining the viewers interest with texture and pattern is hard when the textures and patterns are this complex. The pattern of the leaves of a single plant would perhaps be more successful.
Yes, it would likely require some kind of set up or even indoor manufactured shot but hey, the ferns deserve it.
Sorry for rambling.
Matt: tones - all a computer fiction. The whole file, without interpretation, spans about three stops and most of that is in the darker patches on the left. I've a shot from a slightly lower perspective that Christian (wife) describes as like water running down glass. I agree that a single plant or, indeed, a single frond, would be a more classic composition. I might do that one day, in a studio. However, this was a walkabout snap. It is my reaction to these plants.
John E: I agree about this picture vis a vis the bracken shot on my photoblog. And compositionally there was a pesky hosta in the bottom left which left the whole slightly unbalanced. I like your phrase 'wandering around'. That puts words on my feeling.
John L: thanks. The DOF was a bit of a compromise (hand held and all that) but it worked well. I visualised another inch or two of depth to complete the separation between the plants, but it is always a bit of a guess when not using an SLR.
JohnJo: it is not a conversion. I think it is in the nature of ferns to fight against a composition, so to the extent that I've provoked that reaction, the shot is successful. As these are National Trust ferns they might not make it into the studio. However, the shot you are imagining is a distinct possibility later in the year with bracken.
Computer fiction, silver fiction as long as it looks good, it's all the same to me.