Stills

"I am left with a feeling of detachment due to the PoV"

This was fairly deliberately in a certain style (I'm looking at Karl Blossfeldt's work at the moment). Other styles will be going up on my photoblog in the coming days.

Anybody else think "detached"?
 

I've looked at Karl Blossfeldt's work and understand "where you are coming from".

As I have read it he used photography to instruct students in sculpture and then got 'stuck' into photography.

The images of his I've looked at have a documentary feel about them.
 

Leaving Blossfeldt aside (including whether you are copying him or not), detachment is not a word I would have used although it is close to clinical, which I might be tempted to use. I think that it hinges around backgrounds again: I won't 'insult' the table top/whatever but however you play a game like this, the totality of the picture is important. There is a tangible richness to the shells and their markings and they're nicely laid out to make use of the curves but it is a bit reminiscent of the stag's head on the wall.
 

This one makes me smile because I have the urge to pop one of those into my mouth. Memories of a certain childhood sweet no doubt though the brand slips my mind.

I'm not sure what directtion John E would like to see the background head towards (more textured or less) but if anything I would take it to less textured and, perhaps, whiter???

The subject matter is great. As shells go these are good ones.
 

"stags head on a wall" - yes, sort of a trophy shot. These were definitely laid out for display.

The "table top" is in fact the back of a picture frame. Chosen because it is completely textureless. The pattern is just that. A pattern. Fibres crushed into hardboard. I wanted something that wasn't plain as I thought there would be too much of it in the picture - although I'm going to experiment with a white background later today as it is too wet to do anything outside.

Nerita (and Neritana) are large families of shell creatures. These are from the SW Pacific as far as I can find out. Somebody on Ebay sells packets of them. The colours vary a bit, but a sort of pinkish amber tending towards brown (with black stripes) is the best I can do to describe it.

Blossfeldt is interesting. Not many photographers from the 1920's can claim books and exhibitions in 2006 in several countries. I'm about to revive my 'The Monthly Photographer' series with an entry about him.
 

Very clinical but interesting all the same. I'm having fun on trying to line these all up so the lines on the shells are all running in different directions. After running with that for a few moments the clinical can almost be replaced by a seemingly ordered radomness (if that makes sense). The more I look at this the more it appeals to me....and I haven't even touched on the textures.