(making the boring interesting)
It's been a fun week and a half doing lots of shooting, and I am now having a difficult time culling down to three photographs. So, I am cheating! I managed to get down to four, and am asking you if you would do the deciding on which three to critique. It's interesting to me that after I chose the photographs, I realized that three of them seem to have a similar framework, vantage point, structure to them. That is odd, since I took many, many photographs, and these stood out for me. I am looking forward to your feedback and to receiving the next lecture. I loved the first one.
Three for Free
I agree. All three images sort of have a scientific or studied (specimen) character to them. As though you were an archaeologist documenting a dig site. Sort of like the objects were stood up and organized with equal weighting and distance from each other, then photographed in somewhat neutral/objective manner. Not to say they are uninteresting... there is plenty interest. But, they do share something in that basic documentary approach, certainly! A cruel assignment, right? Survivor Mode. But, you've pulled through and survived boot camp. The question I'll keep asking you (always over and over) is WHAT DO YOU SEE? What is particularly unusual, crazy, difficult, strong, pretty about these three objects on this table? Why show all three? Is it the identically colored residue of their markings on the gray wood? If so, show that! Is it their various textures? Can you make a visual poem between these three by harnessing their differences? Why have they been placed so uniformly inside the frame? Can one object have greater emphasis than the others? Become the lead actor, as it were? Or is the neutral placement already getting at and expressing what you feel about the color, objects, scene, light? [BTW, none of these are easy questions, but I want you to process them.]
Duck Duck Boot
We don't touch heavily on color theory, but this has a lovely complimentary palette (blue opposite orange on the color wheel). A nearly two-color image that simplifies the scene (in a good way.) Again, that somewhat cool neutral stance is here. Is the car bumper important? Why does it hold down the upper left corner? I appreciate the low vantage point and "danger" of getting the shot. Suffering for your ART! I see you patching into this incongruity of abandoned boots and weather worn bag. What decision could be made, perhaps, to make this something inching in on a portrait of the person that these might have belonged too? Is that an interesting direction? Is it the very nature of the beaten up shoes and discarded clothing that appealed? I think you are doing great in this survivor mode, but I want you to be bolder about how you shape the scene in front of you. This image is very close to something, but just not quite pulled into a complete idea.
Pawns
Some nice compositional prowess in this piece (is it an uncropped frame?) Either way, I see you stacking up your objects and making a very deliberate design and stepping pattern. I can't argue with the esthetics and immediacy of it design, color. High marks on all of those elements! Again, oddly, as much as you treat your subjects very similarly in all three images, we again (as in the first two) have a palette of blue versus orange. I love stuff like that. Patterns and colors "discovered" in the making of hundreds of images. These discoveries can OFTEN be road maps to deeper understanding of ourselves and what drives our notions of photography, expression. I'm happy to point them out as I see them, though you'll be the final word on what it all might mean! Good and fun stuff, no doubt! The leap from bright white in the painted posts to those deep, dark shadows also appeals on a graphic level. Once we get beyond all the artistry, however, what do we have? Are we using our gifts to tell a story, to say something specific. How might we stick with this dramatic patterned motif, but make a slight tear in the fabric? A subtle shift in focus, depth of field, where we crop or not. I don't have any easy answers. [Refunds can be applied for.]