Everyman
I’m going to enter the Everyman non-professional photo contest (you should too!), but I’m having trouble picking two to submit. If you wouldn’t mind looking through a few of my favorites and commenting on the ones you like best, I’d be much obliged.
August 2nd, 2004 at 11:29 pm
calm canal is good, but it’s tilted. Perhaps some rotation?
alhambra detail is lovely, but a bit too blown out in the highlight. Perhaps some curves adjustment in Photoshop?
water vault is gorgeous and tranquil. If I has to suggest anything, maybe cropping out the dark corner of the vault on the right side?
channel marker at sunset is also very good.
I hope to ask you to return the favor before October.
August 2nd, 2004 at 11:39 pm
“traghetto farebox” & “moved on” are my favorites, because they capture unusual subjects.
i like “abandoned steps,” but i feel dizzy when i look at it due to the unusual angle. i’m not sure you want the judges to have that feeling.
while beautiful, a lot of the italy photos are just that…italy photos of pretty places. anyone can take pictures of pretty places. only an artist can take pretty photos of other stuff. ;)
August 2nd, 2004 at 11:42 pm
and i like the donut pic in your last post, too, for the same reason i like the two i mentioned before.
maybe i should look through my own pix. it’s been rather too long since i’ve gone out and played with my camera.
August 3rd, 2004 at 12:03 am
Jer:
The rules of the game only specifically allow for cropping, so I’m not sure if level adjustment would be entirely kosher (you’re definitely right that the Alhambra one could use it). I will happily crit your (and anyone else’s) photos—I think that all the wedding photography madness (and owning a camera again) has reawakened the shutterbug in me.
Katherine:
I agree that the sunlight and wealth of subjects in southern Europe definitely make life easy for the photographer. As for the donut one, the original was horrible (blurry, noisy, badly-colored) and I had to slice and dice it a bit to salvage the image you see there. Thinking about it now, I probably should’ve set up some dramatic tension between the little albino and the impending wall of frosting. Watching its progress, I was getting worried that the workers wouldn’t catch it in time and it would sneak into someone’s box of donuts—and then Justina reminded me that the frosting is clear when it dries. :]
August 3rd, 2004 at 3:32 pm
water vault’s my favourite.
followed by down to the sea, abandoned steps and delivery. i didn’t notice a dizzy feeling with abandoned steps, but then i like to be dizzy so maybe you shouldn’t take that into account.
i advise against sunset/sunrise pictures in general. i really like mestre at sunset, but in kind of the same vein as Katherine’s comment, maybe a little too “easy” or easy for judges to overlook.
August 4th, 2004 at 2:05 pm
I think “Channel Marker” ties with “Abandoned Steps.” (The perspective on that one is so cool…do the contest rules allow you to turn the photo upside-down?) I agree, the problem with the Alhambra-type stuff is that the architecture lords it over the, er, value-added decisions of the photographer…I recall a Pittsburgh Filmmakers fella who showed a film shot in the Sagrada Familia; afterwards, Cimini (I think) said, “The church was working so hard, and the actress was just sort of standing around….”