Sony A77II
Sony 70-400G @ 250mm
ISO 200, 1/40 @ f8
Anil Rao’s work with tafoni abstracts has always fascinated me so when I came across this area at low tide at Shore Acres SP in Oregon I used my long lens to extract a number of comps. This was my favorite. All comments welcome. >=))>
Bill, this is very well done. The textures are amazing, with that area of purple triggering my sense of wonder about it’s source.
Haha, I like the title. I really enjoy the colors and different textures. The diagonal lines help sell the intentional composition. Ever try a very slight and gradual vignette to focus the eye a bit?
Nice textures and lines… The color looks fine to me. You might consider burning the top corners a bit, or the slight vignette suggested by Brent.
Nice job isolating these details.
-P
I’m enjoying this composition. My eyes are drawn back and forth between the striking purple of the lower left and the smooth, subtle shadows of the upper right. The two diagonal lines provide a visually pleasing separation of the two areas that really ties the image together.
I agree with others about darkening the bright areas around the edges. I’d possibly consider darkening the brighter purple area on the left edge so it doesn’t pull the eye toward the edge of the image.
Bill,
Great colors - and a great tribute. ditto to the comments and suggestion of a vignette. I think that’s just what the doc would have ordered.
The geologic layers are fascinating - making me want to know more about the history. Then again, it’s most certainly enjoyable as a nature abstract without any other knowledge.
Lon
Bill, a wonderful find here. The textures and wild lines, colors, and patterns make it the perfect abstract. And yes, does have that trace of Anil’s many posts of the tafoni. It was an immediate thought when I first saw this one. I will mention that the purple might be a leeching of leaf oils. I’ve seen that before in other photos…
Wow, this is great Bill. I love the textures at Shore Acres, but you caught such beautiful color too. Well done!
This image draws me in like an abstract canvas signed by a few million years of geological patience. A Rothko sculpted by wind and rain, an oil painting nobody painted. The palette of lilac, fresh butter and golden ochre exudes a quiet, almost meditative sensuality. One wants to lay a hand on it just to reassure the brain that it really isn’t paint. The little blue concretions play the low notes in a pastel score, like a tiny union meeting of mineral gnomes in mid deliberation. The big diagonal cuts through with authority, opposing the honeycombed top right, reminiscent of an old country loaf, against the smoother, more colourful lower section. This tension between the rough and the velvety is the photograph’s true wealth.
A few suggestions now, delivered with all the gentleness this lovely surface deserves.
The eye politely hesitates between three suitors: the blue concretions, the honeycomb, and the great central curve. A slightly tighter crop, trimming a bit of the upper right corner, would settle the matter and hand the starring roles to the concretions and the coloured strata, who are clearly the real leads.
The signature in the lower right also breaks the spell. The rock has managed without one for several dozen million years without complaining. It can probably handle a few more in glorious anonymity.
The light is rather frontal and a touch flat, which is a pity because this surface deserves better than airport lobby illumination. A grazing morning light would have carved tiny shadows into every cracks and made the relief sing.
Finally, the purples are magnificent but flirt in places with a shade that makes the suspicious viewer mutter: hm, the saturation slider may have warmed up a little. The smallest restraint would restore their mineral credibility without removing an ounce of poetry.
Make no mistake though. This is a lovely image, the kind that rewards a slow gaze and proves you need not board a plane to meet abstraction. Sometimes it is enough to look at a rock very attentively, and not be in too much of a hurry to get home for lunch.
Hi Bill,
This is so interesting. The color palette feels natural in the upper right and kind of surreal in the lower left, and that tension, between earth tones and a kind of metallic psychedelia, is part of the appeal of this one.
Nicely done!
ML
Sebastien: Thanks for somehow going back into my archives and digging this one up. I had to stir some cobwebs to recall my thinking at the time (my gray hairs are all memory cells that have escaped) but as I look at it now I think I do agree with you regarding the saturation. The current iteration is much more reflective of the scene as it really was and probably more in tune with my improved processing skills. Thanks so much for your insights, they mean a lot. >=))>
