Slight revision
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Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
With this image I have attempted to evoke a mood of mystery, complexity, and tenacity. To what extent do you experience that intention as being fulfilled? Of course, any and all comments, thoughts, or feelings are most gratefully appreciated.
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Image Description
This is another shore picture from the day-paddle my wife and I did last summer along the Rouge River to Lake Ontario (all within Toronto city limits). I don’t have much to add that the picture doesn’t say itself. The diffuse lighting isn’t spectacular, but I think, nicely displays all the textures in this old, downed tree, which while not still actually living, has plenty of life living off of it. There is a lot going on in this picture that drew my interest. I love the roots growing down into the water, the jaw-like branches extending to the right, the distorted reflections, and the way the bush growing out of the bare trunk of the tree on the left is so nicely framed, almost as if it’s on stage. It was a bonus being in a canoe taking these pictures because as we drifted along I was able to get shots from dozens of different points of view. But lately, for me, my focus is on attempting to create a mood. A lot of my pictures over this past year are attempts to evoke a feeling of mystery – something emerging out of the darkness. In this case that something, though dead, is still brimming with life.
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For quite a few months I’ve been wrestling with why some images evoke deeper feelings in me than others. I think this is partly because of trying to understand the backlash against grand scenes with grand lighting, which at times I find very evocative, and the current love affair with intimate scenes. I’m finding it somewhat easier to say which images I find more evocative, and quite challenging to say why that is so at times.
For me, this is definitely an analogy; I see a “dragon” rising out of the water. Much like seeing animals in clouds I find it fun and interesting. But as far as evoking some of the emotions you noted, I don’t quite get there. Saying why is where I struggle though. I often find that something that obscures can add to the moods you note. For example fog or mist. Here though, I wonder about selectively using dark to increase the mystery?
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Kerry,
I think you’ve most certainly achieved your goal(s). For sure there is mystery - what is the life story of this log/tree, off-shooting roots and feeders? A mystery of survival, growth and ultimately death. Is the tree emerging from the depths, or is the water enchroaching?
Complexity? Yeah, maybe some, but more so I think the story is pretty simple. You’ve isolated the main subject, which makes it less comples, IMHO.
Tenacity? 100%! Which goes to the persevearance of life in the woods and water.
I’m with John in that I too see a dragon, or creature of some sort emerging from the water. This is a well seen and crafted image.
I can’t help but bring in my left-brained analytical side. The only suggestion I have for improvement is to get rid of the out of focus bubbles in the LL. Not an image killer by any stretch… but I really like the rippled reflection that I think adds to the overall composition and story. Those blurry bubbles detract somewhat. Again, not a biggie.
I hadn’t commented on your previous post. I think I like this one better but will say that the previous image was a bit more complex than this one.
Thanks for sharing both!
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I’m in agreement that this one is a bit better than the previous one. The composition is a bit more complex. Like the previous image I get the sense of floating down the river and watching the bank go by. Unlike other commentators I don’t get the sense that this is anything other than what it is. I find it to be quite literal.
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@John_Williams - Well I confess, I’m a guy who finds grand landscapes mostly boring and that, as they say, is why there is chocolate and vanilla. As one of my mentors, the brilliant craftsman-designer Jim Krenov used to say, “Just because it isn’t my cup of tea doesn’t mean it isn’t good tea”. Indeed. Obviously I have no control over what you see in this picture, just as I have no control over what you see when you look up at the clouds in the sky. Perception is highly subjective which is also why I find photography/art competitions to be largely meaningless. You are quite right in your observation that what obscures can add mood. I did use the “multiply” mode in Ps to enhance the dark shadows in this picture but obviously, I’m seeing this image very differently than you are - which is wonderful, really. Your re-work is very different from my intention. I find your rework is about death - that’s how it feels to me, drained as it is of colour and light. My intention for this image is about life and death in the way that new life, in all its variation and vibrance is arising from “the corpse” of this hoary old log. So, I wouldn’t be comfortable taking this image in the direction you chose but I do appreciate this conversation and your taking the time to initiate it.
@Lon_Overacker - Thanks so much for your detailed response, Lon. It is so helpful to get a sense of how others perceive an image and the extent to which it is in accordance with my intention or not. The complexity I was speaking of isn’t so much the complexity of the photograph per se but the complexity in the relationship between life and death, which for me, is part of what drew me to make the picture. As you can see by the “slight” rework, I didn’t remove the bubbles but toned them down considerably and agree that doing so serves the image.
@Igor_Doncov - Funny that your take, re: complexity, is the exact opposite of Lon’s who finds this image less complex than the first. As I’ve said, perception is so very subjective. I do appreciate that you are seeing what is there rather than “zoomorphizing” but, again, once an image is released into the world, it will be seen as it will be seen. Thanks again, Igor.
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