On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:34:45 -0400, Tony Cooper <
tonyco...@gmail.com>
wrote:
: For a seemingly simple assignment of finding something to photograph
: with a subject starting or using the letters N,T, or X, the posted
: results seem off the mark in many cases.
Considering the SI deadline's proximity to the income tax deadline, I'm
willing to consider it the best we could expect.
: I don't mind so much, since I appreciate an interesting photo even if
: it doesn't say "mandate accomplished".
:
: Walter Bank's connection to NTX eludes me. I caught the Escher
: reference, but can't figure the connection Walter saw. Yeah, the
: birds are duplicated in reflection, and the snow and water can pass
: for sky and water, but the birds don't morph to fish. Oh, well, maybe
: someone will explain and I'll slap my forehead and say "Duh!".
:
: The Duck could have done better. He usually does. These two look like
: he grabbed them at the last minute.
:
: KPetre's heraldic saltire is OK for the mandate, but I would have
: liked to see something of central interest in the photo with the X's
: as a secondary inclusion. I don't see that the mandate shape has to
: be the primary point of interest.
That one sent me running to Google. I didn't know what a saltire was or even
that Scotland has its own flag.
: Clever inclusion of both N and T in Tete-a-Tete. The daffodils do
: remind one of Narcissus with his head bent down to admire his
: reflection in the water.
:
: Bowser's Duck Bridge is not a compelling photo, but it is interesting.
: I like Bowser's placement of his diagonals in his compositions.
I think I like it better than you do. Look at how the perspective emphasizes
the bridge's length. I've driven over it several times, and I can assure you
that it isn't as attractive as Bowser makes it seem. I might, though, have
tried to clone out the fragments of some otherwise unseen structure on the
right edge.
: I'm not so fond of the cropping of the train. I don't like the
: cow-catcher bumping the edge like that. Tires...yawn.
I disagree about the train. There's a composition principle at work here that
I've long espoused: If a picture looks cramped on one edge (as it is here by
the cutoff of the long locomotive on the right side), balance it by cramping
the opposite edge as well. The subject then looks as though it were zoomed in
on, rather than mispositioned. I've used this principle to good effect myself
on many occasions.
: Bob Coe came up with a good X, but it would - in my opinion - work
: better in portrait with the entire left side omitted. The X is still
: there, and there's less clutter.
Yeah, you may be right. If I get a chance, I'll try that and see if I agree.
: Tree stumps? That's the T mandate link?
"T" is for "tree". And for "two". There's even a "T" in "stumps".
: Nia's a great shot of the girl, but that dress deserves a chair closer
: to the period. Or, just a straight wooden kitchen chair or stool.
Yes, her mother lamented that we didn't try harder on that point. I did use a
straight wooden chair in some other poses, but they didn't turn out as well,
for reasons not the fault of the chair. We were in a bit of a rush, because
the dress was uncomfortable and we weren't sure how long Nia would last before
her willingness to pose ran out. That said, she was as good a model as you
could hope to find in an 11-year-old. Betsy and I were both feeding her
instructions as we clicked away, and she followed them extremely well, doing
total changes of expression with ease.
: I take it Bob doesn't do much in the way of post. I would be itching
: to clone out that orange rope or whatever it is to the right and do
: some burning on the grass to the left.
"That orange rope or whatever it is" is a branch of the bush. That's perfectly
clear in the RAW original, but squashing the file down to the size required by
the rulz is going to cost you some clarity and detail. BTW, I was using fill
flash, despite what it says in Pbase's rendition of the Exif data.
: Still, Nia's expression is a good capture.
Thanks. I got lucky; that's not one we told her to do.
: I can see Bob and Martha arguing over who takes the slender bent trees
: and who takes the fallen logs.
Not exactly. Martha spotted the fallen log X first, so she had the rights to
the scene. I did take a couple of shots of it, but her best was better than my
best anyway. And once she had that "X" shot, she went on to trees, so I got
the standing "X" by default.
: I have wonder at conditions that required an ISO of 400, 1/100th at f/4.5.
: Then, seemingly on the same day (4/20) she shoots trees at the same ISO of
: 400, but 1/500th at f/11.
Both scenes were strongly backlit, but differed in that she had to preserve
the foreground in the first but could let it go dark in the second. Under the
circumstances, I don't think those exposure values are unreasonable.
: The next day she's still shooting at ISO 400 for a tree in full sun.
I would probably have used ISO 250 or 320 for that scene. Martha often uses a
higher ISO than I would, but that exposure is well within her camera's comfort
zone.
: You need that high an ISO in Mass?
Actually, all six of our pictures were taken in Pennsylvania.
: Back in Indiana, we used to dig up a root of a sassafras tree, slice
: it lengthwise, tie the slices in a bundle, and make sassafras tea.
: Now, I think they say that sassafras is a cause of cancer. It's a
: wonder I survived childhood.
Betsy and Shep are worried about that tree. It's very old and not doing too
well. The previous owners of the house apparently spent quite a bit of money
keeping it alive.
: Now we get to FrankEss. I no longer expect Frank to conform to
: something as bothersome as a mandate, but I always look forward to
: Frank's submissions. He didn't disappoint.
:
: I can hear the wind whistle around the two youngsters. I can hear the
: laughter of those seeing those Mexican Hairless dogs.
:
: The NTX factor is shaky, at best, in PeterN's Terrace, but it's a
: great sky and the trees to the right work well.
"T" is for "terrace"; what's not to like? Well, the white balance, actually.
The overall color doesn't look quite right to me. I'd at least try it with the
ambient color temperature set a few hundred degrees higher. Of course it
depends on what time of day it was and on what it actually looked like to the
photographer's eye.
: Another photo, though, that makes me itch to use the clone tool and
: take out those concrete blocks.
:
: "Todler" (sic) doesn't, as far as I can see, meet the mandate since
: the mandate is not the Greek gamma, but it's one that I don't care if
: meets the mandate or not. Good subject matter, good composition, and
: good conversion to b&w. This is one where that tight crop at the left
: and top is exactly the thing to do.
Why doesn't the toddler qualify, independent of the gamma?
: Peter's "Tree Impression" is too far out there for me. I don't get
: it. Is that a truck, though, in the very lower left corner?
I don't get it either, quite. But I'm surprised you didn't advocate cropping
or cloning out the tree branches that intrude from the right. They don't seem
to contribute anything to the picture.
Bob