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Post by herron on Aug 18, 2005 11:56:00 GMT -5
OK...I'll go first...but be gentle. These images are why I always carry a camera with me!  "Detroit River" © R.L. Herron -- image taken with a vintage early Mamiya-6 folder (c.1940) with a 75mm Olympus Zuiko lens, f/8 @ 1/50 sec. on Fuji Superia 100 (120 rollfilm) This image was made from one of the Renaissance Center towers, in downtown Detroit. There are construction trailers in the foreground, where they were working on a new seawall and boardwalk along the Detroit side of the river (now completed). That's Windsor, Ontario, Canada on the other side of the water. There had been a heavy morning fog that was disappating, and I thought the clouds -- and the reflection of the sun on the water -- were fascinating.  "Detroit Skyline from Parking Deck" © R.L. Herron -- image taken with the same Mamiya-6 folder and film, f/16 @ 1/100 sec. This image was made from the roof of a parking deck just a bit east of the Renaissance Center in Detroit. I was fascinated by the color contrast between the wall and the background sky. The Detroit College of Law is the low building on the right, and the tall white tower behind it is the Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield headquarters. |
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Post by kamera on Aug 18, 2005 12:27:20 GMT -5
Fellow Michiganer,
For the pic of the Detroit River, you were in the right place at the right time; or you picked a good time and position for the planned shoot. I like EVERYTHING about this one and cannot offer any negative constructive criticism. The angled foreground, the reflection leading to the
Canadian side and the formation of the sky material. I have stared at this pic for awhile and must say I am jealous I did not take it. Great, great, great!!!
Scenics and street photograpy are my bag.
Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI
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Post by herron on Aug 19, 2005 14:32:48 GMT -5
Thank you, Ron. That is high praise indeed.
These are two of my favorite recent images, and I think I got "lucky" for both of them (helps to have a camera of some kind with you, at all times).
Neither shot was planned, they just happened. Like my late grandfather used to say, "Every once in a while a blind squirrel finds an acorn!"
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PeterW
Lifetime Member
Member has Passed
Posts: 3,804
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Post by PeterW on Aug 23, 2005 17:10:05 GMT -5
Hi ,
I love the Detroit River picture. Congratulations. Either you were very lucky or, which happens more often the more pictures you take, you saw the scene, looked in the viewfinder and your eye said "Yes! this is good!".
So why do I like it? Let's look at it.
You probably didn't consciously think about it at the time, but the composition obeys the rule of thirds, there's an interesting sky to lead your eye down the reflection on the water, but before your eye can loose direction looking around, the sloping foreground leads you back to the bottom of the reflection on the water where one of the 'spreads' on the reflection coincides with the dark foreground just highlighting a single building (or caravan) to add a focal point. Add to that the exposure's good, and you've got all the elements of a good picture. Everything comes together without the viewer (or sometimes even the photographer!) consciously realising why, which is what good composition's all about.
Three simple, basic 'rules' of composition: 1, Start with something interesting to catch the viewer's attention, preferably (but not invariably) at one of the 'golden mean' thirds. 2, Lead the viewer's eye from the first interest point to a second focal point. 3, If possible have a second 'directing line' to the second focal point.
Mind you, these aren't the only 'rules', and anyway 'rules' are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men!. They CAN be broken, sometimes to good effect, but understand them before you break them, then you know why you're breaking them.
Sorry, but not too keen on the other pic, it's a bit bland, but I won't take up a lot of space saying why.
BTW, notice I said looked IN the viewfinder, not THROUGH the viewfinder. One of the best simple pieces of picture taking advice I ever had was from my Uncle Matt, a professional photographer from the 1920s till he sold his business and retired in the 1950s. He told me:
"Always look into a viewfinder, the same way we used to look at a picture on the ground glass screen of a plate camera. If you look through a viewfinder you only look at the middle of the picture. Then when you see the print you wonder how the heck you managed to miss obvious points which would have improved it." (only he didn't say heck. Matt believed in calling a spade a b.....dy shovel).
Maybe that's why some people take better composed pictures with a waist level TLR than with an eye-level camera, left-to-right transposition notwithstanding.
Anyway, enough pontificating. Well done!!
Peter
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Post by Randy on Aug 23, 2005 21:56:53 GMT -5
That first pic blows me away! Makes me want to float a boat.
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Post by herron on Aug 23, 2005 23:04:33 GMT -5
PeterW -- The "Rule of Thirds" is something that is so ingrained in me after all this time, that it IS something I conciously consider, and ignore only when my eye tells me that something else is really going to work! However, I certainly did get lucky with the river shot...right place, right time...but if I had not been in the habit of always carrying a camera with me, it was a scene I could have admired greatly and carried in my memory, but never captured. The parking deck shot was the same way. I was literally IN the parking deck, and was on my way out, when the rich cinammon color in that wall and the earthtones of the buildings, and their contrast with that wonderful blue sky with wispy clouds caught my eye. This too is very close to a "Thirds" composition, with a lot of things going on. There's a radio tower in the far distance and a construction crane even farther back, beyond the powerplant stacks (I really like the Olympus Zuiko lens on this old Mamiya folder). But again, right place, right time, camera nearby and even the light was right. We make our own luck sometimes. But thanks for all the kind words. If you keep it up, you're going to spoil me!  |
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Post by heath on Oct 18, 2005 2:48:10 GMT -5
#1 is awesome. I love it. You should consider entering it in some competitions and see how it goes.
#2 is ok, I have seen better, but I have seen much worse too. One point is I didn't notice the things off in the distance until I read your reply where you mentioned them, which made me go back and have a longer look.
Heath
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Post by herron on Oct 19, 2005 10:22:00 GMT -5
#1 is awesome. I love it. You should consider entering it in some competitions and see how it goes. #2 is ok, I have seen better, but I have seen much worse too. One point is I didn't notice the things off in the distance until I read your reply where you mentioned them, which made me go back and have a longer look. Heath: Thanks for comments on both images. I "really" enjoy the first image, and "mostly" enjoy the second, myself. I wish there had been some more interesting clouds in that second one, or even a stray pigeon or seagull on that cinnamon wall! I think the second one caught my eye mainly for the colors. I was delighted with the performance of that old lens, too. Beyond that cinnamon wall, before you come to the first of the building roofs you can see, is a two-lane road, a full city block of low buildings, an 8-lane boulevard with a large median and two wide city sidewalks! The white tower is a good four city blocks away and I really couldn't tell you how far away those smokestacks, radio tower and construction crane really are! I appreciate the critique, however. "Learn something every day," my father was fond of saying. And so I have. Thanks. |
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Post by John Parry on Oct 23, 2005 12:28:20 GMT -5
Hi Ron,
Thought the first was the moon at first - you brought the sky out beautifully. Did you have a
filter on there?
The second is one of those that only works in colour - love the colour contrasts.
Agree with all the others - you have to be there, you have to have a camera, and you have to
have the kind of mind that screams at you "Now!, Now!, Now!"
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Post by herron on Oct 23, 2005 20:10:56 GMT -5
Thought the first was the moon at first - you brought the sky out beautifully. Did you have a filter on there? The second is one of those that only works in colour - love the colour contrasts. Agree with all the others - you have to be there, you have to have a camera, and you have to have the kind of mind that screams at you "Now!, Now!, Now!" No filters, John. Just got lucky with conditions. There had been a heavy fog that morning, and it had not all disapated yet when I snapped this one. Just happened to be at the right place at the right time...and with a camera in my hand, which made all the difference!  I agree the other one would be rather "blah" if it was black & white. But it was the colors that caught my eye and, once again, I was fortunate to have a camera on the car seat beside me! I've often had that voice screaming at me, only to realize the camera was somewhere else...or else had no film!  |
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