California (now day 5 of 13)

[Frank F.]

PS: In fact the upload procedure was ten times faster and more responsive on Linux than on Windows or Android. I often see skripts crashing on this site and a line worth of delay until the works I write are displayed. None of that with Linux. The scan procedure is running now for three hours. While the other Scanners needed a few minutes to scan nearly 400.000 objects, Kaspersky is now running for two hours straight and I contemplate to pull the plug on this...

 

[DanOstergren28 4]

The Albany Bulb! I've been there a few times. Thinking about it really makes me miss living in the Bay Area.

 

[Designer]

Electrical installations, American style. For my German eyes this looks third worldish:
View attachment 131245

Ah, yes, indeed! This is not mains power, but telephone and CATV. And the reason it looks third-worldish is because it is third-worldish. The installers have one some general guidelines they are supposed to observe, but are basically free to improvise as they go.

 

[Designer]

Good eye, Frank!

 

[jcdeboever]

The latest sets are real nice. You can really see your photography experience throughout all the uploads. Your stuff reminds me of a mentor I had for a short spell, I am not sure how old you are but he is in his late 60's. I was kind of scratching my head at the comments in the beginning but that is kind of how it goes on here. I really liked the North African shot and the home cluster off the highway. You even got a diving bird which could get a lot of members excited on here but more than likely will miss it.

Good stuff, now show us that pick of @Gary A. with his jean shorts, black dress socks up to his knees (with Jesus sandals), and a wine stained wife beater.

 

[bulldurham6 1]

Most of my initial response to Frank didn't show and Designer only picked one part to hammer...and that's fine as well...

From a purely analytical point of view and that's how I look at a work the first time through, I will stand by my initial response in that there's nothing here to draw my interest. Some of the later pieces have more merit than the earlier pieces and there are two or three I really like. That said, I want to go back to the first image you posted and look at it from a purely analytical POV. (There was no emotional connect, so this is the best way I can look at the rest of the image.)

So, here it is: I used a Golden Mean grid because I feel it better represents a pano format. The green dots are the intersect points. Somewhere in or on or close to these intersects there should be something to excite the eye into taking a further journey into the scene. I don't see whatever that point is supposed to represent so I have to assume there is some kind of existential side meaning other than the juxtaposition of the industrial to the urban which likely could have been better expressed from a different point of view, as while this one makes a loose-ended connect, as if you wanted to say something but it kept slipping off the end of your tongue, it fails to make a concise statement. You noted you used the vignette because it was too perfect yet there is a significant green color cast you completely ignored. The vignette is a feigned attempt to push the eye toward the middle of the scene yet the middle of the scene doesn't really tell a story. Point missed. I could shoot a thousand scenes like this and have nothing more to show for my efforts than you do on this image or most of the following images. (The left side is with the color cast removed.) Will everyone agree with this critique..hardly, but I'm not here to post your work on the refrigerator door, I'm here to say what I get from the effort.

As to your shooting experience, as to your intent, as to what you are shooting, I have no idea as there is very little backstory to what you were doing or why until you started getting "meh-ed." I can only go by what I see and how what I see grabs my attention. If the young lady who responded that I was being a bully would care to critique the work other than "I liked the vignette and color saturation," I'd be most interested in seeing what grabbed her intention. I know the argument for "it really grabs me," and I can appreciate an image that really grabs you, but I'll challenge anyone to post a grabber that doesn't contain at least three of the marks of a good photograph: composition, exposure and point of view being my three favorites. And while there may be some that exist, this is not one of them.

I am finished with this though I think all I will have accomplished is to stir the hornet's nest.

 

[Frank F.]

View attachment 131265

you like it rawer? --- sized down from 9500 px --- what is wrong with my composition?

 

[bulldurham6 1]

What is the primary focal point? What is it you want me to see? I will go back to what I think you are telling as a story and that is the overlap of the industrial to the urban landscape. I get that but I feel like you're trying to force it down my throat with all the excess imagery. It's like writing a story; if everything in the scene isn't promoting the plot, then it has to go. If my premise is correct, then doesn't the area inside the white outline tell the same story?

 

[Frank F.]

Interesting point. Yet the gasoline storage on the left is as important to me as the group of trees and the barn like structure on the right. If I would take away something from the picture I would lose the lower fifth. The monochrome dark asphalt does not really help the narrative, makes it more bland. Bland was what I was searching for the Eggelstone Edit.

Now lets see, how it that?

 

[Frank F.]

Electrical installations, American style. For my German eyes this looks third worldish:
View attachment 131245

Ah, yes, indeed! This is not mains power, but telephone and CATV. And the reason it looks third-worldish is because it is third-worldish. The installers have one some general guidelines they are supposed to observe, but are basically free to improvise as they go.

I have seen mains power on wood poles in Hayward. But this was 500 meter away from St Andreas fault. Wow.

 

[bulldurham6 1]

So I get Egglestone and had you put that in your initial post information, I would have had a better understanding of your goal. I agree the street does zip for the image. The barnlike structure on the right is the garage of the house next door. I'd take what you have with this edit further by cropping the garage out of the scene. It doesn't do anything to promote the urban to industrial plot.

I am not, as you probably have already surmised, an Egglestone fan. I understand it, but its not my cuppa. It's like Picasso. I understand his work, but other than a very damn few pieces, I would not hang his or any other Cubists works in my house. It's just not my style.

From good dialogue comes a better understanding. It was never personal, it was just one person's observation.

 

[Frank F.]

I feel the exchange to be constructive. Iirc the barn like structure is an unihabited house next door. A house with a garage.

 

[The_Traveler]

So, here it is: I used a Golden Mean grid because I feel it better represents a pano format. The green dots are the intersect points. Somewhere in or on or close to these intersects there should be something to excite the eye into taking a further journey into the scene. I don't see whatever that point is supposed to represent so I have to assume there is some kind of existential side meaning other than the juxtaposition of the industrial to the urban which likely could have been better expressed from a different point of view, as while this one makes a loose-ended connect, as if you wanted to say something but it kept slipping off the end of your tongue, it fails to make a concise statement

The 'Rules of Composition' are just guidelines that are used to nudge a newbie towards understanding; complaining that a picture doesn't work because it doesn't fit neatly on some 'grid line' is like complaining that π can't be correct because it's not an integer. The Rules are a way that people respond, they're not the way to make pictures.

Things are what they are. If the picture works or doesn't work, the 'Rules' might be useful to explain why people see things but they are never the deciding factor.

 

[bulldurham6 1]

I used it because I had nothing else to go on to get to where we finally ended up. It worked to get the dialogue going in a useful direction. I understand your knock but feel it is unwarranted.

 

[DanOstergren28 4]

If the young lady who responded that I was being a bully would care to critique the work other than "I liked the vignette and color saturation," I'd be most interested in seeing what grabbed her intention.

If you're speaking of me, I should point out that I'm not a lady; my profile photo is a shot that I took myself. I should also point out that I did not call you a bully. I was directly quoting a different person who responded on the first page of this thread, not you. And yes, I believe that sort of post is bullying, not critiquing. Simply saying a photo has "absolutely nothing going for it" is unhelpful unless you're trying to make someone personally feel bad about their own work, as opposed to offering advice on improving the shot, and actually giving reasons as to why a shot has nothing going for it in their opinion.

If you must know what grabbed my attention, like I said initially the color tones grabbed my attention in a pleasing way; they add a nostalgic feeling to the shot that I feel is complimented by the vignette. To add to my feedback, I would say that I also enjoy the composition. The wide frame that includes the road adds a sense of the location to me, and I enjoy how the image includes the street sign on the right side of the frame and the structures on the left side of the frame, and nothing important is being cut off in a way that distracts my eye. I also enjoy the balance of the composition, where the right side of the shot has a bit more in it and the left side has some negative space. To me the image is pleasing to look at and shows the environment nicely.

I wont elaborate on my critique because theres no reason to repeat myself; not all of what I said about the photos was positive and I gave concise reasons on what I didn't like, pinpointing what the photographer can improve on to my own personal liking.