More From Today

[sm4him]

Today we headed up to the cottage to take the water out, on the way there it was bright enough to take some shots from the car at slow shutter speeds, these are a couple of my favs, would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for taking a look

I like the third one fairly well; the first two, not so much. But I'm actually FAR more interested in something else…what do you mean "to take the water out?" Why is there water in the cottage? For that matter, what cottage? Did I miss something that would have explained all this?

Us northern folks have to either keep the plumbing warm (ie, not freezing), or drain it before the cold weather. Otherwise, ice will crack all the pipes and you have a real mess when the thaw comes. This is a ritual of the season for cottages but is much more serious if the temperature falls below freezing for an extended period in the city during a power outage. In the 1998 Ice storm, the power was out for up to a month for some people, and there was much water damage due to cracked pipes.

OHHHH, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Yet another reason for me to stay here. Or move further south. We *do* sometimes have problems with cracked pipes, but the danger is really infrequent, certainly not a normal thing we do to prepare for winter. Pretty much all we do to prepare for winter is winterize the lawn mower, and buy a coat. :lmao:
Plus, most of this week is supposed to be lows of 50s and highs in the 70s, so it's hard to think about preventing cracked pipes.

 

[astroNikon]

Before I read the text .. up to the "take the water out" I thought those were photos of paintings. I love all of them for different reasons. They are totally awesome.

Even if you stopped and took nice sharp photos with background OOF I would still prefer these ones !!

Nice technique

 

[PixelRabbit]

Thanks Sharon Astro and Paul

Paul and Astro, that's awesome! That is exactly where I like going with these since I can't paint, I'm glad they are successful!


Sharon, Paul was quicker than me The cottage is Mr. Rabbit's family cottage on Lake Huron, typically cottages aren't as hardily built as our homes are, we don't generally have to winterize the houses. The water system at the cottage consists of a foot valve in the lake to draw the water up to the cottage with a pump, the foot valve/hoses etc have to be taken out of the lake for the winter or it will be smashed to bits and everything will freeze in the pipes. Here is a pic of Mr. R in the lake taking it out, the foot valve is behind the big rock to help keep it in place, sometimes the valves end up tossed up on shore after big storms!

 

[manaheim]

BTW, I loved #1.

 

[PixelRabbit]

I ask because RARELY do I see shots "from a car window" that are anything worth talking about. Some of your shots I wonder about because so many of them are from car windows, and while some of them I think are pretty awesome... not all of them click with me. So it makes me wonder if 1> your great shots would be AMAZING if you could stop, get out, and set up the shot exactly the way it needs to be, 2> your less amazing shots would be more amazing.

BTW, I loved #1.

Ok Bunny, here's my answer, I know this is going to go somewhat into the arteest category but that's what I am and I'm good with that

The bolded is a big part of it, not everyone is doing it and the longer I'm doing it I'm seeing improvement and new possibilities, I'm problem solving and it will only get better imho. I can't disagree that if I stopped and shot these I could get some awesome pictures, I've built my skill set up enough to be confident to pull them off but they wouldn't be the same, the motion adds that painting quality by dragging parts of the picture while others are stationary if even just a tiny bit to blur that line between a photo and a painting. Are there times that we pass something and I wish I asked to stop to take the shot? Absolutely, it happens fairly often actually, probably more often now because I'm always looking for the shot even when we are passing by at 100km/hr lol.

Your observation that I post many more of these kind of shots than my more conventional ones made me go hmmm... then I realized you are right, I think the reason behind that is it takes more to make a leaf, water, bug etc etc etc image that stands on it's own imho so they are much fewer and far between, I have tons of those shots that can be considered "good" shots but that's it, just a good shot of the leaf, water, bug etc... and those are a dime a dozen.

What it ultimately comes down to is I want to carve my own little niche and right now I'm really enjoying the results I get when I shoot from the car

 

[manaheim]

That, my dear lady, is an awesome answer. Not that I'm any one to judge what you do, mind you. I just have an interest in your work and always have and so when I see a pattern that tweaks my attention I call it out. In other words, I'm only tossing things at you because I care.

Your answer puts me very firmly in my place (again) as someone who needs to watch you so I can learn... not someone who needs to judge what you've done.

And I say all that with a positive feeling about the whole thing. You rock.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Thanks Bunny!<3
Please don't stop pondering and asking questions, I truly appreciate it, it's why I post here even though this stuff is often a tough sell on TPF because of it's "teaching/technical" nature. I'm just stubborn and keep posting I know if it flies here I've got something that bridges that gap between technique and art and it stands on it's own.

 

[Gallon]

I feel like in the second photo, if the tree on the right was in focus, it would be a better image. However, all of them are great. I really love the fall colors

 

[ph0enix]

BTW, I loved #1.

Same here.
I'm a sucker for birch in autumn colors!

 

[PixelRabbit]

Thanks for your thoughts Gallon and Ph0enix! (Nice to see you btw Ph0enix!)

 

[weags77]

I honestly didn't like these at first, just thought blurry photos trying to be something...then I read the thread and your answers to some questions about the painting/photo aspect and why you choose to shoot from the car. Went back and looked at them again and now I love them. I am a beginner so I sometimes need that artist interpretation and reasoning when it's a style I'm unfamiliar with and not a knock on the photos at all. Each one stands on its own yet they feel together as a whole.

Not that I'm one to take advice from but keep doing your thing. I can see it is uniquely you and something I look forward to seeing more of.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Weags, thank you and that's excellent! I'm glad you gave them a chance and looked at them with different eyes after reading. If you are interested do a google search for Impressionistic Photography and you will see some more examples and perhaps they will be inspirational

 

[PropilotBW]

They look like oil paintings. You could enlarge those and sell them as prints.

 

[hopdaddy]

Hey Pix, My thought..............One thing I heard Artie Morris state several times (On that video I posted to you several months back?) You need some "Dead" space at the bottom for it to work best . With that said ,I like the first one the best ,BUT, I think it would have been WAY over the top had you cropped it as you did the second photo. Bottom line, these are extremely good and you're on the edge of greatness ! I would compare these (In their style ) to be like Mish's Flower shots .

 

[kathyt]

I am not digging the first set you posted, but I love that 4th shot. It seemed more thought out and balanced. It also very pleasing from a compositional standpoint.