Portrait of a Skater

[JamesRPhoto]

I very much appreciate that you're trying to help me but I have to disagree that those suggestions would improve the photograph, I apologize if it comes across as arrogance, but that's just how I feel. There are a lot of photos taken by top photographers in their respective industry that have components that I would change to make it more appealing to me, but ultimately it's their creative discression and their feel of the photograph that's earned them the reputation they have, and I myself have come further in my industry and become a lot happier as an artist since I stopped doing what didn't make sense to me, in order to appeal to others. Again, I don't mean any arrogance or defensiveness, that's just my philosophy on the matter and I don't know how to say it nicer than that.

 

[Derrel]

OH, I see you are the Digital Director/Commercial Photographer at Omni Studios. And you're 19 years old and are talking about the reputation of famous photographers...

Yeah, I knew it all once too.

 

[JamesRPhoto]

It's amazing how often I hear that because of my age my viewpoint on a topic has no merits, I'm very sorry you feel that way.

 

[Mach0]

It's amazing how often I hear that because of my age my viewpoint on a topic has no merits, I'm very sorry you feel that way.

You are right that age doesn't have any merit. Many of us have been your age before. There is a strong correlation between your age group and the attitude you display. Thats what they are heading with it.If you posted in the forum where C&C is welcome, expect it. It's not the style you will be changing, it's little distractions and technicalities that take away from your image. Minor things that will lead from exceptional to excellent. To be honest, I enjoyed the image. If you didnt say it was a skate park, I wouldn't have known. I would straighten the horizon some. It's not crooked enough to be intentional. You are skilled with a camera and show a helluva lot of potential. A more humble attitude will take you far.

 

[JamesRPhoto]

As you can hopefully see, the subject is not tilted, that's just how the scene is. The steps behind him are properly aligned, as is the skateboarder behind him, and himself. I'm seriously not trying to be arrogant here, but I'm also going to excersize my right to disagree with something that I don't agree with.

 

[o hey tyler]

Also, slightly off topic... I noticed that the company you work for, OmniStudios is in the business of SEO, Hosting, and Web Design. You might want to point out to the interface producer and web developer that Pingdom Tools rates your site "Your website is slower than 71% of all tested websites."

Just as a general "heads up." BTW, I tested from both NY servers, and from Texas. I was going to use the Netherlands too, but I figured that wouldn't be necessary.

 

[JamesRPhoto]

Did you notice the banner at the top of the site as well? I'm not a web designer, I'm a photographer, how their site runs and what they do with it is their own deal. From my understanding the majority of their work comes from pre-existing relationships as they've been in business since 01.

 

[tirediron]

...won a local award for environmental portraiture.

I'm sorry, but I don't see how this is an environmental portrait. Is this the subject's normal environment? An environmental portrait should so the subject in their normal environment. The miner at the coal-face, the fire-fighter donning his turn-out gear, etc.

... I don't necessarily come on here to improve myself, moreso to share what I'm doing...

To me, this comes across as: "My work is above critique, you all should watch and learn from me!" Now, I'm not saying you meant it to come across that way, but that is how I read it. Annie Leibovitz can get away with a statement like that, you and I? Not so much.

 

[MTVision]

As you can hopefully see, the subject is not tilted, that's just how the scene is. The steps behind him are properly aligned, as is the skateboarder behind him, and himself. I'm seriously not trying to be arrogant here, but I'm also going to excersize my right to disagree with something that I don't agree with.

I don't think they were talking about your subject being tilted - the horizon is tilted.

 

[JamesRPhoto]

...won a local award for environmental portraiture.

I'm sorry, but I don't see how this is an environmental portrait. Is this the subject's normal environment? An environmental portrait should so the subject in their normal environment. The miner at the coal-face, the fire-fighter donning his turn-out gear, etc.

An unamused teen in a skate park doesn't fit a certain stereotype to you? Whether or not the scene is desperately obvious, this is really the environment that he spends about 10 hours a day in, there was a full story caption along with the entry to explain this, but I just posted here to share some work.

... I don't necessarily come on here to improve myself, moreso to share what I'm doing...

To me, this comes across as: "My work is above critique, you all should watch and learn from me!" Now, I'm not saying you meant it to come across that way, but that is how I read it. Annie Leibovitz can get away with a statement like that, you and I? Not so much.

I definitely see how that could come across like that, but the thing with text is that it's very easy for almost any sentence to be taken differently than it is intended. I simply was not looking for critique on this image, it is what it is type of thing.

 

[tirediron]

...An unamused teen in a skate park doesn't fit a certain stereotype to you? Whether or not the scene is desperately obvious, this is really the environment that he spends about 10 hours a day in

But we don't KNOW it's a skateboard park; there's nothing in the image that really gives a clue to the environment. To me (and others) it looks like the side of a road somewhere.

there was a full story caption along with the entry to explain this

And therein lies the problem: A good photo is worth a thousand words; it should not need a thousand words.

, but I just posted here to share some work.

Fair enough, and we welcome you to do that. FOr future reference however, I would suggest adding some text to the post indicating that comments and critique are not desired. Remember though that the 'comments' part of C&C includes compliments and that "critique" might contain that one 'Ah-ha' tip that changes an entire thought process. It's entirely up to you...

 

[tirediron]

In a somewhat related vein, here is a cropped version of your image rotated by -3 degrees (left). Not intended as an "See how much better I made your image", but rather to demonstrate that in fact your original was rather badly tilted (unless Sask Power pounds its poles in on awful angle!). Note that this does not render the image truly vertical (that was at -4.8 deg, but rather is a compromise between accuracy and appearance, accounting for the subject's slouching posture).

 

[JamesRPhoto]

:thumbup: Thank you for all critiques and recommendations, they will be considered in future work.

 

[Derrel]

Seems to me like the horizon is tilted. And the telephone pole....those crazy idiots at Saskatoon Power, driving the poles into the ground on an angle...the workmen musta' drunk a case of Molson before they put that pole in the gound, eh?

 

[Trever1t]

In a somewhat related vein, here is a cropped version of your image rotated by -3 degrees (left). Not intended as an "See how much better I made your image", but rather to demonstrate that in fact your original was rather badly tilted (unless Sask Power pounds its poles in on awful angle!). Note that this does not render the image truly vertical (that was at -4.8 deg, but rather is a compromise between accuracy and appearance, accounting for the subject's slouching posture).

Now this speaks to me!