The ol' Grindstone

[Rick58]

Not award winning material. Just a shot from my backyard of my Grandfathers grinding stone. As kids, we used to fight over cranking it while my grandfather sharpened my grandmothers knifes. My grandfather died back in the 70's but my grandmother held on to it until she passed in the 90's. There's no way I was going to let it be sold with the house. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[terri]

It's not bad, really. There is a lot you could do to play with it, seeing as how it has strong sentimental value to you, and it is a great old artifact (probably still works!). If it were me, I might try the following to pump it up a bit: a square format, with a little more space on top & bottom of the wheel. Overall lightening of the stone itself. Also, extreme sharp focus, because this subject is all about texture, and it should be flaunted. Then I'd play with the contrast a bit, depending on how much lightening I'd done.

I think it's great that you held onto it. I wouldn't let it go, either. :love:

 

[Rick58]

:waiting: Really? My photography sucks that bad that it only warrants one comment?

BTW, Thanks for your input Terri. I originally cropped it square as above but strayed from my initial gut feeling.
I originally thought round wheel / square format. You were right, I should have stuck with it. You were also right about the contrast. A second look did make me feel it was a little muddy. I removed the original and replaced it with a few tweaks.

 

[oldhippy]

Nice capture, not sure if the snow helps. Later. Ed

 

[weepete]

That's a brilliant of histrory behind this mate, I can totally understand why you took this. I also have a love for vintage tools as well, serving my time in a machine shop using tools older than I was gave me an appreciation of this kind of stuff.

I think as a photo its ok, but I think you may be able to do something really cool with this if you wish. I'm thinking it would be pretty awesome to see the whole thing with the snow on a black or allmost black background so it's isolated. Possibly a wee experiment with some snooted ocf may be really cool.

 

[robbins.photo]

Not award winning material. Just a shot from my backyard of my Grandfathers grinding stone. As kids, we used to fight over cranking it while my grandfather sharpened my grandmothers knifes. My grandfather died back in the 70's but my grandmother held on to it until she passed in the 90's. There's no way I was going to let it be sold with the house. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

My thought? Where's your nose. Uh-huh. Nowhere to be found. Slacker.

Lol

 

[timor]

:waiting: Really? My photography sucks that bad that it only warrants one comment?

Common man, it's a weekend, I just now got to the computer.
The snow is killing something from easy understanding, what it is. Maybe in the spring light will be better and no snow. This is a hard object to shoot, for many people the function is unclear. Maybe a shot from bigger distance showing the whole thing would be better. Maybe some rusted axe leaning against the post would add to the story. BG is a bit close to be outside DoF, that's a problem. Maybe longer lens to add deeper perspective, like in portrait.
Your shot is more of a factual photography, but it's a unique subject and maybe worth of some more work to make one, good, romantic photograph of it.

 

[Rick58]

Hey folks. Many thanks for the C&C. What I learned:

First... Terri set me straight on the original crop. She was right. It was bad. I made a lot of wasted real estate in an attempt to not center the subject. I'm a believer in that rules are made to be broken and I should have stuck with my initial square format.

Next: Two folks thought the snow didn't work. That wheel sits just off of my rear deck 365 days a year. This summer I thought, "That would be really cool capped in snow". Lesson learned? Don't think so much :er:

Next: The idea of a prop such as an axe? Like button. I have such a prop in my garage

Last lesson learned: Don't wait for order requests...

I'll file this one away so when I'm long dead and gone, someone will see it and say "Hey that's great, great, great, granddad's grinding wheel

 

[bribrius]

the best photos are the ones that mean something to the photographer. priceless

 

[LarryLomona]

Rick, Interesting photo. I like it for sentimental value for me. Larry

 

[Rick58]

Thanks Larry, Thinking about it, it really is only a sentimental photo. I felt the snow cap would add to the feeling of my Grandfather having passed on and the wheel not turning any longer. The whole concept should probably not have been posted here. Thanks again for the comment.

 

[bribrius]

on a larger scale, it could be considered "the days gone by" approach. similar to photographing a old mine now quiet, or old mills once busy and thriving laying quiet and motionless in decay. A old ship, once full of passengers now laying in a ship boneyard and desolate. A lot of the recent work out of Detroit is along those lines. A wider angle would support that better than a close up but same premise...

 

[Rick58]

on a larger scale, it could be considered "the days gone by" approach. similar to photographing a old mine now quiet, or old mills once busy and thriving laying quiet and motionless in decay. A old ship, once full of passengers now laying in a ship boneyard and desolate. A lot of the recent work out of Detroit is along those lines. A wider angle would support that better than a close up but same premise...

Good point and true. The problem is, I live on the outskirts of the city, and if I go out too wide, I'll have to spend too much time cloning out the police car flashing lights

 

[vintagesnaps]

I don't think it's the snow so much as the contrast, I'd make copies and play around with adjusting it some - I see dark charcoal but not quite black. I'd crop just a bit more off the top too to get rid of whatever is in the left corner. I like the fence and branches and the snow covered bush as background.

It may not be completely apparent to viewers what it means to you because I wouldn't know without the story, but I think it's a great subject and makes for a photo with nice composition and texture; it may not convey specifics but could convey that it's something special or in some way significant.

This could be a good subject for more photos I think. Does the handle turn? Before the next snow (which I think we'll probably get!) I'd try seeing how it looks with the handle at different angles, that might make it a little more obvious what it is and give you a more interesting shape with the handle. Maybe try some shots from a slightly different vantage points, from a step stool maybe? or taking a step or two one way or the other and see how it looks against the background etc. Lot of potential there, I'd maybe even do a close-up abstract of the texture of the stone (if that's your style) - but wait and try that in the summer! LOL

 

[Rick58]

Thanks Sharon,

You maybe on to something there. I may try it again with the handle down.
What you see in the top left corn is the tops of the fence going down the hill. A slightly higher angle as you suggest would take care of that.
As far as the contrast, a few of the darkest foliage shadows are at zero and the brightest snow tops out at around 253
I don't care much for the texture of the wheel it's self. What appears to be grain is actually very small specks of some type of light green fungus.