TPF Challenge - Novemberr -Still Life - Entries and Voting

[cynicaster]

UGH! I just typed out an entire message and my netbook decided to get all pissy with me and it's gone.

Let me try this again. And yes, I'm going to use pictures to help explain my thought process.

Thanks for sharing that. Makes me wish I'd known your creative process when seeing the photo, but I guess that might be kind of counter to the spirit of the competition.

Yay! I'm happy to win this months theme! Now to enlighten everyone with my thoughts behind my imagery, I love musicals and for some reason or other, shooting this image I thought about the silhouette scene of chicago for some reason or other whilst looking at the romanticism of 17th century dutch still life painters and somehow this just came together as a quick shot whilst I was in the studio one day!

Still romantic, A title to represent love lost into the darkness. glad everyone enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed creating it! Does this mean I get my webpage linked on the homepage? wahoo! haha

Congrats on taking the title. One question--I found the lemon in your photo a bit... incongruous. Is there a significance to it?

Cheers

 

[sm4him]

Somehow I've missed this thread until now. Interesting discussion. I did not submit a photo for this one. If I had I would not have needed to google "still life" but I might well have been one of those to take a picture that didn't fit the strict definition. To me one of the fun and challenging parts of this competition is the "think outside the box" aspect and I tend to try to take that to heart. Sometimes I get "out of the box but right up beside it"--but sometimes I might get so far out of the box that nobody else "gets it. " Either way, to me, it's about the challenge to see things differently than I normally might. I don't always understand how someone else's photo fits either but I like trying to figure it out!

I absolutely do not think any submitted photo should be eliminated--if someone bothered to at least try, their photo should be in the competition!

 

[DougGrigg]

One question--I found the lemon in your photo a bit... incongruous. Is there a significance to it?

Cheers

It was just representative of my inspiration from the dutch still life painters who pretty much used fruit in absolutely everything haha ! now you mention it, it does seem rather out of place! I originally hoped it to resemble innocence but there was no justification for that symbolism haha

 

[Rachel1786]

To be honest, mine was a last minute thing(mine was lights) I had a really good idea and then life got in the way and I never got around to it. Then the night of the deadline I was playing with this stupid little LED thing that came out of my sons plastic baseball bat(stupid thing came broken so the lights were floating around loose in the bat) and decided to use that, I knew it was a bit of a stretch for the theme, but from what I got from my google search of still life was basically(really dumbed down lol) an inanimate object)...just FYI, photographing flashing LED lights will make you feel like you are going to have a seizure and give you a migraine lol

It's all good,Rachel.The story behind it gave me a laugh (not at you,with you :cheersI'm just interested in others interpretation.Did we all Google "Still Life"?......lol

It would also be acceptable to laugh at me. Really it was quite ridiculous, setting that stupid flashy thing up in the bathroom at 11:30 at night and setting the camera on the ledge of the tub(since I misplaced my tripod) and trying not to let the camera move when I pressed and released the shutter(and I even have a remote shutter control that I didn't think to use) lol.
I googled still life because the only thing I could think of associated with it was the typical bowl of fruit, so I wanted to see what the actual definition was

 

[shefjr]

Congratulations Doug! I need no explanation for your photo because to me that is what I would call the definition of "still life".

With that said, I did interpret all but one image to be still life in some fashion. Some of them I found very loosely and others I was able to immediately come to the conclusion about the image. The photo that really bothered me was "lights" by Rachel. With her coming forward and at least explaining that she lost track of time and just threw this up as a last ditch effort makes me feel better:thumbup:. I originally thought that someone was actually taking it seriously by putting up that image.

I have been PMing with a member here and I was given some good explanations as to why the mods wouldn't and shouldn't prescreen the photos submitted. So I do understand that. I have been sitting here at my computer struggling to put into words what frustrates me about the challenge. I guess I was hoping for the challenges to be about more than just grabbing your camera, pondering a shot within the topic and taking a photo of it. The polls validate who has won and in what order but, could there be more gotten out of the challenge? Meaning, lets say I submit an entry and get 0 votes, obviously the photo was horrible and not worth a vote. What do I learn from this other than it sucked. It would, in my humble opinion, be nice if there could be some sort of learning element to the challenge. Maybe a critique on why it didn't work. I don't really know how this could be done or if it could be done. I'm not suggesting that the mods be forced to do anything more than they already do. Maybe simply at the end of the poll if someone would like help the could request voters to explain why or what they didn't like about their photo.

I apologize to all who may find my beating a dead horse annoying. I'm trying to find my creative side and thought that I might use the challenge to do it. I actually have yet to participate in any of the challenges other than the voting. I feel like just the voting portion has opened me up creatively. My voting process is, I ponder the topic and give it some sort of qualifications before I even look at the images. The time involved with thinking about the topic all depends upon what it is. For instance, "something that makes you smile" challenge to me is for the viewer of the subject. I looked through the images and chose the one that gave me a visceral reaction. I did not choose a technically correct image but, instead choose one that evoked a reaction.

Anyway, I'm done :chatty:

 

[amolitor]

Nobody should ever get zero votes! 1, at least, from yourself!

The number of votes cast isn't very high, you should certainly NOT conclude that your picture is bad based on no votes. Only that the other pictures are more appealing.

 

[shefjr]

Nobody should ever get zero votes! 1, at least, from yourself!

The number of votes cast isn't very high, you should certainly NOT conclude that your picture is bad based on no votes. Only that the other pictures are more appealing.

I am an honest person and while I would want to give myself 1 vote, I would still vote for the one that I thought best merited a vote. :mrgreen: I try to give credit where credit is due.
I agree that a picture may not be bad but, maybe if through critique someone were to say, "had you taken the photo from this angle" or "added light to this area", it would have really made this image stand out. At least then something more than just failure could be taken away. I'm here to learn and there are a lot of knowledgeable people here to learn from.

 

[sm4him]

Congratulations Doug! I need no explanation for your photo because to me that is what I would call the definition of "still life".

With that said, I did interpret all but one image to be still life in some fashion. Some of them I found very loosely and others I was able to immediately come to the conclusion about the image. The photo that really bothered me was "lights" by Rachel. With her coming forward and at least explaining that she lost track of time and just threw this up as a last ditch effort makes me feel better:thumbup:. I originally thought that someone was actually taking it seriously by putting up that image.

I have been PMing with a member here and I was given some good explanations as to why the mods wouldn't and shouldn't prescreen the photos submitted. So I do understand that. I have been sitting here at my computer struggling to put into words what frustrates me about the challenge. I guess I was hoping for the challenges to be about more than just grabbing your camera, pondering a shot within the topic and taking a photo of it. The polls validate who has won and in what order but, could there be more gotten out of the challenge? Meaning, lets say I submit an entry and get 0 votes, obviously the photo was horrible and not worth a vote. What do I learn from this other than it sucked. It would, in my humble opinion, be nice if there could be some sort of learning element to the challenge. Maybe a critique on why it didn't work. I don't really know how this could be done or if it could be done. I'm not suggesting that the mods be forced to do anything more than they already do. Maybe simply at the end of the poll if someone would like help the could request voters to explain why or what they didn't like about their photo.

I apologize to all who may find my beating a dead horse annoying. I'm trying to find my creative side and thought that I might use the challenge to do it. I actually have yet to participate in any of the challenges other than the voting. I feel like just the voting portion has opened me up creatively. My voting process is, I ponder the topic and give it some sort of qualifications before I even look at the images. The time involved with thinking about the topic all depends upon what it is. For instance, "something that makes you smile" challenge to me is for the viewer of the subject. I looked through the images and chose the one that gave me a visceral reaction. I did not choose a technically correct image but, instead choose one that evoked a reaction.

Anyway, I'm done :chatty:

For me, a photo challenge or contest is JUST about the challenge, and ends with the vote. I'd submit that if you (that's a general "you" not directed just at shefjr) want to pursue critique to understand why the photo didn't "work," you could always post it in the galleries after the competition is over and ask. But not everyone would want that, and if it were part of the challenge, I fear it would keep some people from even entering, knowing that if their photo didn't win it would either be subject to critique, or they'd have to SAY they don't want it critiqued and sound like a sore loser or something.

That's just my 1.5 cents' worth.

 

[shefjr]

For me, a photo challenge or contest is JUST about the challenge, and ends with the vote. I'd submit that if you (that's a general "you" not directed just at shefjr) want to pursue critique to understand why the photo didn't "work," you could always post it in the galleries after the competition is over and ask. But not everyone would want that, and if it were part of the challenge, I fear it would keep some people from even entering, knowing that if their photo didn't win it would either be subject to critique, or they'd have to SAY they don't want it critiqued and sound like a sore loser or something.

That's just my 1.5 cents' worth.

I agree that many would not want to have a critique. I also see how it could be just about the challenge. I guess I just expected more out of the challenge.

More importantly, I am also being the type of person I can't stand! One minority trying to change something for the masses because it bothers ME…. and so I will now quit pontificating from atop my high throne and digressed with sincerest apologies. :goodvibe::cheer:

 

[sgbotsford]

Voted for what I thought best represented "still life", what seemed creative and seemed to me to be more than a snap shot. It's obvious I'm not artistic or creative because to me some of these don't in anyway represent "still life".

I would love to hear from anyone that could explain how each image represents "still life".

I'm but a newbie on this forum. But remember, it's an artistic interpretation of the topic.


1. Water feature: Certainly there is no motion apparent. The ghost feature of the person on the middle is sitting still. So, Life + still. Interesting but didn't shake my soul.

2. Hands. Very still. Very old. End of life, the ultimate stillness. This was a very powerful shot to me.

3. Lights. I'm with you on this one. To me this is computer art, and has no grab at all.

4. Untitled. While not a conventional still life, it has a calmness. Not a bad shot, but if you don't want to consider it a still life, I won't argue.

5. A stilled life. The title says how he took artistic license with the topic. Here you see an old car. It has been there long enough that there is no difference between the leaves near the wheel and leaves two feet away. The car, obviously on non-modern vintage, has not moved from this pot for years. The use of monochrome adds a feeling of age, and timelessness to it. Other than rust, would this image be any differerent if you came back 50 years from now? No? Truely still.

6. Still Romantic. This image fits the usual definition of still life -- a table top scene arranged artistically. In this case the flowers are old enough that they have shed most of their petals onto the table, where they lay undisturbed. Is this a romance gone wrong? Is the couple out on a holiday. Have they both vanished into the Rapture? Is one partner gone, and the other leaves the Last Bouquet untouched, undisturbed, clinging onto romance slipping through the cracks?

Your question was fair enough, and I've attempted to answer it. Why do you see these as not being still life?

 

[sgbotsford]

I think it'd be cool if a one-liner describing the link to the theme is required as part of submissions.

In the world of working for a buck, you need a GOOD picture that meets the client's NEEDS

Perhaps a two fold scoring:

1. Rate the pic on the basis "does it speak to me" You have no idea what the contest is, does the picture make you think, gasp, whatever.

2. Does the picture meet the theme? For this, the theme has to be reasonably clearly defined. E.g. does 'still life' mean classical table top fruit and wine bottle, or does it mean life that is quiet & still, or does it mean absence of motion.

Once you have two scores, then they are MULTIPLIED to get the picture's score. A good picture that is totally inappropriate gets a low socre. A bad picture that is perfectly fitted to the theme gets a low score. A moderately good picture that expresses the theme gets a high score.

I liked Hands better than Romance in this series. But evaluating by both criteria, it would be Romance, Hands, A Still Life. as 1, 2, and 3.