Tree

[amolitor]

for your consideration. remarks of any sort welcome.

 

[tirediron]

I like the image, except for the little bit of building at the very top. This looks like a great candidate for an IR conversion.

 

[limr]

I was thinking the same about the buildings at top. I also can't decide if I wish there to be a bit more of the yellow line in the foreground - I find the matching color to be an interesting counterpoint to the tree, but more of it might be too much. Can't tell.

What's becoming really interesting to me the more I look at it is that it seems at first to be all about the color and light. But every time I look back at it, I notice the lines. Tree trunks, bricks, yellow lines, curb, fence, hedge... It is interesting how they interact and balance a picture that, by all rights, should look crooked but doesn't. And now I'm starting to rethink those buildings because, well, more lines and all.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Easily my favorite shot of yours I can remember seeing.

A good exploration of composition, color, contrast, and light.

I do agree that the area at the top could use a bit of TLC. The buildings pull the eye away from all the goodies in the scene. My rule is, if it doesn't add to the photo, it's probably taking away from it.

This is a passable clone job, done it about 90 seconds in PS

 

[Compaq]

I must admit that the photo evokes nothing in me. All I see is a tree by a road, with annoying, yellow lines, buildings, and too yellow yellows for my taste. :blushing:

 

[Designer]

I like it just as it is. The street, wall, and background all work together to give the shot context. The colors are interesting, the light is just right, and everything is working for me. And I like how the tree is "posing" vertically on its sloping base.

 

[The_Traveler]

I don't like the title; it gives too much of the story away .

 

[Parker219]

I really like this photo. To me it says, "Even when life gives you uneven ground, you should still find a way to grow straight and true".

 

[kathyt]

I really like this photo. To me it says, "Even when life gives you uneven ground, you should still find a way to grow straight and true".

I like your attitude Parker. Much needed today.
Op, the image made me look quite a few times. At first I didn't like it at all, but then once the building was removed it kinda grew on me a bit. (Get it.....grew like a tree?) So I am going to say I kinda like it, especially for compositional and color reasons.

 

[fotofinish]

This cropped version is much better - the contrast is nice.

Easily my favorite shot of yours I can remember seeing.

A good exploration of composition, color, contrast, and light.

I do agree that the area at the top could use a bit of TLC. The buildings pull the eye away from all the goodies in the scene. My rule is, if it doesn't add to the photo, it's probably taking away from it.

This is a passable clone job, done it about 90 seconds in PS

 

[hopdaddy]

I too like the repost better ,my eye stays on the tree now. my only nit then would be ,not enough room at the top of the tree .

 

[amolitor]

Thank you, everyone, for your input, ideas, and discussion! Majeed, thanks for the clone job. I had guessed at what that would look like, but don't have the tools or time at present to do the work. It was much as I envisioned -- different, arguably better, arguably not, surely a matter of preference. The design is much more pure with the buildings cloned out, but the picture becomes more literally 2D and, I think, visually a little less interesting. I think I personally prefer the original, but I can see the merits of the modified one as well.

That said, I am occasionally accused of experimenting when I am not. This time, I actually am experimenting. This is the kind of picture I "see" pretty regularly, but almost never shoot. I raise the camera to my eye, and then cannot shake the vision of a million casual shooters with iPhones and a moderate sense of design and color shooting it before and after me. Then I shake my head, and lower the camera. Yesterday, I went out with the idea in mind to simply shoot something populist and appealing, to prove to myself that I actually can. Seattle, I admit, was quite wonderful to give me the tree and the light that it did. But I did shoot it and a couple other things quite quickly while carrying my 3 month old around, edited for 5 minutes in Picasa, and threw it up. Luck? Skill? Definitely some of both, and quibbling over how much of each isn't a game I am interested in.

In short: I don't have any problem at all with people liking this thing, it's quite flattering in fact, and I certainly enjoy the approval. This is definitely to the taste of many people, and I mean to take not a single thing away from those people. It's not to my taste. I hate myself a little for taking pictures like this, for personal reasons which I cannot fully explain.

Again, thank you all, both for your criticisms and your approval. I genuinely appreciate it all, as always.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

This is the kind of picture I "see" pretty regularly, but almost never shoot. I raise the camera to my eye, and then cannot shake the vision of a million casual shooters with iPhones and a moderate sense of design and color shooting it before and after me. Then I shake my head, and lower the camera.

It would be hard to shoot anything, anywhere if you are to concern yourself with such things every time you want to take a picture. Instead, challenge yourself to bring to the scene what these "million" shooters cannot, or do not.

Yesterday, I went out with the idea in mind to simply shoot something populist and appealing, to prove to myself that I actually can.

There's an implication here that what is popular and appealing is to some degree a bad thing.

It's not to my taste. I hate myself a little for taking pictures like this, for personal reasons which I cannot fully explain.

Perhaps you find it kitsch.

It's a perfectly good image for many reasons, and many shooters would be delighted to have it.

But honestly, I think you concern yourself too much with what people do or do not think, versus just shooting what you like.

By the conscious avoidance of producing work that falls in the popular, you concern yourself too much. I don't see that as a great use of time.

Perhaps a better use of your time and knowledge is just photographing what you like, because you like it.

 

[amolitor]

But I do shoot what I like, and nobody else likes it much. That's sort of the point.

Populist isn't bad, if you're reading that into my remarks, sorry. I don't intend that meaning. I just don't like it.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

But I do shoot what I like, and nobody else likes it much. That's sort of the point. Populist isn't bad, if you're reading that into my remarks, sorry. I don't intend that meaning. I just don't like it.

Hmmm. Your wording was a bit cryptic. It just made it sound like you took a picture of something you wouldn't normally photograph, just to please others, and you really disliked the result. In fact, I think this is exactly what you did.

But what's the point of that? I guess to "prove to yourself that you could?" Is it possible that some part of you likes the image and enjoys the praise? Why else would you be compelled to post it and all that stuff? I mean, you've already pretty much said you enjoy the praise, even though you don't care for the image. So the questions are rhetorical.

I guess what gets me hung up, and perhaps others too, is what is it that you're really saying under that other stuff your saying? I know you get flicked crap on this forum a lot, and I hope you don't see this post or me as a source of that.

But maybe it's just your tendency to over-analyze and qualify each image ad nauseum-- adhere or detach the image to what is or isn't this or that at the moment. It's this moving target-- maybe concern yourself less with all that stuff.

What's seemed to work for me is that old A.A. approach (maybe it will work for you, maybe it won't):

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”

Concerning yourself with that and only that makes the other stuff less important.