Rainy day

I took this just before I followed ken's link to the interview with Ansel Adams where he talks of virtualisation.

This is pretty much as I virtualised or saw the shot in my mind's eye. Not perfectly but closer than I usually get. It seemed to sum up those drizzly rainy days we get in the UK. Wet without purpose, neither here nor there.




C&C more than welcomed.

Mike

It does give a wet, desolated feeling, which I suppose was your intention, Mike. The debris on the table just adds to this feeling.

I like your aperture selection, throwing the ground out of focus, maybe even more OOF would work.

I think that I might have been tempted to move the table and chair closer together so that they appear almost as two large cogs meshing together - some sort of metaphor for a drab, industrial scene.

I don't get it. Am I missing something?

I can see where Hyram is headed, Mike.

That way, you would have a whole different way of processing this image open up to you, exactly because of the industrial metaphor that Hyram has identified.

Hmmm. It doesn't do much for me Mike. I suppose it could be indicative of the crapola weather we get here, but for me that doesn't come across very clearly. It just seems somewhat aimless. There doesn't seem too much specifically wrong with it, it's just ... well ... boring.

Compositionally I'm not keen on the way the line on the flagstones meets the edge of the table although that is such a minimal thing fixing it wouldn't greatly improve the image for me. I agree Hyram they should have been closer together (clever idea, the cog thing). The lower right corner also seems a bit soft - a tiny amount, but my eye keeps coming back to it!

I think I might have preferred more of a 'straight down' shot. I do quite like the idea of the dead vegetation, but on its own it isn't enough to make the image.

Here's another take on it - not necessarily better, or even any good:
Thought I'd post this rather than try and explain what I can see...

Mike - happy to delete if you'd rather.

[IMG]http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy9/i_berg/4711799111_b38e5b7089_b1-1.jpg[/IMG]

Or this as a crop...
[IMG]http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy9/i_berg/4711799111_b38e5b7089_b1-1-2.jpg[/IMG]

Were this to be shot as Hyram suggested, with the alignment of the tiles altered to accommodate Tim's observation, then we've got a whole new image.

PS - I've added (optional) grain.

Was going to suggest something like iberg's crop, but slightly more off the left and the bottom. This creates a more 'formal' composition with stronger geometry.

Perhaps this detracts from the qualities of pointlessness and neither-here-nor-there mundanity Mike set out to achieve? (Although in my view he achieved his objective a bit TOO well!)

I can't help wondering if someone is taking the Michael.................................

I didn't expect it to create a stir and so I'm not disappointed.

To me it's simply a gentle photograph of a very mundane scene. I did think about the composition carefully and while I accept the comment that I could get the circles to interlock and create an industrial effect it wasn't what I wanted.

One aspect that isn't as obvious to others as it is to me is that the flags under the table are dry. So this weather is just gentle rain that dampens you without soaking. Just enough to spoil the day without being full on and making it a real weather day.

I also liked the way the two circles allowed me to have that empty space bottom left and I actually liked the way the gap between the slabs made a tangent to the one table.

I also liked the colours although looking again I think I'd probably desaturate just a little more as all I have done to this was a little desaturation and a tiny crop. Making the colours and contrast stronger I think depletes the pointlessness of the garden furniture in the not quite rain. The weeds on the table also showed that yesterday or some time recently it was possible to do some gardening and there was enough sunshine to wither the leaves.

I also liked the way there are circles within circles and the way the flags sort of pick up the greens in the furniture.

I absolutely love this shot but it will be interesting if I still do in 6 months time! I do realise that it's not everyone's (well almost anyone's) taste and accept that. Maybe I just lead a really boring life

Maybe I take inspiration from this guy Pu-Chong who has a very mixed set on Flickr. Some wonderful others not so hot. You can see some here.

By the by that furniture is just about as uncomfortable as it gets. Inherited from Mother in Law.

Mike

I think perhaps you just think deeper thoughts than I do My thought process when taking a photo is something along the lines of "Ooooh, pretty colours, must take piccie".

Now that's not true Tim you analyse much more than that. I find I tend to go one of two ways: to react to my surroundings and capture the moment or plan as carefully as I can and manufacture a shot.

I know what I prefer and it's trying to capture the moment.

The trouble with analysis is that it often leads to freezing up and doing nothing. I sometimes force myself to turn round and go back and shoot on the grounds that if I was in any doubt with digital it's a cost free process.

Like this one (although I have s lightly better more dynamic version somewhere else.

Title 'Good old Donna' (not that I'm usually one for titles).




I did a very long double take on this.

Mike

Very intersting Mike. It just goes to show how subjective the appreciation of art can be. One person's Picasso is another person's scribblings.

My own view of the picture made me wonder if you were really serious about it, but evidently you were. I hope I didn't cause any offence, but my thoughts in the first post I made still apply. Of course, my own view in no way invalidates yours. I certainly did not think as much thought went into this picture as obviously did from your explanation, but like Tim I perhaps go for immediate gratification rather than any deep analysis of a picture's content. Which could explain perhaps why I find so much modern art pretentious twaddle.

No offence taken at all. We all see different things around us and that includes photographs. I am exposed to a number of seemingly pointless and rather dull photographs which seem to work so well that I am deeply envious of these people and their imagination.

I also like dramatic, bright and powerful photographs of course but there are some people who walk around with their eyes open all the time and I marvel and what they see that I miss and their ability with composition.

Mike

I know what you mean Mike. I'm a big fan of images which are intensely mundane, but through some sort of magic, take on a sublime quality. Gursky's 'Toys R Us' for example.

I love your flickr guy's stuff too. It's strength lies in being a series - like a vast platter of visual canapes.