Reeds - an obsession?

Just wrapping things up on the reeds front, for now at least. A few have been printed already, I have to narrow the selection down to 4 or 5 each of the 'light' and 'dark' series (here and here, respecively) then start thinking of a place to show the prints as a collection...

1



2



3



4

Well captured photos. Especially loved the first two images.

I am going to state the negative first! No 4 is my least favourite. The other 3 though all exhibit a subtlety and delicacy that is calming to look at; I very much like those!

It's not an obsession, it's art.

No. 1 - really good. The intertwining straight and curling elements at the front and well OOF background work well together.

No. 2 - my eyes are drawn both to the LHS by the curved leaf leaving the picture and to the RHS by the bright, vertical OOF leaf. It's uncomfortable. A square crop, cutting equal amounts from both L and R, puts attention onto the pair of curving leaves (which is what I assume you're wanting) and works very well for me.

No. 3 - the dark bit of leaf at the top of the picture draws my eye up and out of the frame. Cropping just below the dark bit draws attention to the spiral and produces a masterpiece (at least to my eyes!).

No. 4 - agree with alfpics, my least favourite. The bright bit in the middle and the straight spike heading off from the end of the curved leaf just don't work for me. Cropping below them gives a strange, dark, swirling, mysterious abstract which has an odd attraction for me.

But that's just my opinion. And in matters of taste I'm often wrong (or so I'm told).

Steve

Thank you for your thoughts Raza, Andy and Lubbyman.

Andy - #4 does look a bit out of place here, it fits in better with the darker images I posted earlier. I did wonder if I went a bit OTT with it though - printing will tell me whether I did or not...

Lubbyman, I'd say it's difficult to be 'wrong' in matters of taste As a matter of fact, I did go through several tentative crops on 2 & 3 (looking for a bit more 'purity' in the composition) but that was not my first intention when taking the images, and I wasn't convinced in PP - the breathing room got lost. For my taste, of course!

That's quite nice of you, thanks.

Super set Serge... great extended exploration of your theme... a kind of intersection of geometry and the natural world... lots of things do it for me with these... the curves, the fragile nature of the subject matter, and the super shallow dof which means you’re almost dropping in on them as they make their journey from one end to the other... also the noticing of it in the first place: it would be very easy to simply see a clump of reeds and move on... you draw our attention to the potential beauty of every single one of them...

Hesitate to name favourites as for me it’s the idea itself that’s so strong... but really like 4 in particular for the precision and clarity of the composition... 3 too... gd luck with putting your prints together...

Best

To be honest I thought these looked a little weak on first look, but I've been back to them a couple of times and they do draw you in with those calm, soft swirls. I suspect they are best seen at large size and probably hanging on a wall

Keep at it - it's great to see work that is that little bit different

I think as a collection they work well. i like how you have "framed" them and that is how I think they will look best, printed up and hung as a collection.

Bill, I am glad you're liking the series and finding so much in them. Thanks for your encouraging thoughts.
Lenny, thanks for hanging in there and letting them grow on you.
Peter, yes, I think they work best as a collection indeed - I'll be trying to put them together in a meaningful way. If by 'framing' you mean the white border, that is how I print all my images, so I do the same when putting them up on the web - I prefer they be seen on a white background.