Re: eyes...

Ted,

--- Ted Grant <tedgrant@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello Bob,
> I'm surprised at your comment, "I'm blown away! All
> are keepers."
> regarding Steve's "eye pictures."


Please don't be surprised; I'm quite a novice in both
the practice and appreciation of the finer aspects of
photography!

I'm certainly in no experiential position (not to even
mention raw capabilities!) to disagree with you ;-) I
was just expressing my admiration.

> 
> Particularly when there's one that's out of focus
> without question. The chap 
> with beard and phone to ear, or my screen is in need
> of replacement!

IMHO the photo conveyed a sense of movement and
action. The guy is pretty intense and I thought the
OOF blur added an emotion to me that may have been
lost in a more static frame.

> 
> To make sure it wasn't me I loaded and dumped the
> series several times then 
> showed the same series to a photographer visiting
> who as soon as the bearded 
> chap came on screen immedictely remarked... "That's
> out of focus I wonder 
> why he posted that one?"
> 
> There's one that excellent as an eye picture it
> jumps off the screen and 
> smacks the viewer a good one.  "Eye 5" chap with
> glasses on and eyes 
> popping! Beauty! :-)

Agreed. However, I felt there was a lot of white space
that was distracting, however more than made up for
with expression! 

I was also struck by Steve's first post, Eye 1 which
you mention below.
> 
> If I were Steve I'd have only posted two frames from
> this series...
> 
> Eye 1, young woman and Eye 5 as pointed out above,
> chap with glasses.
> 
> The rest, given Steve's excellent record as a
> photographer I wouldn't have 
> posted any of the others, period. As they just don't
> cut it.

You are absolutely right that these two stand out
technically; no doubt; no argument. But I like the
other faces, and I admire that Steve gets out there
and gets in front of people. I don't do that; I think
I do best at other subjects and admire folks, such as
yourself, that capture essential moments of people.
You, Tina, Steve and many others on this and other
lists DO what I don't even dream of attempting; so I'm
definitely not objective about all this!


> 
> So given I've done my critique would you please, if
> you have time, explain 
> to the crew why you feel as you said above?  As
> in.................
> >>>> I'm blown away! All are keepers.<<<<
> 
> Possibly you're seeing something I've missed when it
> comes to eye pictures, 
> certainly when one of the most important successful
> photography rules is... 
> LIGHT-EYES-ACTION!

I couldn't agree more. Perhaps I was somewhat jaded by
my recent attempts to photograph my daughter; a very
reluctant 15 year old. We were having a late snack and
I was shooting my 1.4 Summilux with Velvia 50. The
light was low, but beautiful. She was "allowing" me to
snap her as I had just bought her a present she'd been
wanting for quite some time. When I got the images
back, they were OOF, even thought I was a couple of
feet away. Don't know if it's my shakey hands, bad
focusing (I don't think I was THAT off) or my range
finder is in need of adjustment (can't remember if
this is the body I dropped with my 35 that crushed the
35; no visible harm to the body, but maybe it jarred
the rangefinder out of alignment).

http://www.raflexions.com/paw_05/Zoe01.jpg

At any rate, to make a short story longer, seeing as
how lousy I was with such a willing subject lead me to
admire Steve's abilities with more than a bit of
jealousy! Also, I mistakenly thought the 90mm he shot
with was an M, not an R; not sure that makes any
difference, but thinking it was an M added to my
jealous jumping off point! ;-)

(BTW, same trip, Visoflex/same M7/135/Velvia:
http://www.raflexions.com/paw_05/orange.jpg
More the type of subject I do better at...)

> Thank you most kindly for replying, as I'm sure
> Steve after I've raked him 
> "slightly over the coals" may well like to hear why
> you were so estatic 
> about all the frames?
> 
> thanks,
> ted

Thank you, Ted, for challenging my words and taking me
to task for what may seem gratuituous remarks. They're
really not; I do admire Steve's efforts and am "blown
away" by them. 

P.S.- Did you enjoy your LHS trip to SF? We put on our
best summer weather for you ;-)

Bob


Bob Adler
Palo Alto, CA
http://www.raflexions.com

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