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 ========================================================= To Unsubscribe: Send email to leica-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. The acknowledgment that you then receive MUST be replied to per instructions. You may also log in to the Web interface to unsubscribe.