Re: eyes...

  • From: Bob Adler <rgacpa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: leica@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 19:24:02 -0700 (PDT)

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.

Other related posts: