For Your Critique: Image #11 « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

For Your Critique: Image #11

Beach Grass in Blizzard, Jones Beach Sate Park, Long Island, NY. (Note: the correct title should have been Beach Grass after Blizzard. Please see my comment on image titles and critiquing below :).) This image was created with the handheld Canon 15mm fish eye lens with the EOS-1D Mark III (replaced now by the EOS-1D Mark IV). ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2 2/3 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/9 set manually. One-Shot central sensor AF and recompose.

For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.

For Your Critique: Image #12

The image above is presented for your critique; feel free to praise it or rip it to shreds. Would you keep it or delete it? Let us know why either way, what you like or what you hate. What would you have done differently?

Over the course of the next few weeks I will present eight additional images in this series for a total of twenty in all. The last will be followed by several revelations including two major ones.

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Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear used to create the images in today’s blog post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Canon 15mm fish eye lens. It is difficult to learn to use this lens well but trying and learning is a ton of fun.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies.

21 comments to For Your Critique: Image #11

  • Art, you know I love the stuff you do that captures more real content. This is not my personal favorite thing but I can see why it is loved by minimalists. Because you did not apply strong artistic effects (i.e., blurs, extreme colors, etc.), I do like it on a secondary level. Thank you for sharing your great shots of God’s handiwork and helping others to do the same.

  • Artie, I love this minimalistic look. The delicate wispy flow of the grasses make this special.

    Thank you muchly Lady D. a

  • cheapo

    Heh! I often don’t notice titles, and just go straight to the image. So I didn’t know about the blizzard. The image is exquisite in it’s simplicity. A real seller! I can imagine this truly standing out in one of those minimalist decor situations. Heck! If I had this to put on my wall, i’d sho’ nuff tidy my place up quite a lot!

  • Ted Willcox

    Simple but Elegant. A keeper.

  • Jim Crabb

    Stunning. I don’t know much about “art” but this photo speaks to me in a way that is hard to describe. My guess is that the response it evokes will greatly depend on the viewers emotional state. Therefore, a different response is likely with each new viewing.

  • This one speaks to me in so many ways: motion, form, lightness, rhythm and many more.

    It’s a classic tabula rasa photograph. Literally.

    If it weren’t for your title, the whiteness could have been surmised as coming from almost any source. I happen to favor your initial concept; for my tastes, detail in the snow would disturb the compelling effect, and make this just another wintry landscape. Of the highest artistic order, of course !

  • Liz Noffsinger

    It is all in the eye of the beholder. So subjective! For me it is too minimal and doesn’t say much.

  • Myer Bornstein

    I like it it is simple and could be made into a Japanese art object

  • Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

    Boys and Girls, My bad. I should not have mentioned the blizzard at all…. The image was in fact created after the blizzard. In any case, when critiquing and image you should be critiquing the image not the title; the image stands alone. Judges in the contests never see the image titles until after the judging is complete…. artie

  • Too little of what the image is meant to convey… Blizzard is not apparent, the blades left standing alone without the snow lack expression.

  • I can’t see the ‘blizzard’ but perhaps that doesn’t really matter. I would like a little texture in the snow though.

  • Mary Stamper

    I like it. It leaves lots of room for the imagination to interpret it. I don’t care whether it’s a blizzard or not. If you care that I don’t care, then it probably needs to have something to convey the notion of movement or wind. If you are OK with leaving it up to the viewers imagination, then it’s a wonderful image. This is what I mean when I say that viewing a piece of art can be a creative act. If the piece isn’t too literal, there is lots of room for creativity on the part of the viewer. Personally, I like those types of images.

  • Artie, amazing picture, IMO this one is another winner for wildlife photographer of the year 2012…

  • Ron Sprunger

    I would love it if I could see the snow. As is, I almost love it. Somehow it seems too tranquil to be a blizzard image, and too indistinct to make me comfortable with tranquility.

  • Anand Narayanan

    Blades on snow, or coloring on a sheet of white paper? Agree with David that the snow needs texture. Maybe pull in exposure 1/2 stop in post?

  • The snow needs just a bit of texture to place the strands in context.

  • harvey tabin

    Sorry, but it seems like nothing. It is just not interesting.

  • Merrick Peirce

    This is a very minimalist image- and there is nothing wrong with that. In the National Art Museum you can find photography of telephone wires- looking up- that is very minimalist- yet interesting.

  • Very zen.. I like it and would keep it.

  • Dennis Pritchett

    A nice abstract. Works because of the simplicity.

    Dennis

  • Jay Gould

    Simplistically different; unfortunately, while shot in a blizzard, you do not experience the blizzard – nothing conveys movement. There is bending; no blurring.