Country Sunset (1 of 4)
Photo Analysis: Along the Tracks
Along the Tracks by Chromasia.
You use this HDR technique a lot, and it adds a surreal quality to the images. In this case, I like the subtly. I prefer it in fact, to the the image you posted a few days ago, of the church interior.
I’ve always been fond of the desaturated color palate. It conveys a feelings of bleakness, and if you aren’t a bright person by nature, that studied lack of pretension (is use pretense lightly, i’m not sure its exactly the word i’m looking for) is soothing.
Compositionally i like the use of leading lines. Looking out into eternity adds to the restful nature of the photo. It also adds a bit of mystery. Where do the tracks lead? The subject itself taps into the cache of trains and brings to mind a bit of nostalgia, emphasized, I think, by the desaturated color palate.
I’ve been thinking about the idea of contrast in composition lately, and this photos use of it is interesting. In some ways, because of the use of HDR, there is less contrast over all in the dynamic range. HDR compresses the extreme ends, and this photo in particular has flat elements to its color.
on the other hand, you brought out contrast in color, in order to emphasize the texture of the tracks and railroad ties.
I noticed the HDR gradient effect, where in the texture of the tracks, it almost looks like a mask of clouds was added. That gives the photo as a whole a slightly dirty look, like it has been abused, which lends itself to the photo along side the overgrown nature of the scene.
Overall I see abandonment, nostalgia, and a touch of wanderlust all cast in a sense of heightened drama.
Very nice. :)
Notes and musings on photography taken during a recent workshop…
Everything communicates something
Start with what you want to say, start with the story.
Know where you are going. (what’s your destination)
You are answering the question WHY. Why is the photo important. How am I going to use it. What am I trying to say.
Knowing how you’ll use it is important, partially because the end product may introduce constraints such as aspect ratio, resolution, etc…
When thinking about the why, ask yourself, what compositional elements do I need to tell that story.
Consider not just your own perspective, but consider the perspective of your intended audience. Consider the cultural context you will be communicating in.
Powerful images eliminate distractions.
Re: portraiture, know your subjects personality. Find ways to draw that personality out to say what you want to say.
Emphasize what is.
Art is about drawing attention to specific elements in life and the world around us. We use all sorts of techniques to warp what is seen to add emphasis to the parts we think are important. Boring photos emphasize nothing.
All images are relational, by which we mean, we relate the subject matter of the image. You, as the artist, define that relationship and manipulate it, in order to create in the audience an emotion.
Elements of composition
Dimension
– Texture
– DOF
– Foreground/Background
– Shadow (directionality of light)
– Rim lighting
– Size of subject
Perspective
– Shooting down,
– Shooting up, Shooting at subjects level,
– Profile,
– Mug shot, etc…
Balance (deliberate use or disuse)
– rule of thirds
– symmetry
Time/Timing
– Progression (DOF, repetition with slight changes)
– Freeze frames
– Repetition
– Blur
Leading Lines
Contrast
– light/dark (more contrast adds impact. The faster you go from light to dark in a gradient the more rich a photo will appear.) (see the concept of compression as it relates to dynamic range, similar to the way an audio engineer will use compression)
– anachronism (using two objects that don’t fit together – wrong time periods, opposing ideas [short/tall, thin/fat]- to emphasize the differences between the two.)
Know when to edit. Not all photos should be kept.
– Is the photo deceptive, unflattering?
– Quantity doesn’t mean quality.
Be familiar with moods/emotions. Be able to recognize them quickly, know how to work with each emotion.
Basic compositions for portraits:
– face
– head/shoulders
– waist up
– full profile
almost anything else is awkward.
Link
How your friends’ friends can affect your mood – life – 30 December 2008 – New Scientist
it is becoming clear that a whole range of phenomena are transmitted through networks of friends in ways that are not entirely understood: happiness and depression, obesity, drinking and smoking habits, ill-health, the inclination to turn out and vote in elections, a taste for certain music or food, a preference for online privacy, even the tendency to attempt or think about suicide. They ripple through networks "like pebbles thrown into a pond", says Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who has pioneered much of the new work.
Misperception, Bush, politics and the press.
With a post title like above, you probably expect a long article. But i’m not a voluminous writer. Over the past several years one of the things I’ve seen over and over again, both in the news, and in my personal life, is that our perception of the world is rarely complete. We just don’t see the whole picture, and that happens not just occasionally, but most of the time.
Too see a situation for what it really is, wholly, is rare. very rare.
I cite this article about impressions of Bush as an example.
Link
Periodic Table of Awesomeness.
mmmm… bacon….
Take Note
Lose-Lose on Abortion: Obama’s threat to Catholic hospitals and their very serious counterthreat.
If the Freedom of Choice Act passes Congress, and that’s a big if, Obama has promised to sign it the second it hits his desk. (Here he is at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in 2007, vowing, “The first thing I’d do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.”) Though it’s often referred to as a mere codification of Roe, FOCA, as currently drafted, actually goes well beyond that: According to the Senate sponsor of the bill, Barbara Boxer, in a statement on her Web site, FOCA would nullify all existing laws and regulations that limit abortion in any way, up to the time of fetal viability. Laws requiring parental notification and informed consent would be tossed out. While there is strenuous debate among legal experts on the matter, many believe the act would invalidate the freedom-of-conscience laws on the books in 46 states. These are the laws that allow Catholic hospitals and health providers that receive public funds through Medicaid and Medicare to opt out of performing abortions. Without public funds, these health centers couldn’t stay open; if forced to do abortions, they would sooner close their doors. Even the prospect of selling the institutions to other providers wouldn’t be an option, the bishops have said, because that would constitute “material cooperation with an intrinsic evil.”
Rocky Mountains, Breckenridge, CO
Link
Republicans for Family Values >> Theology Expert Says Obama ‘Grossly Distorts’ Scriptures to Support Homosexual Cause
” Presidential candidate Barack Obama has written in The Audacity of Hope-a book that perhaps should have been entitled The Audacity of Portraying Myself Messianically as the Herald of Audacious Hope-that he is not “willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans [about homosexual practice] to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.”[1] He repeated this line in a campaign appearance in Ohio this past March. He stated that if people find controversial his views on granting the full benefits of marriage to homosexual unions, minus only the name, “then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.”[2] These remarks by Obama represent a gross distortion of the witness of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.”
Link
Robert Gagnon — Obama’s Coming War on Historic Christianity over Homosexual Practice and Abortion
“If Obama is elected President this Tuesday he will make it a priority of his administration to pass legislation that will make war against Christians and persons of other religious convictions who believe that homosexual practice and abortion are immoral acts. Persecution will take many forms, as indicated by actions that have already taken place in parts of the United States, Canada, and Western Europe:”
Some Things I’d Like to Say
1) Perception is flawed. To believe otherwise is to open yourself up to deception.
2) We rarely have all the facts.
3) Until the law came, there was no sin.
4) Hope in anything except Christ is false hope.
5) I’ve become a very very jaded man.
6) I predicted Barack Obama would become the next President of the United States 2 years ago, before he declared he was running. Because people underestimate the power of words, and a silver tongue is more valuable than gold in politics.
7) I hope, very much, that Barack Obama’s decisions in the White House do not result in more freedom for women to murder their unborn children.
8) Its never good when the legislative and executive branch are controlled by the same party.
9) Its never good when the Senate and House have clear majorities on the same side.
10) Republicans and Democrats can’t be trusted.
11) We rarely have all the facts.
12) People lie, exaggerate, gloss over, and leave out information. Its not really done on purpose.
I thinks that’s everything. For now.
Longing
a smile played on her face
aching, and lovely
a dusky room and warm
glowing red from tungsten
my desire is eager,
cloying, lingering
and when i wake, it hurts
Greet the Day
a cool morning light
floats through an open window
as you greet the day
Link
I just don’t have the words…
Public Discourse – Obama’s Abortion Extremism, by Robert George is a great article, articulating much better than I ever could, why voting for Obama for President is a patently unwise action to take if you wish to preserve the sanctity of human life. Below is a quote from the last paragraph, but please take the time to read the full article, which documents where Obama, by his actions, stands.
What kind of America do we want our beloved nation to be? Barack Obama’s America is one in which being human just isn’t enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights. In Obama’s America, public policy would make a mockery of the great constitutional principle of the equal protection of the law. In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: "that question is above my pay grade." It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator’s pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy – and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.
New Love
i felt the swift and sudden drop
so eager, engaged, and desiring
but also the slow and sober thought
that she matters more to me than self
-4/7/08
Link
“No one can blame the faltering stock market solely on Obama’s tax plans or McCain’s own inanity on economic issues. But stock prices reflect current market conditions plus best guesses of what’s coming down the road. And I keep hearing nervous traders and investors talk about “a lack of leadership from Washington.”
The Long Winter
Its going to be a long winter. well. maybe it won’t, but right now, in the middle of the season I love best, I’m beginning to feel the dread of a long winter.
I wish I understood how I felt. I’m not usually short on words to describe my feeling, being the kind of rare individual who spends more time than is possibly healthy examining his own soul. Its a complex knot.
There are a number of issues I’m currently feeling strongly over. So I’m going to list them here:
1) Two of my best friends are going through difficult times right now. A lot has changed for them in the last year. They’ve grown in huge ways spiritually and when that kind of growth happens, its usually because of hard hard circumstances emotionally and physically. I’ve watched from a distance while they have walked though it, and I haven’t said much. I frequently don’t say much. Its a fault of mine, not wanting to tread lightly on matters I feel are tremendously serious. Their circumstances remind me of what a member of my family had to go through, and I hope they know that this kind of tempering is something to cherish. Its far far worse to be comfortable, because comfort changes little. I hope they know that I am praying for them, that even if I don’t speak up often, they are frequently on my mind.
2) Speaking of comfort, that’s where I am. The last year had been a period of growth for me. Rich growth. Areas of my life that God had been quietly teaching me about had underwent maturing, and there were exciting things happening. I had grown accustomed to the rich emotional content of it all. Then, in the last two months, things settled down to the generic rhythm of life I’ve had for the last 6 years. And I miss desperately the feeling that God is up to something. Right now I feel unable to stand, unable to grasp His promises. Everything is colored by this feeling I can’t shake that nothing matters. I have brief moments of joy, but they don’t last.
It isn’t that I believe God isn’t going to do something great. But right now, I can’t see any farther than the next work day. Few of the things I know to be good in my life are generating the kind of excitement I’m craving, and I’m feeling, in general, emotionless.
Its hard to trust when you can’t see anything but gray skies ahead. Its easier to deal with the discomfort now if you know something better is coming, but the disconcerting emptiness ahead is sucking the life out of me.
3) This election cycle has been particularly frustrating. Its like watching a train wreck happen, slowly, knowing things are going to crash and being unable to stop it.
Politicians lie. This is a fundamental truth. Its sad, but true, of the populace (i include myself in this) that we care more about image than substance. This election is as much or more a popularity content than it is a vetting of qualified candidates for the highest office of the United States. Watching the candidates is like watching high schoolers and their juvenile posturing. Its depressing.
It has been particularly frustrating to me to see good friends, christian friends, embrace the marketing. I’ll say it openly. Obama is not a friend to Christians. Not politically. For all his talk, he is the same old liberal agenda, with the one exception that he is much much better at speaking than any other liberal for a long time.
He has a silver tongue and because most people tend to base their decisions on the thin substance of speeches and words (which are worth less on election day than a junkies promises) he has gained quite the religious following. He sells hope, preaching a peculiar kind or secular religion. But unlike Christianity, whose hope is grounded firmly on the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Obama stands mostly on little else than his ability to make a tired agenda look sweet and appealing.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think he’s the antichrist. I don’t think he’s a terrorist. I don’t really buy into the conspiracies or the hype McCain’s campaign or the well and not so well meaning supporters of McCain send out. But Obama, regardless of how he chooses to spin it, and I trust nothing a candidate says while running for office, votes pro choice, believes that the government should be more involved in our personal lives, and thinks the government should be the agent in this country for giving of one mans wealth to another.
In the end, no matter how nuanced and careful or thoughtful he might appear to be, he chooses to deny the rights of millions of innocents. A man who can turn his back on those most in need of his help, is a man I don’t trust. He can say he cares, but really, how much are words really worth?
I realize this screed isn’t exhaustive. I simply don’t have time to spend days compiling a dissertation and trying to tease out the truth of hundreds of pages and hours of talk by the candidate to proffer you unequivocal proof. And that frustrates me too.
The next two presidents of the united states will be in office for a total of 8 years. 8 Years. But far more important than that are the 2-3 supreme court justices those two presidents will appoint. Justices who will be in office for 30 years. I cannot understate the importance of this. I am not happy with McCain. But he has consistently, over 30 years, voted pro life. He is our best chance of getting conservative justices appointed. Justices who will defend the constitutional right of the unborn to live, who will stand against the erosion of states rights. Long after the war and the economy are over, those judges will be making an impact.
I could go on and on about this, but will spare you the repetition
For all my frustration, I want my christian friends who disagree with me, and even my non christian friends to know that I do not take this as cause to change how I feel about them. I’m not going to castigate you for not agreeing with me. Even if you are wrong wrong wrong. ;)
There was I think, another thing going on. But I can’t remember it. Another time perhaps.
Link
American Thinker- Print Article
“His own running mate has told us Obama could have made a better vice-presidential choice, and has warned us that Obama’s inexperience will result in multiple international crises in his first six months. But Obama wrote an excellent autobiography, has an organized unconscious, and knows Niebuhr.”