* Wed C&C "No Theme - No Brand" Thread #780 / Revived #001 on 2023 04 05 *

I never thought to look at the Olympus Forum on DPR. My bad.

The images are indeed a series of captures that are turned into Photoshop layers.

I'm done with this series, although I recently started to look at some raw files that I never composited from it. I worked at Nighthawks and Staccato for about 6 years, and during that time I exhausted my creativity envelope. It was clear that I could get many more good images with more time on target, but I'd stopped growing with the series, and therefore it wasn't fun any more.

I'll be back here.

Jim

There's a problem. There are 1000 copies of that image out there with the streak.

www.amazon.com/Staccato-Jim-Kasson/dp/B06XGBS6Y6

I like your attitude towards exhausting a subject, theme or style. You gotta stop and turn to something else, if it is not growing anymore or if the thrill is gone.
Photographically, I am a bit of a chameleon and jack of all trades (and definitely master of none) myself.
Post-processing is not really my thing.
I use Lightroom, sure, but just for enhancing the shot that was already there when I captured it (contrast, exposure, saturation etc) and for cropping.
That is why it is exciting for me to see people be creative in other ways.

I look forward to more.

Roel

No matter! The point is to share ideas. The prints are just as lovely as they were yesterday.

I do understand finishing a series. I put all I had into my dam-bird portfolio for 6 years (maybe that is the lifespan of a muse) and for about two years my well has been kinda dry. That's one of the reasons I stay in a photo forum area that involves sharing photos and conversation about them. I don't really have a passion about camera gear, but I like to play with creative ideas and interact with other photographers while I am waiting for the next spark to fly.

I have found that the solution to a dry spell is to just keep working. If you listen to it, your work will teach you how to make it better.

I recommend this short book if your well is depleted, or even if it's not:

www.amazon.com/Art-Fear-Observations-Rewards-Artmaking-ebook/dp/B0042JSQLU/

Laf! I bought/read/enjoyed that book a couple of years ago when I first realized my muse was missing. Glad you brought it up, since others may find it helpful. Maybe I need to read it again, because she's still MIA. I do keep working though, and looking for her around every corner. I've taken up digital painting in the interim to shift to a different set of creative tools, not sure it will help.

Full disclosure: Ted and David are friends of mine.

That's even funnier!

I like the diagonal line (I always like diagonals).
The echo of that line in the shape and direction of the hat, connects person to landscape. If the person would lie down, his head would look like a rock.
Not seeing the face, creates speculation. And that explains the title. A person sitting at water's edge is bound to be contemplating.
"Sitting on the dock of the bay. Watching the tide roll away."

Three comments:
1. abstract art is very much in the eye of the beholder. I have had the pleasure of seeing some very famous abstract art, stuff worth a huge amount of money, in person and was really not impressed. Yet other pieces by someone like Jackson Pollock I absolutely love.

1. Abstract is absolutely fair game for photographers

2. I do see the abstract qualities of this image. I find the red a bit distracting though. It is not tied in to anything else in the image. Your eye gets pulled over to it, but there is not much to pull the eye away again.

There's a saying used a lot the Monterey County photographic circles that I run in: "Abstracts are Rorschachs."

Wow!! Absolutely stunning. There is so much good stuff going on with this image. The main subject is instantly recognizable, but the technique adds so much texture to the image. This is a great example of how the eyes should be invited to move around an image

The image has the feel of a Henri Rouseau painting. If you are turning this into a painting, I would do something to bring out the two animals a little bit more. Maybe lighten the water a little so there is more separation form the background?

I had a "where is waldo" moment when I finally saw the pig next to the reeds. Cool photo!

I don't know who was sneaking up on who! That is a good idea about lightening that water in the paint version. Maybe a lighter brown with more grays in it, to get some brightening and color contrast. I take liberties in paint that I don't in photos. Isn't that odd?

Thanks for coming by, glad you liked my pig, and a special thanks for a helpful suggestion.

Not sure about painting this digitally but others do it and they get interesting looking results Paula. I played with the image a bit. The two main draws to the image did not seem to stand out enough for me so I tried to remedy that. It still is a very busy scene though. My wife and I have collected some art works over many years. Two wildlife painters whose works we saw were a Ron Kingswood and a Morten Solberg. Both their styles changed over the years. Solberg painted in watercolour and at one point in his journey left large portions of the painting blank with edges of the paint bleeding into the blank areas. Kingswood started out with high realism then went for a more abstract style something like that of Solberg. Recent works I have seen from these artists have drifted away from those forms but who knows where they may end up in the future.

Anyway, my play is below.

Andrew

Believe it or not but I had not even seen the pig until someone else mentioned it.
Talk about selective viewing.

I was so in focus together with the alligator and looking in his direction, that the pig blended in the background, as a trunk behind the reeds or grasses.
In fact, when the pig was mentioned, I still had to go looking for it, and again I zoomed in directly in the direction that the alligator is facing, wondering if I had mistaken that tree trunk for a tree trunk while it was in fact a small and very wet piglet in grave mortal danger.

This is for me a very clear illustration of the fact that once you have a certain mindset and way of looking, it is hard to get unglued from that point-of-view.

Andrew's intervention makes both animals stand out more. Way more.
But I am not certain whether I prefer that. I like to be fooled occasionally.

Roel

If it's supposed to be Any Camera, surely hiding it in a brand specific sub forum is the wrong place!
Open talk would be much better, but I'd suggest getting @bobn2 or @AlanSh to create a section specifically for 'open images for critique' would be best.