# Waterlilly



## Alpha (May 18, 2007)

Shot on Portra 160 VC, cropped from 645


----------



## BoblyBill (May 18, 2007)

I'm sorry Max but this picture just seems to be a picture that you randomly took not careing about focus or compostion. There is nothing in the picture that keeps my interest. In your words... Boring.


----------



## Alpha (May 18, 2007)

Fair play.


----------



## New England Moments (May 18, 2007)

Wow now I can't decide if I like this one more then your B+W shot titled, St. Augustine College............

I'm speechless, I mean Speechless.........

After these two shots I certainly look forward to more of your critique....

Did I mention that I was speechless???

my only nit pic would be that with everything else going on in this photo, that the bottom right foreground corner has room for " The Kitchen Sink"... and you failed to include it??


Can this be considered "" Fair Play Also " ??


----------



## Alpha (May 18, 2007)

Sure it's fair play, but is the vengeance really necessary?


----------



## New England Moments (May 18, 2007)

No vengeance... just general critique...  how do you feel about this pic?

  Is this the effect you were after?  Would this shot stand alone ? 

    Do you consider this an abstract?
Do you see this on someones wall?

Would this make a good postcard, something a yuppie might like?? 
 Is this shot No Good?
 Is it Boring?


----------



## Alpha (May 18, 2007)

To be honest I don't really have any feelings about it...it was from my first roll of portra VC and I had no idea at the time how it would turn out. I could certainly live without it. I wouldn't expect to sell it or see it hanging in a gallery, if that's what you mean.


----------



## ClarkKent (May 18, 2007)

This capture is a bit confusing to me as I look at it.


----------



## Alpha (May 18, 2007)

what's actually in focus is the reflection. The lillies are under the surface of the water. I couldn't focus on the lillies themselves because there was too much crap floating on the surface.


----------



## boogaguy (May 18, 2007)

If you have to explain it then it doesnt stand on its own.


----------



## Alpha (May 18, 2007)

flol...i didn't think it was all that "confusing"


----------



## abraxas (May 18, 2007)

Interesting- thought provoking.  OTE?


----------



## New England Moments (May 18, 2007)

If you have no feelings for it, as you said, then my question is, WHY WOULD YOU POST IT??


----------



## The_Traveler (May 18, 2007)

Please post a larger image.


----------



## abraxas (May 18, 2007)

The_Traveler said:


> Please post a larger image.



I would like to see the original uncropped shot.


----------



## Alpha (May 19, 2007)

Don't think I have the original shot. I cropped it at the time of the scan.

 Is there some rule I wasn't told about that we're only allowed to post our best work?


----------



## LaFoto (May 19, 2007)

Hmmm... no such rule known to me. :scratch:
We do have the Snapshots and Bloopers Forum, though... so actually, come to think of it, our members are even invited to also post their less than perfect shots - and post them there.


----------



## Alpha (May 19, 2007)

I take plenty of less-than-perfect shots, this one most certainly included. But who shoots MF snapshots?


----------



## abraxas (May 19, 2007)

I was hoping to see if there were more to it than is shown.

I'm off early for a day of making errors and bloopers so I'll make my comments here and you can apply (or not) them to the St. Augustine shot also.

Neither shot is boring- however they are confusing.

I think you really need to relax, find a subject and work with it.  Keep the composition simple, pick a single guideline and work with it.

It's not bad to 'feel' for your work, in fact that's what makes it worth it IMO.


----------



## Alpha (May 19, 2007)

wow. nobody seems to get what im doing here. 

I think Charlie might pick up on it.


----------



## Alpha (May 19, 2007)

nevermind.


----------



## Alex_B (May 19, 2007)

to get back to the image:



MaxBloom said:


> Shot on Portra 160 VC, cropped from 645



1. OK, first of all, what I like about it is the transition from red to green to blue when you go from left to right.

2. the focus is clearly on the background, and the waterlilly seems not to be the subject of the image, I would even go further and say it is in the way. so why not remove it?

3. The reflection of the structure in the upper right part is debatable, however the white plank, or whatever it is, is certainly annoying. here a better framing could have helped.

4. the whole thing is a bit dark ... maybe if it was brighter, the lilly again would make sense ...


----------



## Alex_B (May 19, 2007)

abraxas said:


> It's not bad to 'feel' for your work, in fact that's what makes it worth it IMO.



Hmm, I often hate what I produce .. and since I cannot live with this hatred, I dump them images on this forum 

oopps, no that was exaggerated of course


----------



## newrmdmike (May 19, 2007)

i love seeing how much people want to get back at max for somthing he said about their shots.

max, i don't know what you were going for or thinking about when you took this.  but that doesn't matter if what we see is what you wanted us to see, then you achieved whatever you were after.  it may be a perfect sculpture of dog poo, and since it looks like poo we'll call it that, regardless of if you went through great pains to make it appear in such a way.


on  a side note, is this the film you got in the mail?  i am overseas now, and won't get to try mine until august


----------



## Alpha (May 19, 2007)

No it's not the film I got in the mail. I haven't shot that yet.


----------



## boogaguy (May 19, 2007)

MaxBloom said:


> wow. nobody seems to get what im doing here.
> 
> I think Charlie might pick up on it.


 

And someone called me a tortured misunderstood artist.... lol


----------



## Alpha (May 19, 2007)

that's not what I meant.


----------



## koda-46 (May 24, 2007)

no comment lol.......


----------



## cosmom3 (Jul 2, 2007)

Max has yet to comment on my photos...and I dont post pictures to get "great!" or "Your turning into a pro!", rather I look to better my skills. Now sometimes it feels as if Max is attempting to be a [SIZE=-1]Simon Cowell knock off...but ehh to each his own. For every criticism I try and find a solution, instead of a swift punch to the ego and bounce.


So without my bias *(yet)  *critique...I say this photo is cluttered. Not boring as Max would say, but rather a let down from all the hype that surrounds Max and his greatness.



Edit: Had to breath life back into this thread again...because I very rarely see photos from Max, just critiques. 
[/SIZE]


----------



## newrmdmike (Jul 2, 2007)

well . . . some people here still don't get it.

and to those taking this chance to jump in the middle of his ****-
just because you don't love someones work who critiques yours doesn't mean they can't offer valuable critiques . . .


----------



## Trenton Romulox (Dec 3, 2007)

I remember this shot, I looked at in July and thought to myself, "My God, this is a joke...but I'll look at it again sometime and see if my opinion has changed."
...
People, my opinion has changed. I find myself now liking this shot, in fact, loving it. There's something about this shot, it's got this attitude about it, this "Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?" attitude. I'm not sure if anyone else felt those rebellious or chaotic emotions emitted from this shot, but that's exactly what I pick up from, and love about this shot, chaos. The colors are mashing together, yet still transitioning. The composition is a mixture of things, nothing really geometric or symmetric about it. This shot, to me, represents a bit of order in a lot of chaos. I hated this shot five months ago, and now I can't stop looking at it. I think this thread deserves revival, and people should think about their prior comments, and see if they can't pull something better out of the shot than they did this summer.


----------



## abraxas (Dec 3, 2007)

Of the comments I made, I'll stick with this one;


abraxas said:


> Interesting- thought provoking.  OTE?



I still don't get it, but that's no big deal. Maybe because I don't understand it?  I think that happens to others on quite a few of my shots, but I'm comfortable with -most- of my work.  And if Max likes his shot, then that's fine by me despite my lack of understanding it.  I still respect his opinions and criticism. I do find the shot "thought provoking."  I have "thought" about it several times in the last few months and I find that "interesting."


----------



## monkeykoder (Dec 3, 2007)

I would have to say if the lily was just a little more prominent in the picture I would hang it on my wall, as it is I see it as a missed opportunity.


----------



## Mesoam (Dec 4, 2007)

when i first looked at it i didn't like it...then i looked again..its definately a picture you have to come back to because of the reflections...i like it


----------



## dpolston (Dec 4, 2007)

I think max is trying to make a point and I get it. We might not agree all the time Max, but I gotcha.


----------



## ShaCow (Dec 4, 2007)

sorry i dont like it


----------



## JD in Socal (Dec 4, 2007)

Trenton Romulox said:


> People, my opinion has changed. I find myself now liking this shot, in fact, loving it. There's something about this shot, it's got this attitude about it, this "Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?" attitude. I'm not sure if anyone else felt those rebellious or chaotic emotions emitted from this shot, but that's exactly what I pick up from, and love about this shot, chaos. The colors are mashing together, yet still transitioning. The composition is a mixture of things, nothing really geometric or symmetric about it. This shot, to me, represents a bit of order in a lot of chaos. I hated this shot five months ago, and now I can't stop looking at it. I think this thread deserves revival, and people should think about their prior comments, and see if they can't pull something better out of the shot than they did this summer.



Whatever you are using, you need to pass around and share the joy.

The emperor is buck naked and most of the crowd won't say it.

JD


----------



## The_Traveler (Dec 4, 2007)

JD in Socal said:


> The emperor is buck naked and most of the crowd won't say it.
> JD



No, perhaps the picture is a miss but Max knows his stuff.

Only the Patriots are 100%


----------



## JDS (Dec 4, 2007)

The_Traveler said:


> Only the Patriots are 100%



Go Colts!


----------



## Trenton Romulox (Dec 4, 2007)

JD in Socal said:


> Whatever you are using, you need to pass around and share the joy.
> 
> The emperor is buck naked and most of the crowd won't say it.
> 
> JD



It's the drug of perception, and it's free. You can get it too. It's amazing how beautiful the world looks when you aren't looking for its beauty.


----------



## Alpha (Dec 4, 2007)

Perhaps I should give an "artistic" explanation of the shot. Coming back to it, I like it much better than when I originally shot it. Would make for a great Ciba. 

Anyway, it's not a very complicated shot. There's something beautiful hiding under the surface, concealed by its environment, yet still the focal point.

I managed to locate some of the original scans. As noted in the first post, the color shots are Portra 160VC. The black and whites are PanF. There are more, I think, but I didn't scan them. And don't tell me I should have gone with the second black and white shot. It's just a lilly in a pond.
















​


----------

