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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 45: Creative Wide Angle (hosted by Gayle Knowles) >> Exhibition > Oh Man! He Got My Spot! ;)*
10th Place tie
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19-JUN-2005 CindyD (Sis-Q)

Oh Man! He Got My Spot! ;)*
10th Place tie

Another shot of the master at work
Michael Soo


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Guest 15-Jul-2005 04:59
Oh boy, do I cause loads of controversy. ;-)
- MS
Canon DSLR Challenge09-Jul-2005 04:18
Oh and Traveller - Regarding Lens Flare - Sometimes desaturating the offending color in the flare is easier than cloning it out. Cindy
Canon DSLR Challenge09-Jul-2005 04:15
Yes Traveller - I'm confident I COULD clone MS out. lol. Although I have shots without him, or anybody, so would not NEED to do that. It isn't heck with everybody else really. I entered it just to give an atta-boy to Michael on his shoot-out in NYC, and because I thought it was a fun image. If I was going for purely fine art and trying in earnest to compete it would have been some other image. Having the 10-22 I have a huge pile of wide angles. But I hate to recycle images in exhibition unless they are actually new and I just need the spots, or if they are unique and something I can't really reproduce or attempt to do better. Since MS doesn't live here - this is a little unique for me.

Lonnit your second critique is well taken. I forget that my brain fills in facts by virture of being there taking the pic that others would not know. It would be better at a little more oblique angle to let the viewer see what he is up to - although tricky to not lose that depth created by lining him and the house up - and not getting crossways with the sun etc. At any rate - between the tall grass (one would only walk through that if on a mission), the hat and the vest, the tripod legs and the stance, I think it is evident he isn't out for a stroll. He looks kinda like he is stalking that old house to me. Maybe it is OK to leave a little wondering to the viewer.

Thanks guys, cheers. Cindy
Canon DSLR Challenge09-Jul-2005 01:31
Oh, he'd come out in a jiff; that's easy.

I just want to clarify though.... my problem isn't that he's there, it's that we don't know what he's actually doing. Was he communing with nature and got his personage caught in his fly? No, can't be that - his elbows are too high. Is he blowing his nose? Is he drunk and homeless and this is his shelter? See, the only reason we know what he's doing is b/c we know who he is and and we assume he's taking a picture b/c the subtitle told us he's at work. Now I could be assuming incorrectly - he might really be at work and his job is collecting insect specimens. So, my longwinded point is... it's fine for him to be there if we can clearly see what he is doing. I think I'm making out a tripod there, but that's only because I know he's a photog. Ask a dozen of your neighbors to explain the picture to you and you'll get a dozen different stories. :) ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Jul-2005 22:15
It is enough that you like the image and Michael in it. You get to make this choice, and we get to respond however we wish. He does give a forward focal point and with MS in the image, it does tell a story. This seems important to me because I a thinking about writing back or a post on Lonnitt's suggestion...but, I'm not sure that your's is not the correct approach..."I like it and to heck with everyone else." The qestion of the tension between artist and audience is eternal.

BTW, do you think that you COULD clone out Mr. Soo if you wished to? I remain intensely curious on this qestion, (I had to clone out some very bad lens flare on my Oak Tree image posted above), and wonder what the limits of this technique might be.

Best Wishes,

Traveller
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Jul-2005 20:17
No need to clone him out - i have dozens of shots of this place without him. . . but i like him there - and maybe just because I WAS there I don't see him as part of the background. I think he looks cool in the big environment captured by the wide angle. Thanks anyway ;) Cindy
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Jul-2005 20:09
Lonnitt is exactly right on this...it is a really fabulous image, except for MS in the foreground. What I am curious about is whether it is possible to actually & successfully clone Michael out of the image? My feeling is that it can't be done...but then I'm far from a clonning expert. I wish someone would give this a go and then post a link of the results. Best Wishes, Traveller
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Jul-2005 17:05
It's nice to see MS at work, but I bet he got the better picture here - the one that didn't have a human in it. ;) The real subject seems to be the house and mound and the surrounding sky. We really can't tell what MS is doing in the shot, so he just becomes part of the background and not the main subject, but your title implies he IS the main subject. Right now he's just a mystery person bending over for some unknown reason. In the other shot there was no doubt he was the main subject. I'd clone 'em out here. :) I bet this shot (with the clone-out) wuold look great in B&W! ~ Lonnit