The Rose

This was shot in downtown Ocala square. They have a few painted horses there and this was on one of them.

Nichole, I can't see the prefix for this thread (I must be doing something wrong). Is this for critique or sharing?

I didn't realize that I didn't ask for a critique or anything. I was being rushed when I posted it. I would love a critique and thoughts on it.

My honest opinion is that I'd prefer to see something you created instead of a pic of someone else's work.

Nichole Lampron said:

This was shot in downtown Ocala square. They have a few painted horses there and this was on one of them.

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Rachel,

I disagree about wanting a rose photographed by Nichole. After all, she doesn't make the rose either. It's the qualities of the photograph and what it brings to us, allowing out minds to respond, not the subject itself that is necessarily the most important.

Nichole,

The image seems flat and the curve on the top has not been used to contain something to balance the rose or expand our experience. Same with the railing at the lower right. I find the image to be a teaser. How can one image this larger work so that what's presented has its own life. So perhaps there's texture to bring out in the early morning or the setting sun or else an insect or shadow moving across it. If this is near you, then it's worth the challenge.

Beautiful things are a problem for art, since we like to reproduce them: sunset, women, cars and so forth. Beauty in itself works, however it's interesting to add to the experience with a paradox, contradiction, tension, balance, puzzle, dilemma, challenge or wit.

So, I'd suggest exploring the context of the horse, the rose and it's neighbors. There's a railing, the pavement, sky and much more. Is this near you? A series would be a great way to approach this. You will make progress facing this challenge as it's not easy. However the satisfaction will be a reward to make the effort worthwhile!

Asher

Rachel thank you, I love the honesty and the reason I shot this was that it moved me. It didn't come out exactly as I hope or looked on the small screen of my camera, but I can improve on this.

Asher, yes this is near me. I can make a trip out early morning when the sun will be shining. The last two days it's been overcast here, which might actually work to. I'm going to try to be out early tomorrow and catch it in the early morning rays.

This can become a very interesting series based on all the horses there.

Nichole Lampron said:

The last two days it's been overcast here, which might actually work to. I'm going to try to be out early tomorrow and catch it in the early morning rays.

This can become a very interesting series based on all the horses there.

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Sure Nichole, an overcast day will render those paintings with beautiful color saturation, you can feel like a painter filling your frame with forms, lines and rich colors. The early sun on a clear day will give more contrast, texture, more sense of volume, those are your raw materials at this time, use them to create not a painting this time, but a sculpture.

In any case, I would suggest compositions that focus on the horse´s anatomy, not on the subject of the paintings, this way the resulting pictorial extravaganza might be surprising and more intriguing.