Cycle of Life

Everything we are and everything that surrounds us must once return to the circulation of nature, to give way to new life. I did not want to touch the colors in this picture or fiddle with it in anyway whatsoever, as I was afraid it might lose its' essence.

Jarmo Juntunen said:

Everything we are and everything that surrounds us must once return to the circulation of nature, to give way to new life. I did not want to touch the colors in this picture or fiddle with it in anyway whatsoever, as I was afraid it might lose its' essence.

Click to expand...

Jarmo,

Could you introduce this fascinating image for us. Where did you find the slice of rock? What makes the white crows feet so sharp in the upper right. What are those orange lines from do you imagine?

Asher

To format text or inserted images in this forum, we add pairs of instructions in square brackets. The instruction appears then both before and after the selected words to be modified.

I have discovered that you use the "Center" command but place both the "before and the "after" components of the required syntax appear before your image, so they cannot function! The image text should be enclosed with the instructions to center. So select and highlight the image or text to be centered and then press the centering icon.

The syntax is to precede the thing to be centered with

Asher Kelman said:

Jarmo,

Could you introduce this fascinating image for us. Where did you find the slice of rock? What makes the white crows feet so sharp in the upper right. What are those orange lines from do you imagine?

Asher

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Hi Asher,
I believe what we see here is a reflection of autumn trees (white birches?) reflected in a quiet pool of water.
The white crow's feet you see are an extension of the orange colored (another tree trunk?) object's reflection - possibly a few short branches?
I see a number of small leaves floating on the surface

Jarmo - I very much like this image. How close am I in my interpretation?

John Angulat said:

Hi Asher,
I believe what we see here is a reflection of autumn trees (white birches?) reflected in a quiet pool of water.
The white crow's feet you see are an extension of the orange colored (another tree trunk?) object's reflection - possibly a few short branches?
I see a number of small leaves floating on the surface

Click to expand...

It's an interesting phenomenon, recognition. I saw a polished section of stone with layering of millions of years. Then I had to be concerned about what didn't fit in. I was wondering if the crows feet were etched in by someone! Even looking again, my interpretation appears reasonable. However, you are likely correct.

Asher

In a way, I do like Asher's interpretation. However, John is "correct" this time, if there are such things as correctness or incorrectness when interpreting photography. What I tried clumsily suggest in my written introduction was the idea of expressing how all living things will in the end return back to nature. So the orange shape with crows feet indeed is a sunken tree trunk, representing death in this picture, while the white lines are reflections of young birches on the surface of a small river. I took this picture during a canoeing trip early this spring. This explains the otherwise coldish colors and the somewhat unhealthy look of water. Thank you guys, I'm very happy with reaction I got from you!

Why are we wired to recognize beauty?

Jarmo Juntunen said:

In a way, I do like Asher's interpretation. However, John is "correct" this time, if there are such things as correctness or incorrectness when interpreting photography.

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Jarmo,

I'm still flummoxed that the brain, or at least my brain, can't reset itself to see anything other than a beautiful polished rock with layering of eons of the earths crust moving. Of course, I can study it and again realize it's a reflection of trees in muddy water, but the image fits in more with rock that anything else!

Likely we prejudge people in the same way. We are drawn to beauty when that's merely packaging and likely deceptive. Still, why do a lot of us constantly get fooled by beauty and charm?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Jarmo,

I'm still flummoxed that the brain, or at least my brain, can't reset itself to see anything other than a beautiful polished rock with layering of eons of the earths crust moving.

Click to expand...

Hi Asher,

Human vision constantly reduces the visual input to patterns and ratios. This is essential to avoid information overflow. The way the simplification/reduction works is food for psychologiss though ... ;-) (remember Rorschach?).

Cheers,
Bart

Jarmo,

Not wanting to change the essence or the image, or your vision, is commendable but Aspens are white, whether reflected or not. Having the white color there helps us make sense of what is otherwise a somewhat cryptic image:

Here is your original for comparison:

Alain Briot said:

Jarmo,

Not wanting to change the essence or the image, or your vision, is commendable but Aspens are white, whether reflected or not. Having the white color there helps us make sense of what is otherwise a somewhat cryptic image:

Click to expand...

Alain,

I liked the polished rock! I actually wondered if the "crows feet" were glyphs made by long-passed native Americans, LOL! But thanks for giving us back a sense of reality. Once the trees are defined, the water follows easily and the polished stone no longer exists! You essentially broke the spell.

I think lipstick serves the same purpose. It defines what men want and they then cannot think of poetry, where lips can be like rose petals, for example. With lipstick, they are succulent, demanding, hungry , sultry and many other tings but always as descriptors of the woman's lips! There are no mistakes there.

Perhaps we should ban lipstick, so we can freely, imagine what we want and not be led with such clarity to our demise, LOL!

Asher

Alain, thank you for the great idea! I think what you did really improved my photo. I really love the outcome, after your slight alteration.

I very much enjoy such conceptual photographic efforts and the precipitant discussions. To me, this is where photography merges with the more resonant expressionistic art forms such as painting and sculpture.

I like Alain's tonal adjustment, although purely because it lifts the image out of pure (and a bit dull) earth tones to open a wider palette into the blue/green part of the spectrum. That the white-balancing on the tree trunks makes them distinguishable might be intersting for some, or on a larger print.

If you plan to earnestly pursue this type of photography, Jarmo, one small point I would offer for your consideration is that of angular composition. Remember that in (nearly) any 2D composition shapes are the first characteristic that viewers will identify, even a fraction of a second before colors. In this image the shapes are lines that are placed on a perilous corner-to-corner diagonal. That is one of the most powerful devices a 2D artist can deploy. Such linear configurations are often applied to convey dynamism and high-energy. This is much to the contrary of the contemplative theme you suggest, in which less acute lines or more curvilinear forms (which suggest continuity rather than linear terminality) might normally be used.

Again, if you're genuinely intersted in pursuing such conceptual images (versus just plucking a casual snap or two for such ideas) experiment with shape and tonality. Reflection photography makes such experimentation very easy and quite a bit of fun.

Thank you Ken! That gave me a lot think about. I find conceptual photography really interesting and somehow I'm convinced that this is the right path to follow. When viewing other people's pictures I'm always trying to see if there's something "under the surface". I guess I really believe in photography as a story telling art form. Maybe one day I'll reach that point myself!