Fall 2009 Work

Alain, did you have to lie down to get that first image? I'm wondering how you would get that perspective.

Rachel Foster said:

Alain, did you have to lie down to get that first image? I'm wondering how you would get that perspective.

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Hi Rachel,

This is a wide angle view, using two horizontally-stitched images taken with a 38mm lens on a P45 medium format camera back, resulting in about an 18mm view on a 35mm full frame.

I prefer to photograph from standing height than lie down. It's more comfortable! Plus it provides for a viewpoint comparable to what people see since most of us are standing and not lying down when we walk through the landscape ;-)

Plus, if I was lying down, I could not see over the rocks in the foreground. In fact, the Mountains would most likely by partially hidden by the rocks when seen from a lying down position.

They are both very beautiful.

Sandra Jones said:

They are both very beautiful.

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Thank you Sandra

Hi Alain,

I really value these pictures. Do you always use a tripod or with just two images in a stitch, are they hand held. The first picture is very well set up with the wide angle lens and that sets up the view for the distant landscape very well. The major pyramid rock helps to keep us moving through the complexity of the oversized image of the foreground rock up to the real deep landscape beyond. This image does allow us to find new routes in exploring the rock complex so it should be a good print to have.

If I was given a wish here, I'd ask for a tad more cloudscape as it seems to be getting better to the top edge.

The signature of the second picture is placed so very well that it takes on a role as a compositional component of the image! Worse, the color of the large letters are from the palette of the image which enhances its membership amongst the essential elements of the photograph itself. It could be printed just so. However, that's not the intent here, of course! Unfortunately, we do need some marking of images to deal with stealing of photographs.

I have still to work on reading this, but with no text balancing anything else or occupying serious attention. I'm interested in this picture since it raises a number of compositional challenges. Just because the scene is obviously of an awesome vista, does not mean we should overlook the many decisions that were made. This picture is no mere snap and should not be looked at in one pass. It's more complex than that in its zones of interest. So I'll return to this.

Asher

BTW, I happen to be reading "Mastering Photographic Compositon Creativity and Personal Style", by Alain Briot at B&H and other fine sellers. Amazon too! So this is an apt time for looking at these pictures here. Shortly I'll post my review in two parts.


Asher

Ah, yes, that makes a lot of sense.

As alway, they are breathtaking.

Thank you Rachel

Asher Kelman said:

If I was given a wish here, I'd ask for a tad more cloudscape as it seems to be getting better to the top edge.
Asher

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You mean like this (?) :

Asher Kelman said:

If I was given a wish here, I'd ask for a tad more cloudscape as it seems to be getting better to the top edge.
Asher

Click to expand...

You mean like this (?) :

And for easy comparison:

And for easy comparison:

Alain Briot said:

And for easy comparison:

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I'm not supposed to say "Wow" or "Photasmic" but certainly it's sensotic!

There's payoff and the full expanding cloud returned to this picture gives what is promised as one start's one's eye journey from below. Ken Tanaka brought up the narrow focus of most of us to things which have emotive triggers. That's the art we can easily like at first glance. As far as appreciation is concerned, no curator or art expert is required as we all "get it". Here's a good example of where we start with an intimate fly over of an eons-worn split rock to free sienna landscape, distant mountain range, (is the a mesa) and then at last an exploding sky. Access is easy, experience is natural and reward is immediate.

Still, art is a seduction to agreeable experience and then appetite awakened we want so much more. Where is the end of that cloud? Here now we might be asking for the impossible, but that's how the mind goes. However, working has to stop once a picture has life or we kill it! So is there more sky? We might imagine it.

Asher

One more:

Alain Briot said:

One more:

Three Trees, Eastern Sierra Nevada​

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Alain Briot said:

Four Tufas at Dawn​

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Two delightful photographs!

Alain, how different can pictures from one artist be! The first, with the three main green trees, makes a only small nod to depth effect with its neat foreground. The water does cut in a little, but it's almost man made in shape, like the borders of some rose garden. It's still essentially a flat effect; reassuring in the order of things. Looking at this scene in a banker's boardroom, one might even think that everyone is honest and acting in one's interest. I, for one, might even be reassured by the sense of peace and clarity!

The second photograph is so different! It's a fantasy! The construction is rich as can be, with successive layers of subject matter and depth. This functions as if a fantasy-land by a wildly extravagant movie director.

That both come from one brain is remarkable!

Asher

Of course, the second asks for extension to the right but perhaps there was nothing to include.