Author Topic: Results and Feedback for the "Fluid" Weekly Photography Assignment.  (Read 2541 times)

keithsnell

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1407
Wow!  This was another assignment where I was just totally amazed and impressed by your creativity.  Thank you those of you that participated for being such a great source of inspiration.  The guidelines for this assignment were to compose an image that conveyed the concept of fluid, such as a flowing liquid or gas, or a smooth and graceful movement.
 
Dave's Moment of Calm image was a beautifully composed waterscape.  This image was very well balanced, with a harmonious color palette that complemented the scene perfectly.  The lotus petals on top of the reflection provided a nice sense of depth for this image, and the upside-down reflection provided a bit of an abstract whimsical element that served to engage the viewer and prompt them examine the image more closely.  This was an extremely well composed and executed image, and the surface tension of the water holding up the lotus leaves was a subtle reminder of the "fluid" nature of the subject.  Very well done Dave.


Moment of Calm
Photographed by Dave Leiker (prairiedust)


Michele's The Power of Water image was just one of the many extremely creative images she submitted for this assignment.  What an amazing burst of creativity!  I admire the tenacity and split second timing that it took to capture this image.  Thank you for stimulating our creativity Michele!


The Power of Water in BW
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder


Michele's Fire and Water 3 image was one of my favorites from her series of fire and water images.  I honestly feel that this image belongs in a museum of modern art, or blown up to 2 x 3 meters and hung in a New York City loft.  It's a wonderfully balanced composition that is both simple and complex at the same time.  It piques the viewer's curiosity and captures their imagination.  It's fatalistic, fascinating and whimsical all at the same time, lends itself to a hundred different interpretations, and makes a wonderful metaphor for modern life.  And it captures a moment in time that couldn't be reproduced in a million years.  Oh, and those running rivulets and flying droplets of red definitely convey "fluid."  I've selected this image as Editor's Choice for Artistic Merit.


Fire and water 3
Editor's Choice for Artistic Merit
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder


Michele's Fire and Water 1 image was the one from her series that perhaps best met the guidelines of the assignment, successfully conveying both the noun (a flowing liquid or gas) and the adjective (a smooth and graceful movement).  The soft light Michele used was perfect for highlighting the rounded, liquid shapes of the water flowing out of the glass and dribbling across the white surface, and the dancing flames and smoke (and shadows from the smoke) evoked a sense of fluid movement.  I imagine it was very challenging to compose the scene in order to balance all of these very dynamic elements, and Michele succeeded admirably with this shot.  This image was the well deserved winner of the vote for People's Choice and I have awarded it Editor's Choice for Technical Merit.



Fire and water 1
People's Choice and Editor's Choice for Technical Merit
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder


Lars' image titled I'm drowning in a sea of self-doubt.. was very creative (and definitely liquid :) ), and I loved the dialog it sparked in the image comments in the gallery.  I agree with several of the comments that Lars is an artist at heart, and brings a unique and creative perspective to the assignments that helps to widen my own horizons.


I'm drowning in a sea of self-doubt..
Photographed by Lars


Lars' Smokefull Light Within was another fun image that reminds us that art, creativity and experimentation are all related processes.  It's fun to play with slow shutter speeds (in this case 5 seconds), light, color, shapes and movement to see what we can create.  This image definitely had a "fluid" feel, created by the wisps of color and light flowing into the image.  Much like looking at an upside-down, backwards scene on the ground glass of a view camera, "abstracting" the elements of a composition can help us understand what works from the perspective of balance, shapes, color and light, and can help us strengthen our overall compositional skills.  


Smokefull light whitin
Photographed by Lars


Joyce's image titled Not Upside Down was a beautiful and serene intimate landscape (or in this case waterscape).  The small ripples in the water and the slight distortion in the reflection effectively conveyed the fluid motion of the water, and produced the wonderful effect of making this image look like a painting.  The graceful curve of the cattails and simple balance of the almost abstract elements in this scene gave the image a zen-like feeling.  This was a very beautiful and peaceful image Joyce.


Not Upside Down
Photographed by Joyce Donaldson


Michele's image of A Pair was another creative and intriguing composition.  This image was an interesting mix of dynamic diagonals and motion, and a more subdued color palette.  Although the dynamic composition is interesting, what struck me most about this image was the well balanced and pleasing color palette.  It speaks of "high class" and champagne, with a bit of rowdy angles and action thrown in to keep things interesting.


A pair
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder


Michele's Flow image was another creation with a very nice color palette.  To me, this color palette (and the textured background) spoke of "old world" and would be great for a cognac advertisement.  As Dave said, this image is "very rich and full of character, and the movement is superb."  The defining characteristic of this image was the wonderful "swoop" of the liquid into and around the glass.  As a minor tweak to the image, I think the droplets coming out of the left side of the glass don't quite fit as well with the overall feel of this image and I might have considered cloning those droplets out and leaving a clean background.  Overall this was an outstanding image.  I think you have a future photographing advertisements for wine and brandy if that is something that interests you Michele...or maybe selling your creations as modern art.


Flow
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder


I enjoyed the expression on the boy's face in Chris' Future Fireman image.  I don't know what the constraints were with respect to camera position, but I might have tried to reposition the camera so that the stream of water was in front of a darker background in order to make the water more prominent in the image.  Great job composing the image so that the subjects are looking into the scene.


Future Fireman
Photographed by Chris Franklin


Funny how when I saw the thumbnail of Rick's Halftime Fluids image I thought the image might be his.  The image fits his style and is "in character." :)  Rick did a great job capturing the rounded liquid shape of the beer flowing from the bottle, and the frosted glass was a very nice touch. This is a simple, well balanced composition that gets right to the point.  Well done Rick.


Halftime Fluids
Photographed by Rick Pepin (trvlrick)


For my two images of the Rocky Mountain Stream I concentrated on using soft diffused light to provide modeling and convey the 3-dimensional, rounded forms of a flowing liquid, using motion, or soft blur caused by motion, to convey the movement or flow of the liquid, and composing the images so that they conveyed a "smooth and graceful rhythm."  The weather on the day I photographed the stream could best be described as "fleeting clouds," which necessitated that I set up my shot and then patiently wait for the clouds to momentarily cover the sun so that I could capture an image with the soft diffused light I needed to provide the 3-dimensional modeling and show the rounded forms of the water.  


Rocky Mountain Stream
Photographed by Keith

I don't use a polarizer very often anymore, but this is one situation where I needed a polarizer to reduce the reflections from the water, especially in the second image.  The area of water that flows over the flat rock in the center of the image had the "rounded" form that I wanted, but this form was almost completely obscured by the reflections from the water.  I needed a polarizer to reduce these reflections enough to convey the rounded forms of the water.  Notice that I didn't completely remove the reflections since the soft "highlights" on the top surface of the water help to give this section of the water it's form.  The polarizer also acted like a neutral density filter and reduced the amount of light reaching the sensor by about 2 stops, allowing me to use a slow enough shutter speed to blur the water and convey motion.  The first image was shot with a shutter speed of 1/4 second, and the second image was shot with a shutter speed of 1/10 second.  I watched the histogram closely on both exposures to ensure I wasn't blowing out the exposure on the brighter parts of the water.  The dynamic range of this scene was so great that I had to bring up the shadows and saturate the colors a bit in post processing in order to produce the images you see here.


Exploring the Stream
Photographed by Keith

Thank you again to everyone that participated in this assignment.  You all continue to amaze and inspire me with your creativity and artistry.

Keith
« Last Edit: September 20, 2010, 02:10:17 PM by keithsnell »

marilyn

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 124
Re: Results and Feedback for the "Fluid" Weekly Photography Assignment.
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2010, 05:25:21 PM »
Congratulations, Michele, on ALL of your beautiful, creative images for this assignment.  You truly did seem to have a burst of creative energy going, but you  so often do. Your work is truly inspiring - as were so many of the other images submitted for this assignment.

Michele

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 326
Re: Results and Feedback for the "Fluid" Weekly Photography Assignment.
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2010, 08:13:48 AM »
Thank you everyone.  I know I may have went overboard that week.  I am overloaded with stuff to get finished right now but I will get back on track soon.

Thank you, Keith, for always giving me motivation.

Cindy Miller Hopkins

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 37
Re: Results and Feedback for the "Fluid" Weekly Photography Assignment.
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2010, 04:49:09 PM »
Stunning work!!! Beautifully done, technically superior. Excellent!!!  ;)