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Ruth Carll's picture

As Minimal and Abstract as it Gets!

It is fishing season. That means me hanging out with my camera waiting .. and having time to be looking around. The sky was cloudy yesterday and the water still creating the perfect storm for refections.

Feedback welcome.

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8 Comments

Oh yeah, love this image. Definitely nailed both concepts Ruth, great work.

Thanks Joe - it looks like it didn't upload properly to me. It isn't this soft focus.

Question - I don't usually like when people upload things with frames. But, it a situation like this where the white of the page creates a dingy feel in an image that is off-white, would a frame be welcomed? Otherwise, I would edit this to look better on white just for this application but not keep the original for others. Well, actually, I take that back. I didn't intend this to be 'white background' but rather show the surface of the water like a mirror.

What do you all think?

I notice none of my images seem to upload with the 'tack sharpness' and get a tad soft, I assume there may be some compression happening. And it changes slightly for each image, some softer than others.

My answer to frames: I have never found an instance where I liked someone adding a frame to their photograph.

I don't see this as dingy at all, not sure what makes you feel that way, maybe lint in your eye, ha ha. I like this one just as it is on the cool side. This is just my style of thinking on such a simple shot, but if I was going to adjust any coloring, I would maybe try neutralizing the blue (desaturate blue to a neutral grey but maintain that tone level), and definitely maintain that subtle green I am seeing in that grass blade.

But as I said I like this as is.

No, Ruth. I've never seen a frame that looks any good to my eye on Fstoppers, or anywhere else much, come to think of it. You could always try a version with one, add it below the original image at left, & see what you think yourself.

I agree on software frames. Hate 'em. I used the heck out of them when I was younger and the feature was new, but to paraphrase Ian Malcolm, "Just because you can, doesn't man you should."

Nice job Ruth, I like the way the grass is bent so with reflection creates an interesting shape.

On the question of frames - I have the background in LR set to white. This makes it easier to evaluate color balance and there are no surprises.when uploading.

Back around 1970, my photography professor, Dick Kleeman who was primarily a painter, at Allegheny College did a whole exhibition of images similar to this. It was grass sticking out of the snow rather than water, but very similarly minimalistic. He also soaked the prints in Comet cleanser, which gave them a funny blue colorization. (I suspect this negatively affected their archival longevity.) He was photographically emulating certain Japanese ink prints. He said his prints were like Haikus compared to our journalism, which didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time but now means a lot.

I love this thought. I never thought about this but now I find it obvious why Haikus is my favorite form of poetry and minimalism a favorite form of photography.

:)