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Alan Brown's picture

Red Brick

Shot on a recent trip with the strong horizontals catching my eye. Color or monochrome preferences?

Comments welcomed.

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15 Comments

Interesting shot Alan. You know I'm a big fan of yours so I hope you won't mind when I say that neither really work for me. I've come back to the post 3 times trying to figure out what I'd recommend but I'm just not feeling it. I want to too! That's the funny part. Sorry my friend!

That's fine Ruth and I appreciate your honesty. This was something that I was playing about with - have to say I do like it myself for some reason, but can definitely see how others may not.

I love the pattern of the brick - particularly in the black and white. ;)

There you go - I knew if you looked hard/long enough you'd find something.... :-)

I know! And actually, with Chris's higher contrast image, that black and white is growing on me!

I'm with Chris.

Thanks Andrew, it is always helpful to understand he views of others.

It's the sort of image I'd try to take, Alan. For me, the detail textures and colours would provide the focus for attention, after the initial pleasing effect of the composition. You've mentioned before that your images sometimes come up soft when posted, and these seem so. I'd be inclined to make more contrasty but somewhat desaturated images from the files, maybe a bit like these edits.

Thanks Chris, but you know how delicate I am.... I actually tried an increase in clarity/contrast etc but felt the harshness pulls away from the composition.

The intent is to have the abstract blocks pull you in, where the color & texture of the bricks provide additional interest.
I also like the way the rails on the left break up the mage and divert the gaze.

I can definitely see how others might disagree, and one of the beauties of abstract.

And I thought you needed new glasses, Alan! ;-)

I'm not disputing that thought...…..

Hi again Alan. knowing that you were going for a more abstract image, I have some thoughts. (out of character I know!) Before I go into them though, this image is still growing on me more each time I look at it. ;)

So - just for giggles, I thought I'd play with this as just lines and texture out of context with orientation to see about the abstractness of it. Here are a few samples. This would NOT be to replace what you have. Just some expansions of the idea of going further with the abstract idea.

Then - the last one is a crop that i think helps the focus be on the bricks of the wall which are really beautiful.

Again - not instead of original. I just got gripped by the bricks!

:)

Hmmmm… all interesting in their own right, but the diagonals strike discord.
I like these, thanks for the suggestion. Gives me something more to play with :-)

What's in your coffee, Ruth?

PS: You'll like my corrugated iron yet!

I know! Crazy yesterday. If you dare to repost that one i can chop it up too. Ug. I am laughing about these above. I just got gripped by the cool brick work.

:)

The last crop was a serious suggestion though.