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marius van dyk's picture

Long shadows

April challenge - contrasting light and shade

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11 Comments

Excellent. Except it looks upside down.

Guess its the darker corner top left help forcing the perspective to read from left/right top down … plus the mind wants ocean at the bottom - i think hence the “upside down feeling”

But i assume by letting the viewer grapple with this for a second or two is achieving the goal

thank you Charles

Sure but I still think it's upside down! LOL 😆

I was thinking the same as Charles. I appreciate your explanation of reading it from left to right, top down. There's lots to see apart from the light/shade. The textures are really lovely.

thank you Jennifer

You certainly met the challenge Marius.

Rotating the image 180 to satisfy curiosity. I think I am going with others, I feel there is less tension viewing from this angle.

Not that the tension is necessarily bad.......

the ocean at night has some "ominous tension" and the palm tree shadows almost form a barrier.

so an observation and a Q.
Observation .. seems the palm tree shadows play the dominant role in leading the viewer. as well as the location. The striking figure 2ground is what you see first - in the original, it seems to fight the incoming waves. in the 180deg it leads you to the waves - just because this is how most people read.

Question: if you would exhibit this in a gallery would you want this image to be "smooth looking" or do you want to show tension so the viewer's mind is boggled for a sec or two ...

but maybe I'm just overthinking this ? ....

I hear what you are saying Marius but I feel we should all present our work in a manner that best suits the creator.

There will always be some that have a definite preference, but the only one that really matters is your own. It really depends on the story you wish to convey to the viewer.

I do think that from the outset thought the viewer has to be initially drawn in by interest, then perhaps given a reason the let the eye wander further.

Perhaps you ARE overthinking this - just go with your gut and any decision that makes you happiest.

thank you Alan.