B&W Abstract II

[Mike Buckley]

Anyone aware of the photos I have been making recently will know what this object is and will perhaps be influenced by that knowledge to see more realism in this one. Anyone not aware of them will probably see more abstraction.

[Ken Curtis]

Hi Mike.

Would you consider cropping off the black rim at the top? Just a thought.

[Mike Buckley]

I considered removing that horizontal line, Ken, when I initially framed the image in the camera. I decided against it because I like that it seems to add balance to the strong horizontal shape displayed approximately in the middle of the photo. Even so, your attention to that top part of the photo reminded me to make a change that I had considered and forgotten to try. That change is shown below.

[FootLoose]

On first viewing, I had the same thought as Ken: cut the top off.

[ShaneS]

I'm also in the cut off the top camp...I know everyone is ganging up on you this weekend! Add a transparent fish and there's an award winning and quite surreal image

[Mike Buckley]

For you folks who prefer eliminating the top, if that was done, would you like the orientation to remain as is or would you then prefer a horizontal orientation? If the latter, would you prefer the curve bending downward or upward?

[ShaneS]

I like the orientation as it is. Playing around in the light box it looks as it you could take the top off and give it a slight rotation so the two left edges meet at the image corners and that wouldn't take the point at the curve too far off level. I like the white space to the left - just throwing another idea at you for consideration.

[Arlen]

For me it seems to need the line at the top. I like your second version better, but maybe the line should fade away rather than end abruptly?

[Mike Buckley]

Ah ha! Arlen agrees with me! (Not a good omen for Arlen.)

I thought of your suggestion of fading the top line away, Arlen. I also thought of bringing the line to a point to complement the other horizontal element in the image.

I definitely like Shane's suggestion of rotating the image as she suggested. I tried it and it definitely works for me because I like diagonals and because, without rotating the image and lacking the top line, the image seems static to me. In fact, I might try capturing the image again though with the camera tilted to render the results she suggests. Thank you, Shane!

[ShaneS]

You are very welcome Mike - I can't wait to see the result

[Mike Buckley]

I can't wait to see the result

Unfortunately, all of my attempts completely failed. It was not possible for me to reproduce the combination of factors that made this image possible and I wasn't able to produce anything new that resulted in an abstract pattern that I liked. I also wasn't able to successfully turn the above image so it is displayed from corner to corner. That's because the resulting crop was so serious that the image became unattractive.

Moving on.

[Ken Curtis]

I considered removing that horizontal line, Ken, when I initially framed the image in the camera. I decided against it because I like that it seems to add balance to the strong horizontal shape displayed approximately in the middle of the photo. Even so, your attention to that top part of the photo reminded me to make a change that I had considered and forgotten to try. That change is shown below.

Yes, much better, Mike. Now the horizontal line doesn't take me out of the image.

[Mike Buckley]

Glad you like the change, Ken. Thanks again for bringing that top line to my attention.