Gone Fishing

[joebranko]

Taken from Confederation Park on the shore of Lake Ontario. Late morning with harsh light.









After posting, I felt the picture could be improved by some more cropping and exposure and luminance adjustments. I hope this is better.

[Wavelength]

Liked them; but can't say which is better

[escape]

Nice fix. I think it could use more water. Not sure how much. I added more water using content awareness in photoshop. I stumble through photoshop for the most part. I couldn't remember the term "Content Awareness" for a few months so I was unable to look it up. Just found the symbol and identifying tooltip working on this image. Couldn't resist using it

[Manfred M]

Sorry Joe, but this image just does not work for me. To start, I am visually confused by the composition; is this about the fisherman or is it about the rocks he is standing on. The rocks in the bright blue water is where my eyes go to, not the fisherman. Cropping the left hand side improves the image, but not enough, in my view; the rocks still compete too much with the subject.

Daniel's approach is interesting, as it adds material on the right side of the frame, but all the water above the fisherman takes too much away from the subject.

[escape]

Daniel's approach is interesting, as it adds material on the right side of the frame, but all the water above the fisherman takes too much away from the subject.

It depends on what the title of the work is in my view. If it was titled, " Fishing in the Big Blue Sea," it might be viewed differently. My only thought was that it needed more water. How much depends on the artistic intention of the photographer. A minimalist would have shrunken the fisherman to the max. It is fun to look at and explore possibilities.

[Manfred M]

It depends on what the title of the work is in my view. If it was titled, " Fishing in the Big Blue Sea," it might be viewed differently. My only thought was that it needed more water. How much depends on the artistic intention of the photographer. A minimalist would have shrunken the fisherman to the max. It is fun to look at and explore possibilities.

Let me disagree here Daniel. I do like minimalism and do work in that genre, especially in some of the still-life work I have been doing. Even in minimalism, working with the appropriate amount of negative space is critical in creating a strong image. Simply making the subject very small does not work for me. This style was something that was somewhat popular about 15 - 20 years ago, but much like HDR, partial colourization, etc. was a very short-lived trend that did not last long.

[xpatUSA]

In one form of minimalism, the background is almost homogeneous or at least lacking in contrast and is often light.

In the OP, the water is dark with a lot of waves and what looks like global contrast, thereby competing with the subject (s).

[escape]

My post was more about the water dominating the subject and how by changing the title it could be viewed differently. I did not see that point disputed.

I agree that if a minimalist was to successfully alter the image it would require more than shrinking the subject. I oversimplified it. There are other factors to address as you both have indicated.

[joebranko]

Thanks for all the comments.
'Gone fishing' is about the fisherman. Originally I had a lot more water but it was competing with the main focus, the man fishing. The title was perhaps a bit plagiarism from a song title from the fifties which came to mind when picking a title ( my dad was a Louis Armstrong enthusiast and played his music all the time). The rocks were very bright and I burned them to darken them. Perhaps I need to do more burning.

[Manfred M]

My post was more about the water dominating the subject and how by changing the title it could be viewed differently. I did not see that point disputed.

I agree that if a minimalist was to successfully alter the image it would require more than shrinking the subject. I oversimplified it. There are other factors to address as you both have indicated.

There is a school of thought in photography where the title of the piece is irrelevant and with many clubs, the judges are not shown the title of the work when they are judging competition images. The view is that an image has to stand on its own without being supported by any other help.

[joebranko]

It depends on what the title of the work is in my view. If it was titled, " Fishing in the Big Blue Sea," it might be viewed differently. My only thought was that it needed more water. How much depends on the artistic intention of the photographer. A minimalist would have shrunken the fisherman to the max. It is fun to look at and explore possibilities.

Thanks for your input Daniel. Sorry but your suggestion does not work for me. As you point out it "depends on the artistic intention of the photographer". My focus was on the fisherman, not the lake.

[billtils]

There is a school of thought in photography where the title of the piece is irrelevant and with many clubs, the judges are not shown the title of the work when they are judging competition images. The view is that an image has to stand on its own without being supported by any other help.

Unless of course the competition is themed, for example, "Recreation" ...

[Geoff F]

For me, Joe, your second image works OK.

With the first one, the angler is positioned past the half way mark with some heavy looking rocks behind him, so they tended to dominate the scene. You have corrected that problem in the second version.

[Wandjina]

I know this is low resolution and that the fisherman is not the brightest part of the image etc etc, but this is different and maybe a more powerful image than the coloured version.