Intersections

[jb7]

January 20, 2007 at 4:23 pm

This Clothes Shop in Soho, London has stood the test of time-
this interior must be at least five or six years old now.

Arranged over two floors,
the mirrored ground floor
is given over to a deck,
leading from the entrance
to a stair to the basement,
with these quite beautiful mesh sculptures
turning slowly in the draught from the door.

This was taken on Monday this week-

Any and all comments appreciated-

j

[PeteTheBloke]

January 20, 2007 at 5:19 pm

What a weird effect those sculptures create. You’ve captured their transparency well.

You seem to have managed the light, but I find the fluorescent strips intrusive.

All in all, an arresting image. In – I’d guess – trying conditions.

[Rob]

January 21, 2007 at 12:30 am

Really bizarre looking interior Joseph.
The mesh scultures look almost liquid which contrasts
very well with all those hard intersecting straight lines.
The only thing that I find a little distracting is the visibility
of the support cables and the hooks in the ceiling. They
seem to create a little ‘noise’ in an otherwise seemingly
serene environment. Just my tuppence…

Rob.

[jb7]

January 21, 2007 at 3:22 am

Thank you, you two,
for taking the time to comment,
I really do appreciate it-

The fluorescent lighting is part of the design of the shop,
and is visible everywhere because of the mirrored surfaces.
So I guess you’re commenting on the design, Pete the Bloke? :D

And Rob, as a picture posted in the Architecture forum,
it may be useful if the picture went some way towards explaining
how the details work, imo.

Hence the hooks.

This is somebody else’s Art;
and maybe it need not be interpreted to the point
where the viewer is in any way deceived about the details.
Though obviously, it could be-
I might even have some like that-

Thanks again for looking-
and for the comments-

j

[PeteTheBloke]

January 21, 2007 at 5:18 pm

jb7 wrote:

So I guess you’re commenting on the design, Pete the Bloke? :D

I suppose I am. But you must have considered turning them off, all the same?

[jb7]

January 21, 2007 at 10:01 pm

PeteTheBloke wrote:

But you must have considered turning them off, all the same?

No, never occured to me-

3 reasons-

one, I was a tourist standing outside a working shop window-
two, those lights are as much a part of the design of the interior as the mirrored walls,
or the gibbet sculptures, and three,
it would have been dark, and very difficult to take a picture.

But you’re having me on again, right

:D

j

[PeteTheBloke]

January 22, 2007 at 9:47 am

jb7 wrote:

one, I was a tourist standing outside a working shop window-
two, those lights are as much a part of the design of the interior as the mirrored walls,
or the gibbet sculptures, and three,
it would have been dark, and very difficult to take a picture.

But you’re having me on again, right

Now I really am laughing out loud! In fact I can hardly stop. It’s hard to see the keyboard through these tears.

I assumed this was a commercial shoot. From the “big tripod” photo, we know that you do interiors of shops.

It makes your exposure more impressive.

[SteveD]

January 22, 2007 at 5:56 pm

Hi jb,

I’m not too keen on this one to be honest. Im not sure what you are trying to show; is it the lights, or is it the figures? If you are going for a combination of both then I think the scene is too cluttered. Perhaps if you had the figures lined up leading into the scene, with the lights converging towards some sort of focal point? But here I can’t find the focal point, if indeed there is one.

You could maybe make some sort of abstract by picking out the lines of lights? I think perhaps you were trying to find a good shot when there wasn’t really any obvious potential?

I guess I could sum up by saying that there is no evidence that you pushed yourself to compose the shot in an original way. I dread to use the word ‘snapshot,’ but if I saw this photo outside the forum I would assume it could have been taken by anyone and not someone who had any particular interest in advanced photography.

I don’t want to sound too harsh, but I am giving honest critique.

[jb7]

January 22, 2007 at 6:07 pm

You could be right Stephen-
Tho a bit of variety can’t really hurt-
This is an interior shot,
and an interior that I found interesting,
though of course I can’t expect everyone to agree-

Thanks for the comment-

j

[SteveD]

January 22, 2007 at 6:10 pm

jb7 wrote:

You could be right Stephen-
Tho a bit of variety can’t really hurt-
This is an interior shot,
and an interior that I found interesting,
though of course I can’t expect everyone to agree-

Thanks for the comment-

j

I do think the content is unusual and interesting, I just feel you could have worked a bit harder on the composition.

[jb7]

January 22, 2007 at 6:46 pm

Thanks Stephen-

You’re right,
it is a snapshot,
as I’ve said above,
taken as a tourist,
handheld,
on a visit to London.

I hadn’t read your signature as an indictment before,
though I suppose I will have to from now on.

This isn’t a picture that needs a defence from me,
I have no particular attachment to it-
and its probably not worth all these words, but-

The compositional limitations amounted to trying to exclude the frame of the shop window,
and the reflections and marks on the glass,
while handholding at a twentieth of a second,
the maximum possible that might stop the rotation of the sculptures.

I made perhaps 8 exposures before being hurried along;
though it would have been nice to stay longer,
or to have arrived there at a slightly different time of day,
that wasn’t to be the case.

I chose this one as being the closest to the shot I wanted-
and posted in the Architecture forum,
where the representation of the design, or space, or the materials
may be seen to be more important than the photography itself.

Here’s another,
tho I wouldn’t be particularly happy with the composition of this one either-

And straight out of the camera, with only the watermark and some sharpening added, as I don’t sharpen in camera-

[Mark]

January 23, 2007 at 11:37 am

Guys,

I’ve removed some of the posts here.