CRITIQUE: MY SHADOW

This is an interesting "fool the eye" shot that makes the viewer wonder what exactly we are looking at. Even though you comment about wanting to change the photo by leaving off the flipflops, the composition is actually quite "clean", meaning there are no distracting elements to take away from the graphic quality of the image. The flipflops on the metal grate simply add a sense of scale and even help us identify the subject by giving a frame of reference.

As well known photographer Mark Citret wrote: "If I hold any convictions at all as a photographer, foremost among them would be the belief that there are pictures lurking everywhere. They are concealed and camouflaged in the landscape that surrounds us everywhere. Finding them is all the more difficult because they are right in front of us all the time."

Turning this ordinary object in your photo into a graphically pleasing image shows a nice vision on your part. The extreme lens effect (fisheye) creates a dynamic work full of energy which literally draws the viewer into the image. This combined with the extremely bright light, skewed perspective, intense color, and striking shadow give the viewer an completely new perspective on an ordinary object. To experiment with these kinds of effects try working with other "extreme" lenses and exposure effects or even unusual films such as infrared emulsions that "see" only the infrared (heat) spectrum.

But do be careful when shooting with extreme wide angle lenses. Use them to help accentuate a situation and not draw attention to the use of the lens as a gimmick. Here the fisheye lens is used to advantage: allowing the image to stand on its own graphically.

You have achieved what the National Press Photographers Association's defines as a pictorial image: one that expresses beauty, tension and other abstract concepts through composition and tonal color relationships more than through human interaction.

Here are some photographers I admire and websites I think you would enjoy.
Mark Citret, William Albert Allard, Joel Sartore and Ansel Adams

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0003/madidi
http://poy.org/57/Picturegallery/index.html
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/features/legendsV2Q4/legendsIndex.shtml
http://www.onlinephotography.com/design.html

critiquer: "Lensey"

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