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Photo posted by Igor Doncov in the Landscape gallery on 10/27/17 at 3:06 pm EST
Registered on 11/22/14, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments
Post last edited by Jim Erhardt on 11/06/17 at 5:23 pm EST
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"If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person" - Jay Maisel. |
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Comment posted by Igor Doncov on 10/27/17 at 3:08 pm EST
Registered on 11/22/14, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments
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"If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person" - Jay Maisel. |
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Comment posted by Harley Goldman on 10/27/17 at 3:57 pm EST
Registered on 11/19/03, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments
Even with the name of the image, I would not have gotten the reference (art history is not my strong point). However, I really like the image! It is a bold subject, with great mood. I really like your processing that highlights the tree so well. No suggestions, real sweet.
Occasionally I name images to "suggest" to the viewer what I wish emphasized. For example, in my foxtail pine wood grain image, I wished to create a mindset to pay attention to the different shades of color (in addition to the grains) so I quite cleverly named it
Shades of Brown. :) But for the most part, I either have what I consider to be an appropriate name pop into my head when working on an image or I just name it in descriptive form. When viewing images, I think a name can lead me along a little bit and suggest a train of thought, but not a whole lot.
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"You were born an original. Don't die a copy."
- John Mason
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Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on 10/28/17 at 10:07 am EST
Registered on 05/23/09, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments
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I love this tree and BG. The larger image shows the tree to "pop" more, which I was going to suggest.
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Lucy VanSwearingen
Richmond, TX
There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. ~ Sir Winston Churchill |
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Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on 10/28/17 at 12:23 pm EST
Registered on 05/28/04, 114 Posts, 2890 Comments
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This tree has a lot of character and your composition has shown that masterfully. I like the lighting on the tree as well as it not only brings out all of the texture but also adds some brightness to the scene which I perceive as peaceful. It is a good reminder to keep my eyes open even after the leaves have dropped.
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Brian Schrayer
Nashville, TN
"The mountains sing your glory, hallelujah, the canyons echo sweet amazing grace. My spirit sails the mighty gales are bellowing your name, and I've got nothing to say." Andrew Peterson, "Nothing to Say" |
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Comment posted by Eva McDermott on 10/28/17 at 2:15 pm EST
Registered on 01/04/09, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments
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I like the steel blue branches which nicely complement the sky. I see your analogy with the entangled forms of the statue but I would not have made the connection myself. The larger version is a must see. The lovely light is more pronounced.
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Comment posted by Peter Richter on 10/29/17 at 1:12 pm EST
Registered on 11/10/10, 218 Posts, 2723 Comments
Igor, your image is a real storyteller, yet it is telling its own story I think. The muted colors are consistent with the overall feel to it for me and at the same time leave my attention to the bizarre structure as the main element. Very interesting work in my opinion.
Peter
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Peter Richter
Vienna, Austria |
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Comment posted by Nick Bristol on 10/29/17 at 3:13 pm EST
Registered on 02/01/04, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments
A wonderful fine art image in my eyes. I love the color and tones in this, excellent composition and beautiful processing.
Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.
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Comment posted by Lon Overacker on 10/29/17 at 3:48 pm EST
Registered on 11/24/06, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments
Igor,
Agree with others that the light, colors and processing here are wonderful. Interesting, I think the colors are muted - but in this case, the colors are still wonderful - hard to explain. And indeed the tree has character. Another interesting element is the dead branch and otherwise messy foreground - yet, just like the "muted" colors, I find the foreground to enhance the image rather than take away. Everything about this is well placed.
As far as the reference goes, I'm with Harley - and no student of art or even Greek mythology. I would have made the reference unless you had mentioned it.
To your question, I suppose I'm not like some, and maybe like others. I usually place no deep thoughts on my images beyond perhaps telling a nature story. So I don't expect viewers to take any meaning from them. Of course they can and view in whatever thought or manner they wish.
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To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy. -Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Comment posted by Igor Doncov on 10/29/17 at 5:22 pm EST
Registered on 11/22/14, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments
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Perhaps I should explain that there was never meant to suggest that there was an intent for the viewer to see a connection between tree and statue. There was an intent to draw a similar emotional response between tree and statue. I frankly don't even know the story of the man in the statue.
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"If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person" - Jay Maisel. |
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Comment posted by Rudy Ruberti on 10/30/17 at 8:02 pm EST
Registered on 10/28/08, 179 Posts, 1875 Comments
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The message I see here is the struggle of life in a harsh environment. I saw this statue a couple of years ago in Vatican City, but still couldn't remember it and had to Google the title. Maybe I made that connection here because while viewing the statue I was wondering how I was going to survive the struggle of being around so many people looking at statues. Great image.
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Rudy Ruberti
Simi Valley, CA |
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Comment posted by Wayne Jones on 10/30/17 at 9:54 pm EST
Registered on 04/18/07, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments
My immediate reaction to this image was "tortured" so for me at least, the title's reference to the suffering of Laocoon was not necessary, although it is entirely appropriate. (In fact I confess that it has been so many decades since I studied Roman and Greek mythology, and art only tangentially, that I misinterpreted the title, and wondered what the great entomologist John LeConte had to do with the image. Is Igor an entomologist, too? What insect kiled that tree? It was not until I scrolled down and saw the statue from the Vatican that I got it.)
Anyway, this reminds me so much of the tortured pines that I like to photograph on windswept ridges, the connection was instant, even though the environment is so different. Interesting as well as beautiful. Can you tell us more about the species and the habitat?
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Wayne Jones
Upstate New York |
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The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again. William Beebe, 1906 |
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Comment posted by Igor Doncov on 10/31/17 at 12:10 am EST
Registered on 11/22/14, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments
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Wayne, I was a marine biologist in my former life, so I don't my bugs. That tree is still very much alive. This is baja's version of an elephant tree. It, too, stores water in it's trunk waiting for the dry period. It's common to have dead branches and the others go on. I think it may be termites that get them? I say that because most homes have termite problems in that area. This area gets virtually no water unless a hurricane drifts that far north. IMO these trees look better without their leaves.
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"If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person" - Jay Maisel. |
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Comment posted by Stephen Stanton on 10/31/17 at 02:35 am EST
Registered on 03/01/15, 54 Posts, 453 Comments
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Wow, I might be a little late. I don' t know what the title means, so nothing was conveyed by it... however I see similarity between the epic tortured pose and this wonderful image...they both convey life's struggle to endure. The tree in its seemingly hostile environment and the man and children in their battle with the serpent.
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Comment posted by Wayne Jones on 10/31/17 at 2:52 pm EST
Registered on 04/18/07, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments
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Thanks for the info, Igor. Glad to see the tree is still surviving!
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Wayne Jones
Upstate New York |
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The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again. William Beebe, 1906 |
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Comment posted by Igor Doncov on 10/31/17 at 8:44 pm EST
Registered on 11/22/14, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments
Thank you for your comments. I think we are getting closer to what this image was intended to convey with each comment. The following quote I came across today addresses the subject by a noted photographer.
When the photographer shows us what he considers to be an Equivalent, he is showing us an expression of a feeling, but this feeling is not the feeling he had for the object that he photographed. What really happened is that he recognized an object or a series of forms that, when photographed, would yield an image with specific suggestive powers that can direct the viewer into a specific and known feeling, state, or place within himself.
Minor White
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"If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person" - Jay Maisel. |
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Comment posted by Bill Chambers on 11/01/17 at 10:57 am EST
Registered on 04/10/05, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments
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I really like this, Igor. I immediately wonder "what kind of tortured life has this tree had?". That hard life (assuming that it was indded hard) gave it great character. Nicely seen and presented.
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Bill Chambers
Gulf Breeze, Florida
Please visit Enchanted Light Photography
"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” - Ansel Adams |
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