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Rock Garden
Photo posted by Lon Overacker in the Landscape gallery on 01/22/18 at 12:39 pm EST
Registered on 11/24/06, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Thanks for the comments on my previous post. I appreciate all the feedback and input.

This one is literally taken 180 degrees from the previous post.  We were just standing around and I was looking for things to photograph.  Not sure if this will resonate with anyone and I almost wasn't going to post, but what the heck.

For me, this one is more about the story and the place.  I see these granite rocks and boulders and wonder how long have they been here? How many tumble downstream when the tremendous force of water pounds over them in the spring? How many millions of years did it take to mold and shape these rocks?  The stories they hold....  

Other than that, just a bunch of rocks.

Thanks for any and all feedback, suggestions.

Lon

  

Lon Overacker
Livermore, California

Capturing Moments in Time

 

 

     

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 Harley Goldman on 01/22/18 at 2:55 pm EST    
Registered on 11/19/03, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

I quite like this one, Lon. It has a great abstract look, lots of great detail and tones and invites contemplation. Works for me. 

  
Harley Goldman
Harley Goldman Photography
Landscape, Man & Nature and POP Galleries and CANP Forum Moderator
   

"You were born an original. Don't die a copy."
- John Mason

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Comment posted by Marylynne Diggs on 01/22/18 at 8:32 pm EST    
Registered on 12/14/10, 122 Posts, 1034 Comments

Hi Lon,
I think you are on to something here.  It might just be me, since I've been into abstracts of late, but I think this would work better with a more selective crop.  I'm not sure what you would remove or keep, but these kinds of images work especially well when they create some degree of intimacy with the specifics of the rocks as individuals.  Maybe focusing on a few that show the wear of time, or on several that are very different in size?

It's crisp and worth playing with. 
ML

   ML Diggs
Portland OR

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Comment posted by Mattia Oliviero on 01/23/18 at 11:42 am EST    
Registered on 08/24/16, 43 Posts, 254 Comments

This one does not work for me, Lon. I understand the message you want to share and it is highly valuable and clear. However, I do not find that in your image. I don't know, maybe it is just a matter of composition or the lack of something peculiar related to the subject or maybe it is just me :-) 

Mattia 

   Mattia Oliviero
Trento, Italy

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Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on 01/23/18 at 11:45 am EST    
Registered on 11/01/03, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

I find this interesting from a time standpoint. The rocks that have been in the stream longest are more rounded, and the rocks that fell later are more angular.

The tones are real nice, and I like the way the rocks seem to falling toward the central pool. I do agree with Marylynne, that there are other possible crops with the pool playing a leading role. This does work nicely as it is though.
--P

  
Preston Birdwell
Columbia, California, USA

NPN 429 | California Nature Photographers (CANP) Moderator | 'NPN Discussion' Moderator

“If you want nice fresh oats, you have to pay a fair price. If you can be satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse, well, that comes a little cheaper" Author Unknown
   

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Comment posted by Wayne Jones on 01/23/18 at 3:01 pm EST    
Registered on 04/18/07, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

I'm glad you said "what the heck." Lon.  I wonder if you said that when you noticed this, and took the time to expertly capture and process it.  There are many times when I stare at rocks, trees, water or sky and wonder as you did, how this came to be.  However, I usually can't find a composition, and move on when I say "what the heck."  In this case, I think you found just enough of a centered composition to catch the attention of some of us, but I don't know how many.  Those of us who do stare at little pieces of the landscape and wonder "why" will stop and look at this.  I wonder the same things you do, and also wonder if maybe someone may have been here moving rocks -- perhaps ages ago -- looking for water or food or a special rock.  A snapshot of this in just any light may not make me look, but your processing that brings out the textures, forms and tones makes makes this too real to ignore.  To me it's the opposite of abstract. 

  
Wayne Jones
Upstate New York
   
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 scott lanz on 01/24/18 at 09:57 am EST    
Registered on 11/14/03, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Lon, I like the graphic quality and I think you did well to go with B&W to emphasize the form and detail in this "bunch of rocks." I like the tones and all the shapes and sizes, and I could see this hanging on a wall. However, I am not 100% sold on the comp with the centered darker pool. I have delayed commenting while I contemplated my issue with the comp. Unfortunately, I still can't say exactly what bother me.  I guess I see this as a sort of a tweener image. It's not really just an abstract because it contains a focal point (the centered darker pool) but I don't find the focal point very compelling.    

scott lanz
Youngstown, Ohio
www.lanzscape.com
   

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Comment posted by Igor Doncov on 01/24/18 at 12:14 pm EST    
Registered on 11/22/14, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

I hadn't intended to comment on this one because I couldn't find anything significant about it. It just seemed like a random puddle. But Wayne's comment made me think and give it more time and an association did come to mind which had been buried somewhere for many years. I spent many years fishing for trout in the Sierras (and most anywhere) which involves a lot of walking and hiking in waders over rocks and stones along streams. It's a tricky affair because all is angular and you can twist an ankle very easily. After a while you get an image in your mind of where to step to get the flattest surface and these small puddles are what you look for to provide the greatest stability. Somehow it all got stored away for me and the association of walking along stream banks and troufishing are associated with this image. It's not an image I would hang on a wall but it's not an image that I feel indifferent about. Anyway, that's what this image means to me.

"If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person" - Jay Maisel. 

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