In the morning I made some mediocre pictures of bicycles, quite spiritless, but there’s always the afternoon, right?
Well, shortly before noon it began to rain and it stubbornly kept to that all day, even when I went home. In the meantime I had looked at my bicycle images, had decided that they were probably even less than mediocre, and so I felt the need to pull something out of my non-existent hat.
Of all routes possible, I decided to do the umbrella trick again: Basically you use a wide-angle lens and include your umbrella in the frame. In this particular image I used the verticals of two trees, one fountain, the umbrella handle and a woman passing by, and the result, cropped to a square, quite satisfies me.
Hobsonesque? I think so. It may have something of that certain quality that Mark’s compositions always have (and always here means really … well … always), that quality that I admire endlessly and that I can’t possibly describe. I admit I’m neither ashamed to plagiarize, nor to pay homage 🙂
The Song of the Day is “Rainy Day Blues” from the 2008 album “Two Men With The Blues” by Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. Hear it on YouTube.
There are 3 comments
Markus Spring (2009-01-28)
Definitely working, for me the duplication of the umbrellas is a good trick also. Hobsonesques could become en vogue..., I even spotted a slight inclination on Paul Maxim's blog.
Paul Maxim (2009-01-28)
"Hobsonesque"? OMG, we're creating a monster here!
Seriously, I don't think Andreas' image here is all that "Hobsonesque". While there are certain elements that are similar, the basic style is fundamentally different (in my opinion). I think Mark would freely admit that a key ingredient in his images is a sense of chaos. I think he consciously avoids compositions that are "balanced". I've noticed that the photographs he posts that I like are the ones that break this rule - that, is they tend to have an element of visual balance.
Andreas, on the other hand (again, this is just my opinion), tends to post images that are not chaotic. He may have the horizon line slightly out of kilter - as in this case - but looking at the image doesn't leave you with the feeling that something's "missing".
J. L. T. (2009-01-28)
Hi Andreas,
great point of view! Everything works in a fantastic way. The motif, the colors, the square and the border. Great! Thanxs for the advice to Mr. Hobson;-)
sunny greetings
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