A couple of years ago I found the hog, it felt like it was a good place. Some weirdos, some egotists but a whole lot of really good people. Then I found FYC. Even better, honest, enough personalities to make it interesting and a pretty good standard of photography combined with people who seemed to care about pics and genuinely wanted to help. So I hung around for a while and did my best to contribute and to learn. But then the drift started and FYC seemed to be wandering more towards social media and less about photography. Too many opinions and not enough considered critique. Too much PC and not enough people prepared to accept that critique may mean stepping on some overly sensitive toes. So I thought I would wander off for a while, give it a break and then check to see how things evolved. So a little time has gone by and I stuck my nose in and found the new format. Now I am pretty flexible and am happy to embrace the new. I could get used to the new page layout and with a little tweeking I could organise the front page to suit me. BUT!!!! Have you noticed that instead of an advert at the top and the bottom of the page we now get 5 adverts layered in between the pages. Just because I read an article in my local newspaper about the political situation in Thailand I get cookies dropped in which end up on the Hog with not two but now 5 lots of Thai women who seemingly cannot survive without my attentions. I do a search for Canon lenses and suddenly I have lots of Hog ads trying to sell me a lens or two or six. Grudgingly I accept that advertising is the inevitable insidious consequence of most of the good stuff, but when a software revamp ends up in a whole lot more advertising I get very very cynical. So what can I do? Well very little of course. I will vote with my feet, and won't be back but in big scheme of things nobody will care. The Hog will keep on keeping on but it seems more and more that it will become another incarnation of social media with advertising and profit as its real basis. Sad really, it and FYC had such potential. So I vote with my feet. To the good guys here, and you know who you are, I wish you well

Peter

The look on the little guy's face is priceless. As usual, a very good instant grab which perfectly captures a moment. The contrast of the two looks adds a really interesting dimension, I could almost hear the groan of 'Oh Mum you are soooo embarrassing'' under his breath as he rolled his eyes. If I was going to be picky and it is minor, then I think the dark patch in the sign just behind her head tends to merge with her hair but I guess with street that's what you get sometimes.

Another good one.

Catch you later

Peter

Many thanks for the compliment.
And yes I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd. Is it that obvious?

Peter

Sleepwalk... not me. Once I hit the sack nothing moves me.

Peter

Actually you picked one of the dilemmas I faced at the time, to correct the angles or not to correct. In the end I chose not to but you are right, correcting or exaggerating would yield interesting results. (have put that in my pp notebook for reworking the image)

Many thanks

Peter

If I had a fraction of Escher's talent and skill I would be a happy man. But thanks for the association, I will bask in the reflected glory.

Peter

I did this a couple of years ago and was thinking of revisiting the idea, but hopefully with much improved pp skills. It was a pic of a staircase leading down to a window, I just went through the imaginary process of demolishing the walls. Any thoughts?

Peter

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And to that you can add a definition which may pertain to one or two of our members.

original: an eccentric or unusual person, (synonyms) non-conformist, free spirit, bohemian, maverick, oddity

Peter

Though we start at different points actually I agree with your final sentence. Its a circular argument with no endpoint, which may come down to little more than how we define particular words. That's why taking pics is much more fun than doing lots of words.

Peter

'Original' is one of those fuzzy terms which has a range of value laden meanings and nuances. But, within a creative context, it seems to imply something which is different or unusual, a different take on what was done previously, perhaps a new insight or a new approach. There is also the sense that the originality results in something of significance being produced, something which is of importance. If something is built on previous insights, or is an adaption of another idea, that in itself doesn't preclude it from being regarded as original. Einstein's work certainly built on and borrowed from the work of others yet it would be fairly hard to regard his work on general relativity as not being original. As much as anything it is in seeing the same things as others but in a different way which characterises the original thinker. When we see something we recognise as an original piece of work whether in art or science or whatever we are aware not only of the originality of what was produced but also the originality of the thinking, and the mind that produced it. So is Billy right that every snap is original because it is a particular arrangement of the universe at a particular moment in time, never to be repeated? In one way yes because the product is unique. But for me merely being unique is not the same as what the concept 'original' has come to mean. Originality is the result of conscious effort and is a way of seeing the world through different eyes. Certainly the product is unique but so is the mind and the viewpoint which produced it. And so I can confidently say that I have have produced many thousands of unique photographs many of which, I hope, have impact and hopefully one or two which have a lot of impact. But I, like most others, have produced nothing original............ yet.

My preference is for dead flowers, I like the crinkled browns and subdued yellows. And in truth I rarely do flowers. But I like these two. The first taken in my local botanical gardens in noonday sun then a touch of fiddling in PS and the second taken somewhere else, far north Queensland I think, but I can't remember.

I hope you like them.

Peter

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I have tended to turn my nose up at still life in photography as being little more than a rainy day thing when you can't go out and take real pics. WRONG!!!! This is lovely. Subtle, gentle tones and really well lit. I can see a whole other direction I could go in which is a backhanded way of saying that this is quite inspiring. A crate, a couple of books and a light source. And you have full control of every element. Very impressive. Well done.

Peter

I dropped in a sky, tweeked the details, tried B@W conversion both modest and extreme. All of which gave interesting stuff but didn't add to the central subject, ie the barn. Now if the barn had been falling to pieces and rusting away, exactly the same composition would have given a whole different pic with loads of impact. But short of waiting 40 years till it starts to fall apart for a reshoot I would file this one away in the same dusty 'almost-but-not-quite' closet that so many of my pics end up in.

Peter

Agree about the composition as I have already commented and I will certainly have a look at the results of darkening. a comment which lines up with Billy's thoughts. Also my thanks for the links you sent, I will spend some time wandering through and stealing as many ideas as I can.

Peter

I am always happy to pay for good service but what gets up my nose is when you pay a for good service and good food and you get neither, ambience can't make up for the feeling of being ripped off.

Interesting I never thought of it as still life because it is generally something that I don't really enjoy. I just saw it as a table in a cramped up corner of a tiny cabin. As for taking comments hook line and sinker...... naaaa! too old for that but I will have a think about Mangel's comments I figure there is something to learn from everybody. But from your first comment you seem to have a positive view of the pic which puts a grin on my face. Many thanks for your thoughts and for taking the time to comment.

Peter