on the beach

Shooting with a group from the local camera club at the beach - these are ojects at random on the beach.......each different telling a different story.........

Would be interested what others think.......like? no like? get rid of it? ......any constructive critique is welcome

In order :

1 - The Castle
2 - A Little Nipper
3 - Cool Feet
4 - Hodge's Shadow

IMO the only shot telling a story is the one of the woman and the child, but even that is kid of stretching it. The others just look like snapshots of beach scenes.

With the telling of the story in mind, take my thought into account:

The first one, what is the story? Is the person doing something? If so, it is way too small to see. There's no action with the buiding, so this image is a bit ambiguous.

The second, the hand holding the crab down. What is the context? What is going on here? Why is the crab being held? This image tells me nothing as a viewer.

Third, decent, I can imagine the mother chasing the girl, or introducing her to the water. Not much to go on, but more than the other images.

Fourth, says nothing. Could be a lost beachball on a construction site anywhere, as much as it could be on a beach. Putting it in context, maybe some kids playing, a beach, maybe a volleyball net, whatever else would help create a story, might help.

Thos are my thoughts. The shots themselves are technically nice, but since you brought up telling stories, I felt I should share my view on that instead of the usual technical aspects of the images.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Irish

Shooting with a group from the local camera club at the beach - these are ojects at random on the beach.......each different telling a different story.........

Would be interested what others think.......like? no like? get rid of it? ......any constructive critique is welcome

In order :

1 - The Castle
2 - A Little Nipper
3 - Cool Feet
4 - Hodge's Shadow

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I'd like to see the sand castle from a lot closer so that we'd be comparing the sand castle to the grand edifaces behind it.
I think the compostion of the ball/shadow could be improved by limiting the amount of featureless sand around the subject and making it less of a 'bullseye' shot(maybe even tighter than this). I like the color in the shadow.

I find the crab photo to be very "tense" and interesting. I don't think it needs a story to me. I imagine what it would be like if that were me holding the crab down and I get chills down my spine.

I think the crab photo is a keeper. I'm not to keen on the other photos though.

I fully agree with Sebastian. Technically there is nothing totally wrong with these shots, but photographs need to be more more than just a carbon copy of what what was actually seen with the eyes. Anger, sadness, happiness, temperature, loneliness, speed, size, innocence, beauty, age, anxiety, those are just of the few things that one can use in a photograph (and I'm not talking about taking shots of leafs for a biology encyclopedia...).

The word "story" that Sebastian used is actually not the right word (trust me Seb, I've also used that word many times). The word "story" sounds too heavy. What it's all about is trying to make the viewer see things with their brain. Don't get me wrong, viewers shouldn't sit down and look at an image for minutes to figure out what's going on. Take for example a few of the elements I mentioned earlier and think about what we as photographer can do to to express these things. Take for example "danger"; a different camera angle or light setting can express this.

I do think that you made an attempt in picture #3, but because of the wrong camera angle and the lack of visible features in the faces, you've created distance between the viewer and the actual subject, when you were probably trying to achieve the opposite.

#1; I don't "see" a building (even when there is one), I see a lonely guy. You should have increased the impact of that particular element. Try not to go all the times for what your eyes consider beautiful or interesting.
#2; That's for me a snap shot. Nothing wrong with it, but you shouldn't include the fingers. One can say; "yeah, but then he runs away!". Sorry, but doesn't change the fact that fingers shouldn't be there. For some people a shot of this animal might create a sense of a anxiety, because they never saw one up close or never touched one that was alive.
#4; This image had potential. It could have worked if you had included a larger area of the beach. It's clearly a ball that was left behind because it was damaged. A large empty beach would have increased this feeling of "useless, old, wasted, loneliness". Again, there might have been a lot of people on the beach, but that doesn't mean that you can decrease your angle and then hope that the image is going to have the same impact.

I do hope that you understand what Seb and I am trying to say here, because it's such an IMPORTANT part of photography and sometimes hard to explain in just a few words.

1. I like the person on the beach, but I think it'd be a better shot being closer. I could write more, but I'd be repeating what others have already said.
2. Yup, very snap shotty vacation photo
3. It's kinda one of the cliche beach shots to take but can still work--a shame that we see more of their hair than their faces
4. I like this one better than the other folks just because it'd be boring if it didn't have "Hodge" written on it, but perhaps you could take turn this and use it as an interesting element in a beach photo as opposed to the interesting photo in a beach photo

#1) If you had gotten closer and emphasized the little guy's castle compared to the big castle behind him, this would have been an awesome shot. Something more like the crop I made below. I do like the lighting in this shot. It would be harsh in another context, but for a beach it is perfect.

#2) I would have loved it without the hand.

#3) I get the feeling of a cool, windy day. I can feel the breeze on my skin just by looking at the photo, so you were able to capture that effectively.

#4) does nothing for me at all. I agree with the others, a big lonely beach behind it, or the "threat" of the water next to it, would have made the shot stronger.

As for tellijng as story, i would agree with Sebastian s comments. But for visual entertainment, i like the first and the fourth. the fourth being the favorite because of the colors of the ball, the shadow, and the texture of the water.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I have read all at least twice and considered each comment carfully, they are very much appreciated. I have thought long and hard about your comments especially Seb and Elysian and appreciate the time you spent considering my images (that is not to lessen the efforts of others).

Each image still tells a story to me - I was there and experieced the elements of each. I have to agree that they do not convey those feelings to others as well as they might and in future I will be more aware of what I want to convey in the image to the viewer.

This question is like asking "How long is a piece of string"? buuuuuuut............ how much of the image do you show in "context" with the story in mind or how intimate do you get with the subject before loosing the story and the image becoming just a snapshot??? By the way, I see the word "snapshot" as having negative conotations, as in not quite up to par.

Elysian, I understand what you are saying about the emotive side of photography. I know that often an image has an emotive appeal to me that I am not able to explain in technical terms. Surely that emotive content is tempered by the viewer somewhat. Take my second image of the crab

Seb - "The second, the hand holding the crab down. What is the context? What is going on here? Why is the crab being held? This image tells me nothing as a viewer."

Trevor Ash - "I find the crab photo to be very "tense" and interesting. I don't think it needs a story to me. I imagine what it would be like if that were me holding the crab down and I get chills down my spine."

Elysian - "That's for me a snap shot. Nothing wrong with it, but you shouldn't include the fingers. One can say; "yeah, but then he runs away!". Sorry, but doesn't change the fact that fingers shouldn't be there. For some people a shot of this animal might create a sense of a anxiety, because they never saw one up close or never touched one that was alive."

mikehulsebus - "Yup, very snap shotty vacation photo"

kellybean - "I would have loved it without the hand."

All valid comments in their own right??

My take - I tried to catch the tension in what I saw - the crab is trying to scurry away and the young lady is trying to stop it, not wanting to actually hold it nor get her fingers too close to those sharp nippers. I feel the fingers should be there and without them the image would be just another crab.

I have learnt a lot from this post and your valuable comments. I was thinking of starting a thread over in viewfinder on images that tell stories just for me to compare peoples take on this subject.

Thanks for your input and help. :) :)
Andy S

Andy,

That's the thing, they don't tell you stories, they trigger memories you have of the events. That's why they are snapshots. A snapshot is just for you to record a memory and tigger it back in the future. As for the negative connotation, I think overall people here are just trying to move past that and try to make their images speak on their own. So yeah, it does seem like we feel negatively about them, but everyone takes them, for the sole reason of reliving places and events.

The perfect example is the crab shot, you say it was a little girl holding the crab, something I could not at all know from looking at the shot.

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Originally Posted by Sebastian

Andy,

That's the thing, they don't tell you stories, they trigger memories you have of the events. That's why they are snapshots. A snapshot is just for you to record a memory and tigger it back in the future. As for the negative connotation, I think overall people here are just trying to move past that and try to make their images speak on their own. So yeah, it does seem like we feel negatively about them, but everyone takes them, for the sole reason of reliving places and events.

The perfect example is the crab shot, you say it was a little girl holding the crab, something I could not at all know from looking at the shot.

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Thanks for the continued dialogue Seb.

Yeah I understand the context of snap shots and memories but I did not take them while on holiday or to remind me of our day trip to the beach. I genuinely took them to convey something about the place or thing on the day.....therefore they fail in someway to do that.

Continueing with the crab as a sinario - would it have made a better photo if I had included the young woman and her mates?????? Is it relevent to the image if it was a young girl???
These are real questions that puzzle me when composing shots and I will certainly consider in the future

Thanks
Andy S :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Irish

Continueing with the crab as a sinario - would it have made a better photo if I had included the young woman and her mates?????? Is it relevent to the image if it was a young girl???

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Yes, no.

First, yes, it's essential to know the context of the image. Her facial expressions, those of the kids around her, the setting, it all would have helped to tell a story.

Is it relevent if it's a young girl? No. Sex has nothing to do with anything, you're trying to tell a story. Ask yourself, would you buy a book if it only contained the last few pages? No, there is no story in that. Without seeing the surrounding, no matter what gender the person is, we still need to know what went on. That image tells us nothing.