Challenge 30: Remembering Dad

[hqsbud]

My first submission for a challenge, but you don't have to be gentle.

http://ftanaka.smugmug.com/photos/14403976-O.jpg

[gus]

Outstanding !! :thumb You gave a photograph set life.

[Nir]

My first submission for a challenge, but you don't have to be gentle.


Gentle?! Simply beautiful! :thumb

[TristanP]

I really like it - worthy of a frame.

[ginger_55]

That is wonderful: both for the challenge and for you to frame and "remember".

It was wonderfully done. A good man is the message I get, and well loved. It really is challenge "worthy"!

ginger

[wxwax]

:wave Hi hg, welcome to dgrin!

Great idea. The sepia's a good look. A couple of thoughts: the composition of the items in each frame is almost identical; and the pics are interchangeable.

To keep it fresh, you might want to try different compositions of the objects in each of the three shots. As to the second point, it's a matter of taste, but there's no guiding concept to the triptych - right now there are three almost random shots, their order doesn't matter. Might it be stronger if you used the composition of each shot to help tell a story? Perhaps there could be a progression from the first to the last image, or perhaps the center image could dominate, with support from the two side images?

Just something to think about. Nice work and a fine tribute. :nod

[Andy]

:wave Hi hg, welcome to dgrin!

Great idea. The sepia's a good look. A couple of thoughts: the composition of the items in each frame is almost identical; and the pics are interchangeable.

To keep it fresh, you might want to try different compositions of the objects in each of the three shots. As to the second point, it's a matter of taste, but there's no guiding concept to the triptych - right now there are three almost random shots, their order doesn't matter. Might it be stronger if you used the composition of each shot to help tell a story? Perhaps there could be a progression from the first to the last image, or perhaps the center image could dominate, with support from the two side images?

Just something to think about. Nice work and a fine tribute. :nod

fine critique, sid. i agree completely.

i'll add: try different perspectives, too ... in other words, not just "from above"

:clap

[ginger_55]

I thought it progressed by your father's age and interests as he got older.
If that is so, I guess you might want to make it more obvious.

Plus the other changes..............Andy and Sid know more than I do on presentation.

ginger

[ian408]

:wave Hi hg, welcome to dgrin!

Great idea. The sepia's a good look. A couple of thoughts: the composition of the items in each frame is almost identical; and the pics are interchangeable.

To keep it fresh, you might want to try different compositions of the objects in each of the three shots. As to the second point, it's a matter of taste, but there's no guiding concept to the triptych - right now there are three almost random shots, their order doesn't matter. Might it be stronger if you used the composition of each shot to help tell a story? Perhaps there could be a progression from the first to the last image, or perhaps the center image could dominate, with support from the two side images?

Just something to think about. Nice work and a fine tribute. :nod
A slight change to the composition might make it better but I found
that while each was similar, each takes us to a different period in time.

I'd like to hear what the radio, watch, drink and glasses symbolize. I have
an idea they are clues to the times in the pictures.

Ian

[hqsbud]

This is really great feedback! It is supposed to be a time progression from left to right, but there are large gaps in the photo record, so the effect isn't as strong as I'd hoped. I like the idea of a center photo with supporting ones on the side which might help that problem, and I'm starting to form ideas of different perspectives in my head, maybe with a very shallow DoF.

The wine glass is supposed to be a "here's to you" prop, so it should be a shot glass, but I don't own one. The glasses are a left-over idea from my attempt at Challenge 29 which didn't work out: after looking at the photos, I would take off my glasses to reflect. It could also represent the reading glasses he usually wore since I was a kid. The watch is mine but it looks like my dad's watch he nearly always wore. The bible is because he was devoted to helping his church, and because his church handled his funeral wonderfully. The radio really was his. He almost always had a transistor radio in his pocket with an earphone since I was a kid, and I bought him this radio a few months before he died.

[ian408]

Something else that these images also say is "The more things change, the more they stay
the same". At least to me.

I don't know that I'd change too much.

Ian

[Jenny]

This is beautiful!:clap I really don't know what I would critique on other then what has already been said. I just wanted to say that I love the composition.

[Brett]

Simply beautiful. Not much I can say about this that would be "negative" or constructive criticism.

[bham]

This is a nice piece of work. After reading your explanations of some of the objects, I might try to find an old radio, for the picture. The new one seems to draw my attention. Maybe altering the radio somehow in post processing to give it an aged looked.