Martin - Gallery 4

[Admin]

http://www.releasephotogroup.org.uk/mgallery4.htm

Martin's latest gallery is now on the website. We hope you enjoy these images and look forward, as ever, to your comments and debate.

[Joe Tully]

Hi Martin

There are wee patches of green breaking out around my gills. From time to time I get asked whether I would like to go to the "States" and I always respond with an emphatic "No", except for Yellowstone, Yosemite and possibly New England in the fall. The rest you can keep. Looking at your shots here is causing Pavlovian slobbering to break out around my chops. Lovely!
ELEMENTAL PATTERNS...Looks almost like something you brought back from Mars. All mood and mist and smashing rich colour. I spy also a very nice "Z" composition here... the horizon,left to right, the brown central bit (right to left) and the red patch (left to right). Love this.

UNDER THE BOARDWALK... Another cracker. The colours are rich and clean, the shape of the boardwalk almost perfect and the couple vanishing into the mysterious swirl of the mist. A small (very small) pity that they are so close to edge of frame. Another cracker.

YELLOWSTONE TREE... Ansel watch out. I like the plume of geyser mist in the background.

RELEASE... A similar image. Actually I prefer it to Yellowstone Tree even though the spike of tree in centre rather splits the shot into 2 parts. The addition of the figure on left adds both scale and the human element to this shot. I like this shot a lot but would certainly attempt to remove that central element in Photoshop. It should be possible.

JOURNEY INTO SPACE... Another nice one. Sci-fi stuff for sure. The two figures look a bit bewildered and lost, as if they have just stepped out of their lander and don't quite know what to do next.

A very nice panel. Thanks and keep it up.   Joe

[Overbeyond]

A very good panel here from the Lost Soul. A couple more from Yellowstone and we would have an excellent series.
Cheese Grater 2 (Elemental Patterns) is rather beautiful and for me is the highlight of the bunch. Lovely colour/patterns with a nice atmosphere.

The Boardwalk shot is excellent and you would actually expect the boardwalk to lead you straight into the Cheese Grater, if you get my drift. Not seing the full boardwalk here is unusual but is a plus point as it means there is more room for the interesting stuff.

Man/Woman viewing the artwork is a common enough subject nowadays and something unusual is required to lift it above the others. I don't feel this one has it though.

Suspended is interesting and the net and all the wires, that monopolise the composition,  are cleverly placed in the frame. A very good photograph.

Release has a great apocalyptic feel to it and works well.

Caged I'm afraid does little for me at all.

All in all a very strong panel from the Lost Soul.

[Glenn Rossiter]

Martin,
Many thanks for your panel from the US. Your Yellowstone shots for me are the picks, especially with your emphasis on huge depths of field and unusual placements of objects in the frame.  Some special comments.
Threes Company - I feel I should be commenting on the wall painting inclusion more than your Photograph, so that is a distraction. Pity.
Elemental patterns - love the geometries in this and the way it all comes together -well done.
Under the boardwalk - My pick of the panel .. love the sense of space and the way one is drawn through the landscape. Good stuff.
Suspended - I enjoyed the 3 layers bottom, Top and connecting net, again good use of DOF.
Journey into Space - This type of composition I like, as you know .... sense of depth is dramatic, it could do with a colourful equally dramatic sky to enhance the sci-fi angle.
The tree studies and Caged for me were less impressive, probably due to their overly simplistic compositions.
Thanks Again for the views. Glenn

[Martin]

Hi Guys

Many thanks for your comments on my panel.  As usual I'm late in replying
with no excuses at all except a move of house recently and pressures of life
and work.

I'm glad you generally like the Yellowstone images.  I thought I'd exhausted the supply
but keep on going back to the image bank and finding more.  They all stem from a highly
enjoyable visit in Autumn 2008 when we stayed in the park for 5 days and were rewarded
with superb light on every day.  Isn't it also good to be able to pick your spots to visit early morning
and evening.

Joe, don't drown in a pea green sea of envy Man!!.  Get on your bike and visit the place!!  Remember we only
have one time around and you'd absolutely love it.  Best viewed in an old Californian style vee dub
with grafitti on the side.

I'm also pleased you generally like the mono shots, two of which, again, were taken in
Yellowstone.  Interestingly no-one here seems to like Caged and yet I was having a conversation
with a colleague "groupie" of our site this afternoon who put it top of the bunch!!  Isn't photography
interestingly.  I certainly agree with Joe that is a subjective business, despite all our pretentions
to be otherwise.

The only other comment I would make is that with me what you see is what you get (with few exceptions!!)
None of my shots are ever reconstructed and I'm happy with that.  

Overbeyond.......my soul is not lost but happily united with non-alien beings;) Thanks anyway.

Best wishes to all Release friends

Martin the Medieval