I took my camera to the New York Botanical Garden's Henry Moore exhibit. Here are three pairs of pics--the first in each pair is a whole-statue view, the second a different perspective. I need comments and suggestions for them--especially the second of each pair. Thanks for viewing and for your feedback (as a regular in the sports corner, I'm used to serious criticism).
I like number 4 the best. I believe number 3 would be a better shot without the small children in the picture. I am thinking to myself as I was typing, probably not politically correct to say something about not having children in a picture.
Thanks for the feedback! My wife will be forever in your debt--that's her in the background and she's 5'8", to give you an idea of the size of these sculptures!
It's difficult to make interesting photographs of sculpture in a garden. Most ordinary views, the kind anyone can take as a snapshot without laying in the grass or climbing a tree, usually seem ho hum. Snap shots may accurately depict a piece of sculpture, but they are at best "record" shots. If you are reporting on a new exhibition in a park, then reportage shots are appropriate. If you want to say something about the sculpture, then you need to find your own special vision of what you see and go beyond an ordinary snapshot style. Naturally, having suggested this, someone may pipe in with "What if you want to express an Aunt Millie snapshot style as your message?" I leave that as an exercise for the reader to ponder.
Of the first pair I prefer the second, but the composition is weak to my taste. To the extent it works for me, it's because the sculpture provides a supporting background. With the flowers as the message, saying perhaps "mother nature's beauty exceeds the works of man", it would be an easier message to sell if the flowers were a larger part of the image.
The second shot of the second pair is moderately more interesting to me because it wasn't quite a typical static snapshot. The trees in the background however were distracting and would have been better out of focus. The second shot of the second pair shot was interesting to me because you selected an interesting shape. However, again the pine trees in the background detract from the abstract shape to my eyes. A wider aperture to throw the branches out of focus might have helped.
As always, consider my comments in the light of what you paid for them.
Thanks, Karen-- Your philosophy and your expressions of taste are much appreciated. I purposely did not put the trees out of focus in the fourth picture, as I was trying (in both photos, by the way) to include the NYBG with the sculpture.
