"Pool view of Autumn"

January

Photographer's Comments -

COMMENTS:
 

Karen Leonard	Your retirement community will be sought after. A wonderful architectural shot.
Dean Hellinger	This is a fine shot. Nice composition, well done, I wouldn't change a thing., tranquil and colorful.
Burt Hesselson	This is a lovely view, almost two images. They are so alike the picture becomes static. I cropped a slight amount off the far right, a minute change, but now is nowhere near as static. Good work.
Donn Miertl	Nice shot for the collage.
Tim Christoffersen	The contrast between the chairs and the trees through the window make for an interesting image. I think the pool is a distraction and would have deleted it. I would also clone out the bottle with the red liquid.
Larry Beller	Your committee was right in wanting a strip of water to complete the illustration for its intended purpose. That brings the emphasis into the pool room as your story requires. On the other hand, it doesn't do anything of pictorial interest for those of us who don't live there, and really spoils the composition. Without the water, the emphasis is on the fall scene. Then I think you have a choice: if you put back one window or maybe only a partial window, you can have an odd-number composition where the symmetry is broken a little, and with a little appropriate shading (a very little) the window with the street light gives a subtle center of interest, and you don't have to take that red bottle off of the table. (By the way, my "well calibrated" monitor says you did just right on color and saturation.)
Eleanor Helper replies:	Title: Autumn View from the pool (aka Pool View of Autumn) I think the second title was what I intended. Thanks for the nice comments. It was the near but incomplete symmetry that attracted me to the scene in the first place. Larry, when he received the image, commented that the lamp pole was a distraction but apparently changed his mind. I liked his later suggestion of having odd numbered symmetry ( as in in classic Japanese flower arranging) by including a 3rd window. But the window on the left was incomplete and marred by a large timer. The one on the right was complete butt is marred by a tall pole for a lift for disabled residents. That could have been cloned out but the only chair by that window was white and so was the table. No more windows in the original. I have mentioned before that I belong to American Portfolios CMP2 for which we exchange computer printed images by snail mail, usually 2 images and running about 3 cycles a year. I often send one that has been critiqued by you lovely folks, often following your suggestions. I am scheduled to receive the portfolio pretty soon. So I cloned out the red liquid & bottle and lamp pole (neither crucial to the identity of the scene but kept the water which is). We will see what they say. It is interesting that this winter, after a couple of inches of snow had fallen I went back to the scene. The snow was insufficiently dramatic but far worse was the lack of symmetry—the left hand window had one dark green, one white Adirondack chair and the right hand window had only one white colored chair and one white table. The magic was not there.

Member Bio

Eleanor Helper - Photographic Biography Although I have been a snapshooter for as long as I can remember, I only became serious about photography in the late 1980s when I joined a camera club in Columbus, Ohio, won an honorable mention in my first competition and was hooked. Later that year I won the Slide of the Year but haven’t hit that dizzying height since. A year later I joined a nature photo club. That kept me on my toes. I joined PSA about 1991 and in 2002 went to Pittsburgh for my first PSA conference, attended 2005 in Salt Lake City and hope to go to Yellowstone in 2009.  I also enjoy the PPD study group, CMP2, where we snail mail prints made with an inkjet printer, as well as this EID study group.  I enter PSA “exhibitions” occasionally but not in any organized fashion, occasionally gathering an acceptance. In December 2003 I moved to Kendal, a retirement community in Oberlin, OH and began to search for a camera club. I found and joined Erie Shores Photography Club,  a PSA club, which is a 40-minute drive away. I don’t attend in bad weather and am presently dependent on others for rides.  Entering digital images lets me be active, but I miss the camaraderie of the actual meetings. This club has narrowly-defined assignments for two images & a more general for the third and insists on work no older than two years. I use a Digital SLR, the Canon Rebel Xti.  Mostly I use a Tamron 28 to 300 lens with image stabilization..  I acquired that lens for a Elderhostel hiking tour in Provence three years ago when I needed to keep my equipment light   I find it so convenient I rarely use my film camera lenses or the Canon digital 18 to 55 mm.  Two Canon Elan film bodies darting from 1991 sit in the closet.  I also use an advanced compact Canon G7, small enough to carry in my purse.  It features 6x optical zoom, IS, adjustable ISO settings, optical viewfinder as well as LCD, thus allowing me to compose readily in bright sunshine.  I enjoy it too.