-- Mike Kelly (Kellys@alaska.net), September 25, 1998

Answers

-- Mike Kelly (kellys@alaska.net), September 25, 1998.

What exactly is it that I'm seeing here? (Dried up roots?) Anyway, *I* find it pretty ugly. The composition doesn't please my (simple) soul either. I do like abstracts in general, I should add. But all this is really subjective anyway.

-- Ralf Hafner (hafner@physics.ox.ac.uk), September 25, 1998.

Personally, I thought it was a very nice image of ice over water. The linear formations in the ice (diagonals and semi-circles) are very effective elements. It may have benefitted from a few more colored rocks in the water to sort of fill-in between the linear elements, but overall I thought it was pretty effective.

-- Joe Boyd (boydjw@traveller.com), September 25, 1998.

Actually, there are a lot of nice abstracts buried in this. One I find very nice is the squarish image at (29,43) top left and (293,289) bottom right.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), September 25, 1998.

I agree that a little more color would help to bring the image alive...however, I think it is also very successful as it is...the kind of thing you can hang in the bathroom and just peruse while indisposed =)

-- Jon McNeill (jon_mcneill@hp.com), September 25, 1998.

"Modern" as it may appear, it seems we have seen pictures like this before... It should be tack sharp (looks fuzzy at least on my monitor) and there is a very distracting orange glow on the top, possibly a light leak during scanning? The rest is a matter of taste.

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), September 26, 1998.

Thanks for all the comments. THe orange is a rock under the ice and it is a digital image, so no scanning involved. I really enjoy this forum. I was thinking about the comments to this image and realize that with abstract pictures the context of the photographer (the life experiences) will influence whether other people can relate to the photo or not. That is why one person can say it's ugly and others that it is ok. ( I do value the honesty of the forum members)It seems that the more narrow the context of the photgrapher the fewer people will be able to relate. I shot this because the figures in the ice reminded me of a minimalist line drawing like something done by Picasso. I am a beginner and yes I think it is soft a bit but my camera doesn't have Nikon glass, or it could just be the auto-focus getting confused on the ice.

-- Mike Kelly (Kellys@alaska.net), September 26, 1998.