I'm not too happy with the new software for this scanner. I see artifacts! dammit!

Well, onward ... This is in response to the request for portraits, and I'm too lazy/busy to figure out how to tap into that pre-existing thread.

This little guy is now my giant son. I made this picture in the first week I met him and his mom, who is now (guess what?) my wife. Summer of 1990... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), June 01, 2000

Answers

i like this. there is an intimacy displayed, a child deeply involved in his own world. my only nit to pick? the loss of sharpness in the child's right arm. depth of field? shutter speed?

wayne harrison

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), June 01, 2000.

Most of the time, I don't enjoy kid pix. It's too easy, especially when they show the same old maudlin things. You know, the girl running through the field of flower, that genre.

As usual, Tom avoids the too easy, the too sentimental, and goes for the gut. This is so different than most kid pix, it's just a knockout.

I don't want to turn this into a thread of the same old kid shots, so here's one of mine, a pinhole photo of my son.

Apologies and gratitude to Mr. Meatyard.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), June 01, 2000.

Thanks Jeff, for the visual complement, in the various senses that pun implies.

I was mentioned once in a review that said the displayed pictures were "casually mysterious". I think yours are mysteriously casual. I'm graced by your company... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), June 02, 2000.

Re : Imagination: Hard at work

A great image of a child losing himself in his own world and straining against the rope, while also using the rope to hold himself back and keep a hold of reality.

-- fw (finneganswake@altavista.net), June 02, 2000.

Imagination:Hard at work"

Hi Tom, Nice photo of your son. I got the idea by your message that there was some dissatisfaction with your 1600. What's going on?

I think I sent you this, but for the joy of putting my kids on the forum, check out: http://www.amherst.edu/~fmward/menu.html

Yours, Fank

-- frank ward (frank@culturalvisions.com), June 02, 2000.

He looks a little "raccoon eyed" in this picture, but the area around the bridge of his nose shows some kind of mottling that's not in the print. It just bears some investigating. I scanned this as a color picture and it looked so bad, I desaturated it. Maybe that caused the problem. I'll compare that to a normal b&w scan of this image as a first step... t

fw, thanks for the metaphorical take, I am so close to this image, I hadn't considered any larger view. And Frank, your attitude about cameras reminds me of my attitude toward mountain bikes when I built my first one 20 years ago. I'd buy the best components I could find for road bikes, bmx bikes and trials motor cycles, and start drilling and grinding on them, right out of the box. Then glue 'em and screw 'em to an old Schwinn bomber... most excellent fun, dude! I'm gonna try a trashed diana lens on a body cap for my F series 'blad.

That's a nice pic of your kids and a fun modification on the 7, I'll bet it's tricky to print... glass carrier?... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), June 02, 2000.

Jeff, your )above) photo made me immediately think of this one. And I swear to God I didn't set this up. I'd been printing in the studio out back onw night and as I came back into the house this was the scene I encountered. The first few frames are okay, but then the image on the tv changed to this one that's in the picture, and ther kid started thrashing around (he was in his "Houdini" phase and would beg us to tie him up so he could escape. I swear I didn't tie him up, although it seems like a better idea, these days... t I hope this works...

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), June 02, 2000.

Tom, your initial image is the epitome of child lost in daydream and thought. Not unlike the geek in "Breakfast Club" sticking a pencil up his nose and making it stay by itself - totally immersed in fantasy, maybe role play. Excellent capture here. There is a lot going on in this child's head.

It may be too much beer and wine, but am I the only one here who detects a "second" image of Jeff's son in the left side of the image? Squint a little, look at shapes and tones. OK, I'm weird, but who said you had to be totally normal to post to the PPF, eh?

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), June 03, 2000.

Forgot to add comment on your second image here, Houdini. I don't know what it is, but I so enjoy small unrelated details of photographs that I feel compelled to make comment on them. The power strip. Mighty fine. So what if it's an every day object. I love it. Good blurring effect on Houdini. Interesting timing on the TV shot. I just love photography because it has so much to tell of things and places and people.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), June 03, 2000.

Imagination: Hard at Work. This is so much better than my own memory of me in the same situation, sitting in the back of class. In the third grade. Picking my nose!

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), June 03, 2000.

hehee, Houdini Jr. sounds cool, t.

I spent a couple of years(6and7 maybe) thinking I was a vampire. My folks would find me in the neighbor's backyard scratching at the windows well after they put me to bed. I have an old polaroid of me in my jammies with omnipresent, fake fangs in my mouth. Nothing as good as you and Jeff's pics. Great stuff. One day Houdini Jr. will love that pic. I laugh at all my grade school photos.... if I'm not wearing my incredibly inappropriate Boone's Farm tshirt I'm decked in federation clothes with spock bangs and pointy psuedo-sideburns... encourage weirdness or in the very least allow it or well, just tolerate it then. Great pics guys......

-- Trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), June 03, 2000.