Weekly Photo Contest – August 12-19 – Celebration of Life

[Scepticalscribe]

We all know how to create very good images. Pushing the theme helps keep the challenge in it.

It was an excellent theme, - well done for choosing it and for thoughtful and decent judging @deep diver.

This topic allowed for the posting of lovely yet moving images (such as @Strider64's powerful, funny and moving shot, and the lovely shot submitted by @tizeye), terrific nature shots (@Apple fanboy's superb shot, in particular), and others a little more whimsical.

I liked @mollyc's shot and the story behind it.

Re the mobile phone, I imagine that this is an aesthetic judgment, rather than viewing the photograph as a "historic" one, one which recorded an event that happened as it happened, and let that be its own record.

I suppose (all puns intended) it is a matter of perspective.

 

[mollyc]

It was an excellent theme, - well done for choosing it and for thoughtful and decent judging @deep diver.

This topic allowed for the posting of lovely yet moving images (such as @Strider64's powerful, funny and moving shot, and the lovely shot submitted by @tizeye), terrific nature shots (@Apple fanboy's superb shot, in particular), and others a little more whimsical.

I liked @mollyc's shot and the story behind it.

Re the mobile phone, I suppose that this is an aesthetic judgment, rather than viewing the photograph as a "historic" one, one which recorded an event that happened as it happened, and let that be its own record.

I suppose (all puns intended) it is a matter of perspective.

I'll be honest and say I didn't even notice the phone in my image; I have other similar ones where the phones are more prominent. I didn't want to clone any of them out, though, because everyone was recording their own goodbyes to our friend.

Congrats to Mr. AFB!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I'll be honest and say I didn't even notice the phone in my image; I have other similar ones where the phones are more prominent. I didn't want to clone any of them out, though, because everyone was recording their own goodbyes to our friend.

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't noticed the mobile phone - at all - when I first looked at the photo. It was only after @deep diver remarked on it that I returned to take a fresh look at the picture.

My background is that of a historian, - I used to teach history at university for a living - and thus, when looking (professionally, as a historian or political analyst) at a picture, I look for clues for what it can tell me.

If, for example, in 50 years time, someone looked at your picture, the phone would give a good clue as to social norms (using phones in such a way at a memorial service - unheard of less than twenty - if not ten - years earlier) and actual year the picture was taken (if that had not been already noted).

Removing the phone might improve the aesthetics of the picture (which is a perfectly legitimate aim, especially in a photography competition), but would undermine its value as an authentic (unaltered) historical source.

 

[Apple fanboy]

New contest is up. Transformation.

 

[deep diver]

All of the points about the cell phone are well-taken. Part of the joy of photography is the broad range of vision and ideas that can be applied to a single image.