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Weekly Photo Contest | May 10 - May 17 | Music and/or music instruments

P

piatigorsky

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
145
1,666
Taipei
So, something near and dear to my heart. I'm a musician by training (for those who don't know, "piatigorsky" refers to the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky), so let's see what the community can come up with on the theme of music! I've posted a few run-of-the-mill instrument pics below, but don't just be limited to standard musical instruments, or for that matter standard definitions of "music". Portraying sound in a visual medium perhaps? Or some interesting shots of musical instruments doing non-music stuff maybe? (Please, no instruments crushed under a hydraulic press—I saw the recent iPad keynote and it hurt!)

Also, even though I'm an analog photography nut, digital photos are of course welcome as well (although I'm not saying there's no special consideration for film photography!)

Untitled 101.jpeg
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(Nikkormat FTN, Kentmere Pan 400@400)

14750 (1).jpeg

(Nikon FE, Fuji Superia X-tra 400@400)


As always, standard rules apply:
  • The photographs must be your own work.
  • You may only submit one photo per contest.
  • No commenting or liking photos until after the judging has taken place.
  • This contest runs for about a week, starting now
  • At the end of the competition, the judge (last week's winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible.
  • The 1st place winner will start a new thread here with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme, after that it defers to 2nd place).
  • Be sure to update the Contest Master List as soon as you post a new theme.

Contest ends May 18th at 9 a.m. Taipei time (UTC+8) —which is May 17th, 9 p.m. Eastern time (UTC-4)
 
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P

piatigorsky

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
145
1,666
Taipei
@_timo_redux_
Nice contrast and colors, good depth of field to highlight the subject. Accordionist’s instrument nicely complements her clothes as well.



@oblomow
Interesting choice to highlight the sheet music instead of the instrument. I’m reminded of one of the philosophical points concerning “musicking”, i.e. the act of making music, as often repeated by baroque oboist Bruce Haynes in The End of Early Music: what is actual “music”? Very often, for us professionally trained musicians at least, we tend to equate printed sheet music with actual “music”, when in fact it is the ephemeral sounds that we make using the printed page as a guide, which exist only in that fleeting moment you hear them and will never occur again. (I’m reading way too much into this.)



@Hughmac
Love how the light illuminates half of the scene. Gives a sense of mystery to the other half that lies obscured in the shadows. I’m guessing you added contrast in post?



@someoldguy
Scenes like this always look far better in black and white. I’m guessing this is processed from a digital image; I’d love to bring half a dozen cameras each loaded with a different b&w film and shoot the same scene, just to see how each film reacts and interprets each different color.



@mollyc
In contrast with @someoldguy, scenes like this benefit from color I think. Nice accenting of the stage, and shooting wide gives a better sense of presence than trying to zoom in on the performers.



@Janichsan
I love playing with depth of field as well when I shoot b&w film. Interesting choice to put the focus near the end of the fingerboard instead of the hands, as I believe most people would naturally do.



@C0ncreteBl0nde
Like the colors in front of the low-key background. Again this calls to mind the philosophical question of what we mean by “music”: in this case, even though there are no actual instruments in the picture, I can almost imagine what sounds are hinted at through the colors alone.



@Chuckeee
Googled a bit and found the obit related to the tombstone. The man was a double bassist, and I think the tombstone makers should be commended for their accurate depiction of a double bass—for those who don’t know, double bass use mechanical tuning pegs, so the pegs do not stick out from the side on the top on the instrument, and shoulders are generally sloped instead of flat (like other string instruments) to facilitate bending down and playing in high positions.



@Fishrrman
I’ve always liked photos of violin and cello scrolls, so seeing one from another instrument is a nice change. The double courses of strings is also departure from what I’m used to as a cello player as well.



@coolguy4747
I’d just begun to type out “interesting choice to process this as b&w”, when I zoomed in to take another look, and it looks like this was shot on b&w film (or at least a fairly convincing film-looking filter applied to a digital image). In any case, b&w highlights the contrast between light and shadow that we don’t normally see in our usual color vision. (Although shooting concerts on film is always difficult; even if using Ilford Delta Pro 3200, I still need to use lenses with a f/2 or faster aperture and always shoot wide open, so focus always end up soft.)



@lkalliance
Nice choice of focus and depth of field, plus the colors of the instruments, the clothes on the people, and the background trees and rooftops all seem to blend in as one.



@CooperBox
I’ve always liked the inner mechanisms of pianos; seeing your photo has inspired me to make some macro shots of pianos in action for my next roll.



@tizeye
I love photos of “musicking” in action! Makes one appreciate more how much of a physical task music performance actually is. Focus seems a bit soft, although that’s to be expected since shooting musicians in performance almost always requires wide open apertures.



So, tough decisions, but at the end of the day:
1st place: coolguy4747
2nd place: tizeye
3rd place: Janichsan

Over to coolguy4747 next week!
 
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Janichsan

Janichsan

macrumors 68040
Oct 23, 2006
3,125
11,901
piatigorsky said:
@Janichsan
I love playing with depth of field as well when I shoot b&w film. Interesting choice to put the focus near the end of the fingerboard instead of the hands, as I believe most people would naturally do.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the podium! I originally took that picture for MollyC's P52 challenge last year for the topic "Leading Lines". Hence the focus on the strings.

Also: it's not easy to hold a guitar with one hand and the camera with the other and properly focus it… 😉
 
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tizeye

tizeye

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2013
3,241
35,934
Orlando, FL
Just saw this. Will have another one up in a few hours. I have an idea, but need to retrieve a few photos to illustrate. One isn't on this computer other than "unprocessed", hopefully on the laptop.
 
tizeye

tizeye

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2013
3,241
35,934
Orlando, FL
New contest is up
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Weekly Photo Contest | 21 May - 27 May | Out of Context

The theme this week is when the photo subject is out context with expectations. It is a broad subject but something out of the ordinary. Photo examples below, but use your imagination. What is that fork doing in the middle of the lake? Inoperable gun making a statement? Watch out for the...
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