The Final Step

[Yatlapball]

Was walking along the train tracks looking for photo opportunities last weekend when I spotted this torn-up slipper lying by the side of the track. It made me wonder... "Where is its owner?" Maybe I was being a little morbid and macabre when I composed the shot. But images and themes of death and suicide popped into my mind.

Shot on Kodak 100-TMX. (as with all my other shots on film, aperture and shutter speed forgotten, heh)

Admission of guilt : I digitally manipulated the picture, adding motion blur to the train. I shot the original with a tack-sharp train as I knew it was the last train before sun-down, so I thought it would provide me with more options when I went into post-processing. Since I couldn't possibly take two separate shots.

Does the composition work for you? And does it convey the same feeling as it did when I first saw it with my eyes? (without reading too much into all the mumbo-jumbo above. heh)

The final step before...

[yehosaphat]

Nice! Though digitally manipulated, I like the feel of the overall B&W, sense of motion of the train and the slipper.

[ortega]

i feel that the train tracks are an important element in this composition and will
enhance your image. Also if the viewpoint was changed to more frontal you would be able to
imagine the next step.

[Yatlapball]

Tks yehosaphat

Ah... Heh. Yes you are right ortega Thanks.

But when I included the tracks in the photo.... Because there are actually two sets of tracks. And the train is actually on the one further away... ...

I actually have another one that shows just the tracks and the slipper (no train though) But you'd have to spank me for posting a 2nd pic

[microcosm]

"Dangers by the tracks"

Powerful image this is. The post processing and choice of shutter speed gave the composition what it needed. The tension. This is one good image. But at the same time, I would ease off a little on the "grunge-ness" of the image though... it became a little too pop art-ish for the shot and the scatter-dots on the left side of the image is competing too much with the blurry train. Might want to go in and blur that side and you will see the train "jump out" more. And the slipper should have a little more emphasis too... but nevertheless, I like the composition of the shot. Nice one.

[Yatlapball]

Ok noted. Thanks microcosm. I will re-process the photo again to try and reduce the grain. It sort of became golfball-sized during PP

Should I eliminate the grain totally? And have a blown sky? Or would a smaller amount of grain (like in the middle portion), balance things out better.

Ok, you lost me here. Heh. What do you mean by the grungeness and pop-artish? I'm not very familiar with these terms when used in photography.

[microcosm]

Originally Posted by Yatlapball Ok noted. Thanks microcosm. I will re-process the photo again to try and reduce the grain. It sort of became golfball-sized during PP Should I eliminate the grain totally? And have a blown sky? Or would a smaller amount of grain (like in the middle portion), balance things out better. Ok, you lost me here. Heh. What do you mean by the grungeness and pop-artish? I'm not very familiar with these terms when used in photography.

Blur out the grains and soften them a little so that they don't compete with the main subjects (train and slipper)... also, I think you should use mask to bring the eye more to the slipper too...

[nyxx88]

From my point of view: reading the title first (when clicking the link) & then seeing the picture, everything was clear -- no further explanation needed. So, the picture succeeded in conveying the message.

Have to agree it is a bit on the morbid side though

[Yatlapball]

microcosm: ok got it I will try to apply the suggested changes once I get back to SG and do a hi-res scan of the negative. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions.

CJgoh & nyxx88: Tks Glad you like it.

Yeah. Feeling a little morbid lately after looking at this .

[munkey]

I felt that the picture didn't work for me, too many things going on at the same time, no good.

[Yatlapball]

munkey: sure. Then what would you suggest then?

[munkey]

More detail on the foreground would be good, I know you may have done it on purpose, but you could try discarding this effect, and see how it goes with more focus on the tracks. They look gorgeous

[tribal.snake]

hmm takes a while to understand the pic without reading ur desc.
i like the idea of the pic
but the top 2/3 and the bottom 1/3 feels too detached
try printing out in pic to see.

[Yatlapball]

I deliberately burned in the areas around the slipper in order to give more emphasis to it. Otherwise it just becomes another item lost in the foreground clutter of rocks. In any case, if I wanted to showcase the tracks... I would have opted to shoot it totally differently.

tribal: will get round to doing that in a couple of weeks once I get back to SG. I gave up on the local labs here already.