My Magnum Opus
 

The two best mares I have ever raised, conditioned, and trained. Sonrisa; bay paso fino, and Twiggy; black quarter horse.

http://sunshinedixieland.com/magnumopus.html

Have published original photos for comparison. Scroll down to see. In the color inversion, the brownish tarp is roughly the shape of an american alligator head. There are many such (10+feet long) on the St Mary's River where I have often ridden these horses. Work and pleasure, beauty and danger. Thanks everyone, for viewing, and please comment. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Hi Stephen,
I'm totally out of my depth on art and photography, so this is a totally unqualified opinion. I don't like the sidebbar pic at all. It looks photo-albumish. The blurred backdrop of the field and trees is interesting. It has a muted look like certain era of paintings, while the horses stand out in stark and solid relief.

Your horses are absolutely beautiful. I was trained to ride english and western when I was young by a horse trainer who knew all the ropes and taught me just a tad of them. I wasn't allowed to even ride until I'd learned to care for the horses, their hooves, grooming, saddling etc. I admire anyone who is expert on it all and isn't intimidated by these magnificent creatures. I've been bucked, poggo-sticked, reared, and treed. I never really got over my intimidation of them and they always know it.

Jeanne

Thanks, Jeanne. Horses never forget, and they can read body language much better than most any human. I rearranged the two photos
Have a great day.
Stephen

The first photo is just OK, the fence is a big minus, the second photo is really ordinary, blurry and lacking much of anything. I like your enthusiasm but really you should be able to do better.

These don't do your lovely horses justice.

What Ross said. The horses are wonderful. But this isn't a horse appreciation site. The photos are totally ordinary snapshots, poorly cropped, background conflicting with the shot, no tension, no particular interest as photographs.

I only see one snapshot. What's up with this? This is Eratosphere not Instagram. I am being blunt with you because I know you can at least TRY to make art from the image.

There were two images, Stephen, I presume, has withdrawn the less successful.

Remember, on a previous thread, I mentioned "Not to design is to design by default"?

Allow me to clarify this.

To design is to consider and make decisions about an aspect of a piece.

What aspects of a piece is the artist responsible for? Everything. Tone, value (light vs dark), line, color, emotional content, focal point, composition, cropping, scale, texture, depth, light, gesture, rhythm and so on.

If you let any of these slide into default you get a horse appreciation snapshot.

So ask yourself, is this the best crop that could be done, with the black horse cut off? How about focal point, where do you WANT the focal point? How can you subordinate the other areas? Is the brightness and contrast where you want it? Does that blue tarp really belong there? Is it the best angle of these horses? Are you having them lit to the best advantage? How does the background relate to the foreground?

Don't let any of this be default please.

Another thing to consider is that a piece of art should have emotional content, by it's artistry. It's not enough that horses are cool and a horse lover will have emotional response because there are horses. You need to show the beauty of a horse. It's the same as the "show don't tell" aspect of poetry.

The only way to "show" this emotion is to be feeling it while you work on the piece, and maybe, maybe, it will come through to the viewer, because you will not be around to explain to every viewer why Sonrisa and Twiggy are so cool. It has to come through in the piece.

Thanks Sharon, Ross and Michael. Just got the time to try and do something with this.
Done some trimming and radically changed the colors of the image. Please let me know what you think.
Stephen.

Hi Stephen,
I'm happy to see that you are giving these issues some more thought. I would love to see all the images so that we can compare them as they are work-shopped. Would you mind if I went into your original post and put the image in the thread? Then you could go into edit and see how the code is done. It's fairly simple.

I am liking this image better overall but part of me is sad to see the black horse gone. Its strange how a simple change of color can completely change the meaning from powerful glistening muscles to ghostly. The whole image has more cohesion now though.

The tarp is still bugging me. Do you know how to fix something like that? What graphics program are you using? Gimp is very nice and free, however it is mainly for use on the web. PhotoShop has all the functions for print media. Not having PhotoShop myself, I use Gimp and if quality printing is needed I just take my files down to Kinkos and convert them.

Some options would be:
~Select only the tarp and then, in the color menus, shift the hue. Or
~Using the "clone" tool, replace the tarp with another part of the background. (you could lose the fence that way too if you wanted.) Or
~Using the eyedropper tool, pick up some of the red and introduce it into other areas of the image. You can set your paintbrush to be semi-transparent.
Or, if you like it, keep it. It's your piece. Always try new things on a copy.

In a sense I should recuse myself, primarily on the basis of my previously stated thinking that we should have a separate critique area for photography, which is utterly different from painting, drawing, music, dance, drama, and cinema. And from poetry.

That said, I don't know what is gained over a straightforward, especially black and white, photograph when you get into all the compu-futz. What you have shown us are truly horses of a different color. But why are they a different color? When Der Blaue Reiter painters picked their emblem and moniker, they were looking to a painting in which color defined a world in a way in which photography cannot. It wasn't a push-button definition.

Rick, I would love to have another forum for photography, but I hardly think Alex will add another art forum when the one we have uses 1 page to display the last 100 days. The solution? Post post post. I see, on FB, that you have some lovely new paintings up. *wink*

Yes Sharon, That would be good, as you say for comparison. I tried, but must be doing something wrong. The tarp and fence bar and post has to go, so i'll try to match the other colors and cover. I used invert colors option on paint. Was surprised to see the outcome. Now we have ghostly surreal horses and trees. I'll work on it some more and see what I can do.
Thanks again.

hmmm Your code looks correct. I don't know why it's not showing in the thread. Maybe the source website has some restrictions?

Okay, well i'm the webmaster (but very lax one lately) so I'll see if there are restrictions at source. Don't know why there would be, may have to consult with my daughter. She is much more savvy on net publication than I.

I agree Rick, mostly. Having, cared for, conditioned, and trained these horses; the photo is merely one image of years of such work. Not being a gifted painter, poet, writer, etc; I'm happy to have the tools of today's high tech to experiment with such images; and to produce and publish what strikes, interests, or moves me in some way - be it good, bad, beautiful, or ugly (as my life is). Thank you for viewing and commenting. I have much respect for you as an artist, based on your works you have shared on this forum.
Sincerely,
Stephen

Stephen,
I have come back a number of times to this photo of your beloved horses. I finally can articulate my thoughts about it.

First, just based on the color scheme of the abstracted photo, I rather like it. I almost always try the inversion just to see what happens with my own photos. But...this becomes just a shot of two horses, ghostly and pale. And that's ok if that is your intention. But I am a big fan of Chinese brush painting and the thinking behind it; for this technique of painting, the artist looks for the essence of the subject. In your case, it is two horses that you know intimately. If I were taking the photo or manipulating it, I would first ask myself what I want to say about these two particular horses. Are they friends? Do they frequently find themselves in each other's company by choice? And when you consider them, what makes them individuals? I'm not as interested in what makes them fit the generic label 'horse' but rather what makes them uniquely themselves. Is it the eyes, the line of the back, the way the coat feels? I've never been around horses so I know little about them. I can get the information about 'horse' from many different sources, but I can only get the information about these two horses from you. You figure out what you want me to know from the photo, and show it to me. For me, then you have a more successful image.

Thank you, Lorraine.
My aspirations are mostly greater than my achievements - but I keep on, keepin on. Based on this definition of "Art" ; a personal opinion, and statement of artistic purpose.http://sunshinedixieland.com/ElucidationofArt.html
I will let the images of this pair speak for themselves.

"horse people" will recognize, and evaluate many things from the original photo. Health, condition, conformation, gate, approximate age, relationship - dominant, sub dominant (leader, follower), and more - but would not make a factual evaluation or recommendation until they saw them, and put them through their passes (worked them). Both theses horses, have earned thousands of $ in their lifetimes, and are still providing their owners/caretakers countless hours of pleasure and companionship. They are loved. All of which cannot be communicated by a single image. I have videos of them while they were in training, living and working with me, and producing foals (baby horses). Twiggy, black mare & foal; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJN...=TL2FJm7DTfvbE
This may be more information than you want; but I appreciate your interest in this photograph, and my efforts. Thank you for taking time, to comment. I hope you will still appreciate the images, based on what you see, not on what I have written here, or elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Stephen

Stephen,
Thank you for the reply. What it says to me is that, if I am not familiar with horses, then I am left in the dark with this image. That is unfortunate, and reminds me of what has been said to me in the past about writing poetry. The job of a poet is to lead the reader into the experience that the poet had. To me, the job of a visual artist is to lead the viewer into the experience that the artist had. I can appreciate a horse for the qualities that I am shown, without being a horse person. I just feel in this instance, I have been shut out by the artist because of my lacking knowledge of horses.
This comment is not meant to inflame; I hope it isn't seen that way.

Lorraine,
You are most welcome; admittedly, some things do "inflame" us humans. But, is that not, at times - a good thing?
best
stephen