I've always liked this 'fountain' at the Queensland Art Gallery, so I wanted to try to capture the 'feel' of the water. My shots always looked too abstract, and it was hard to identify. I thought the umbrella added dimensionality to it ... maybe its just me
This is awesome. There's so much twisted visual irony (is that the right term?) - it looks like the underside of a fountain (like a ceiling dripping water) if you just take in the top half, but the perspective on the umbrella gives the impression that it's a flat surface like a tabletop receeding away to the "larger" fountain parts on top. Totally confusing, and really cool.
I understand what you mean, but the fountain tiles were black, and so was the umbrella so a colour version would perhaps have no colours either?
Walter ... glad you liked it Perspective was indeed why I wanted the umbrella in there. I needed to take several shots as small gusts of wind kept moving the umbrella in most of the exposures (glad I wasn't using sheet film ;-)
While it may seem odd to ask for critiques on older pictures, I'm hoping it feeds into my compositional consciousness.
The ambiguity of space and form is intriguing. you would expect that the umbrella would ground the photo and provide some reference, but it does exactly the opposite.
some photographers, and viewers alike, feel a need to nail their work to an exact time and place. They need know what the thing in the picture is before they can determine whether or not the photograph is any good. I think this is total bologna. A good composition will always transcend subject mater.