Can I make a decent photo from this subject?

Go in extra close and go for abstract detail?

Or go for the pun - something sinful in the jaws - cheesecake pic, girly mag, cigarette, fatty food?*

If you are not sure where to start, I'd want to try anything that takes your fancy, and if you think it works come back and try more variations on that theme, and if you think it doesn't go away and come back with some different ideas and try more.

Adrian

*Wouldn't have thought of that before Jack and Roger both did. You're bad influences!
 
I like b/w, and quite often prefer it over color. In this case I'm going to have to be the odd man out. I prefer the color version. I think the color tells me more about the vice, its age, and use or abuse. I could not pick that up as well from the b/w version. As to the box in the upper right corner; it is perhaps disturbing to some, but to me, it balances the rear of the vice going back into the other top corner, along with the white there.

You have gotten some good advice above. I would try any of it that intrigues you, and even that which doesn't. I would try it just as you did, but just enough back to show the entire vice. I would try it from both sides, above, below, and from behind, even if it must be at an angle from behind. I would ask the shop foreman if any composition speaks to him, and if not, what if anything would.

Although you may find some interesting b/w compositions, especially with changes in light, I would probably stay with color for this.

Just my two cents.
 
Leave it!

Leave it!

Wynn Bullock wrote/said:
' My pictures are never pre-visualised or planned. I feel strongly that pictures must come from contact with things at the time and place of taking. At such times, I rely on intuitive, perceptual responses to guide me, using reason only after the final print is made to accept or reject the results of my work.'

It's all very well for guys to suggest what you might have done. But you didn't and they weren't there either.
I don't think that going back to look again at this vice is going to get you a better picture. The time is different, the light is different, your mood is different. Your mind has now suffered from 'interference' from reading what others might have done or might do. The opportunity was there when you took the photo and that is what you saw at the time.

Sometimes we think we have captured a great shot only to find when we subsequently see the result we are disappointed. Sometimes things can be photographed and sometimes they can't. I believe great shots are not created but captured.

So by all means revisit the workshop where you saw the vice but you can't expect to be excited in the same way as before. You aren't attempting a photographic exercise with the vice as a subject, you are trying to express what you see in your world - if others don't like it or think they can do better, good let them do that!

What you hear, read or see about photographs will influence you but only if you are ready to be influenced. Basically you are on your own and must make your own way.
In the end we all have to do the same.

jesse
 
oftheherd said:
I like b/w, and quite often prefer it over color. In this case I'm going to have to be the odd man out. I prefer the color version. I think the color tells me more about the vice, its age, and use or abuse. I could not pick that up as well from the b/w version. As to the box in the upper right corner; it is perhaps disturbing to some, but to me, it balances the rear of the vice going back into the other top corner, along with the white there.

You have gotten some good advice above. I would try any of it that intrigues you, and even that which doesn't. I would try it just as you did, but just enough back to show the entire vice. I would try it from both sides, above, below, and from behind, even if it must be at an angle from behind. I would ask the shop foreman if any composition speaks to him, and if not, what if anything would.

Although you may find some interesting b/w compositions, especially with changes in light, I would probably stay with color for this.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...
Seconded.

Cheers,

R.
 
jesse1dog said:
Wynn Bullock wrote/said:
' My pictures are never pre-visualised or planned. I feel strongly that pictures must come from contact with things at the time and place of taking. At such times, I rely on intuitive, perceptual responses to guide me, using reason only after the final print is made to accept or reject the results of my work.'

It's all very well for guys to suggest what you might have done. But you didn't and they weren't there either.
I don't think that going back to look again at this vice is going to get you a better picture. The time is different, the light is different, your mood is different. Your mind has now suffered from 'interference' from reading what others might have done or might do. The opportunity was there when you took the photo and that is what you saw at the time.

Sometimes we think we have captured a great shot only to find when we subsequently see the result we are disappointed. Sometimes things can be photographed and sometimes they can't. I believe great shots are not created but captured.

So by all means revisit the workshop where you saw the vice but you can't expect to be excited in the same way as before. You aren't attempting a photographic exercise with the vice as a subject, you are trying to express what you see in your world - if others don't like it or think they can do better, good let them do that!

What you hear, read or see about photographs will influence you but only if you are ready to be influenced. Basically you are on your own and must make your own way.
In the end we all have to do the same.

jesse
Click to expand...
Also seconded.

Cheers,

R.
 
A lot of good suggestions, but "peterm1" and "MIkhail" nice photos.

I especially like the last photo by "peterm1" -- light, shadows, and subtle composition.
 
No doubt the replies are more interesting than the photo. Thanks again.

Even if this subject disappears in a fire soon, your comments are more broadly applicable.
 
I was thinking of adding a human element, but hadn't thought of the bikini clad woman.

I'd add two things. An old hickory-handled, ball peen, hammer and the hand of an older (think wrinkles and age spots) craftsman. I'd like to see the cuff of the man's work shirt and hand in dirt. Preferably that greasy, metal shaving dirt that looks like soot.
 
The Flickr set-up works well, and still to photo something within the vise, and involve the mechanic. Like what you are doing - keep going.
 
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