My current portals -- suggestions welcomed!

[Samurai_Writer]

I don't do many 'portal' shots, so I don't know if these are any good or not. If need be, I will go out and shoot more. I'd love to get one of the Chihuly shots in the contest though. Let me know what you think.

Chihuly Sunburst Garden Portal


Chihuly Fan Glass Roof


Chihuly Entrance


Window into the Past


Curtained Window with a Little Something Extra


What's that White Stuff Outside?


Icicled Window

[NV Whino]

1. Lots of good stuff there

I like the first Chihuly shot, the Window into the Past and the Curtained Window. (Maybe we should just have a Kitties in Windows contest. ;)

[RagingInMiami]

2. The first and the last

But the last one better. I wonder how it would look if you crop the right bush out of it, make the right long icicle the right framing point.

Too many "rights" in that sentence.

[SharonRB]

11. I like that one, too

I love how the house is so dwarfed by all of the icicles. I'm not so sure about cropping the bush out (well this bush, I'd love to crop out the other "Bush"), though. I help my hand up over it and I think it adds a reference point to the shot. You're the expert, though, Raging, so I could be totally off base.

[RagingInMiami]

12. I'm no expert

But I do tend to crop a lot. It comes from my newspaper days where photo editors are mad croppers.

But it's all a matter of opinion.

[Samurai_Writer]

13. That isn't a bush!

It's like a 40 foot tall pine tree... It's just closer to the window. I'm on the 2nd floor.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Tough one, RadFem

I'm kind of partial to the last one, although it reminds me that winter is only about three months away. Ack.

[priller]

4. Icicles

Almost unreal looking.

[Boo_Radley]

5. Some comments

Just personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but . . .

Chihuly Sunburst Garden Portal:

I love the colors and framing on this. I think there is a strong draw into the center of the picture, that keeps your eyes coming back. Sort of an implied set of converging lines from the outer ring into the inner one. It makes it hard to stop looking at. It might be nice to saturate the sky a little to make it more blue, though, and I'm not really sure the lens choice was the best. If you had stepped back some and used a longer lens, there wouldn't be the minor perspective distortion, which would have made it even better than it is.

Chihuly Fan Glass Roof:

This is a really fun picture. It's a bit abstract, with lots of good color.

Chihuly Entrance:

This almost seems to be a metaphor for something naughty ;) It would have been interesting to play up on that some. Outside of that, it doesn't really do much for me. Not that it's bad, just that I wouldn't call it particularly interesting.

Window into the Past:

Stirs up a kind of sentimental feeling.

Curtained Window with a Little Something Extra:

I love this. The kitten's personality is very clear. The backlighting gives it a nice, warm glow. The victim, the plant in the window, is just vague enough to take a minute to notice. It's like the punch line to a funny joke. The crossed lines from the window frames and the curtains are interesting, and the chair back draws a nice line in, specifically to the victim.

What's that White Stuff Outside?:

I love the expression on this guy's face.

Icicled Window:

This kind of threatens cliche because of the focus on the icesickles, but it's not quite. The cabin in the background gives it a little flavor, and emphasizes the extent of the snow fall. The colors, of course, are nice. The brilliant blue contrasted against the soft blues in the snow and ice are very nice. I'm not sure I would have given so much space to the ice sickles, though.

[Samurai_Writer]

9. Comments about your comments

Thanks so much for all the constructive comments, first of all! I really appreciate it!

I have not edited any of the Chihuly photos yet, so I definitely will be doing a little tweaking on them. I was using a blue filter lens because it was so damned bright outside (as seen by how freakin' white the sky appears to be). I believe I wasn't using an extra lense on this shot at all -- I was using the wide angle for the entrance shot, as that's the only way I could fit that 'slightly naughty' piece of glass all the way into the frame.

A window into the past is one of a series I took of an old gold ore milling house. That can's label says Calcium Carbonate on it, I believe.

Sterling in the window -- that's a typical Persian expression for you. And he's gorgeous (and knows it), but it really doesn't fit the theme very well. Not enough of the window is showing.

I haven't edited the curtained window pic, either. That was taken at my mom's house, and is my son's cat. The cat actually thought she was hiding from me, since she was behind the curtain.

The icicled window is one of my favorite shots. I haven't edited this one either, so I might crop it a little and see how it looks.

[Maestro]

6. Window into the past

I love the composition in that one. The old can just gives it a added touch.

[regnaD kciN]

8. I agree...

I have a bit of a problem with the first and last Chihuly shots, because it seems to me that they're less an example of "portal" as they are documentary photos of Chihuly's work. (In fact, I'd like the first one better without the Chihuly glass trim.) Window into the Past, however, is thoroughly your artistic creation.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. The first one seemed rather dark in some areas, at least on my monitor,

(probably parts of #2 and #3 also), so I used the Brightness Curve Transformation in Picture Windows Pro to play with your original (hope you don't mind). Basically I just made the dark parts lighter and also the sky a bit darker. If this seems like an improvement, you can probably find similar adjustments in whatever image editor you prefer to use.

[Samurai_Writer]

10. Wow, that makes a world of difference!

I will definitely be playing with the brightness and saturation of that pic and see if I can get it too look similar to that. Thanks!

[intheflow]

14. I like Window Into The Past best.

There's just something about actually looking through a window that stirs the voyeur in me, but looking into a window of an apparently abandoned building takes the creepy "peeping Tom" aspect of voyeurism out of the equation. :P

For the contest, though, if these were my photos, I'd go with the top one. Although I'd probably take ConsAreLiars suggesting and play with the color and lighting a bit.