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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
4/3/2009 11:06:27 PM
Sorry. I don't know what you mean by that.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
3/17/2009 8:49:30 PM
Bill,
Sorry for the gap in replying to you. Seems my email notifications quit working, and I only login to this site sporadicly.
Please tell your wife that gadgetitis is not just a "guy thing". I like gadgets that do cool stuff. However, I am also working at simplicity, removing complexity from all that I do, even simplifying photo subjects. However #2, I also fiddle with making some simple jewelry and mobiles. The mobiles intrigue me to near obsession. So I am a tool freak, too. Love tools! Saturday field trips are to interesting hardware stores. And I don't have a mustache.
Thanks for your photo comments. "The Bear" didn't get much attention at this site, but I happen to like it a lot. I want to have it printed very LARGE! It would be fun to install it on a floor in front of a fireplace. And I agree -- nothing like shooting just for the love of it. When I can just be out and about as a "camera head", I don't want to talk to anyone or have anything invade that dream-world inside my head and what I am seeing.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
3/9/2009 2:57:02 PM
Bill,
Thanks for your expression of the Tri-X "feeling". I didn't get into photography in time to explore what I could do with film, but I LOVE some of the film effects, and I try to achieve them with digital.
Here at Usefilm i am plagued with what nearly becomes an obsession for me. I wonder if anyone else has this experience -- Just by looking at the photo thumbnails, I am able to tell whether a photo is film or digital. I am nearly always correct. I have to not think about it, or it becomes a challenge, and I lose the enjoyment of looking at all the beauteousness of the the photos.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
3/9/2009 2:46:05 PM
Blake,
Thanks for your comments. I also liked the "piercing spires". The halo effect comes from me fiddling with the tones in PS. I just liked the effect. I tend toward the surreal. Much more fun than the real. (grin)
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
3/6/2009 5:47:41 PM
Outstanding effects! I can feel and smell the air! Love the mood!
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| Photo By: A. W. Osnafotos
(K:6373)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/24/2008 1:08:21 AM
Tough things to do lately. Not much inspiration or energy. Working hard to turn negative to positive. Haven't been able to "create" in all my usual ways; my meditation empty. But a walk through your photo gallery today melted the cold shell; even more, your bits of poetry kindled the ember deep within me. I grabbed my own journal and let the feelings flow. I haven't written poetry in such a long time. It is so healing and calming. Thank you for sharing your wonderful works. Seeing and reading them has made a beautiful difference in my day. You are worth much. Thank you.
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| Photo By: Maryam Ashoori
(K:2186)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
8/13/2008 12:10:53 AM
Thank you, Dan. You are, of course, very intelligent and artistically talented to make such astute observations. (grin!)
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
7/31/2008 6:10:17 PM
Stan -- I typically don't upgrade programs, unless I see a good reason to do so. CS2 to CS3 was one with enough good reasons. (I am mostly self-taught, too.) Doesn't mean you can't do what 'you' want to with CS2. When creating an abstract, anything goes; you get to do whatever turns 'you' on, whatever 'you' like to see. Also why any abstract is controversial; hated by some; loved by others. Images look different on screen with the luminescence of the screen behind them than they do printed on flat paper, too. Often I am disappointed with my abstract prints.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
7/30/2008 11:36:10 PM
Peter, I appreciate your comments. In my own little surreal world, I suppose I was going for a feeling of the white-heat of summer above the cool water. And I love the overwhelming white surrealness in IR.
I wasn't sure how and where to make the settings you suggested using my Photoshop CS3, but I made a try. Is the attached what you were thinking of? I have gotten some diminished qualities by sizing for uploading.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
7/30/2008 8:29:48 PM
Hi Stan. This was all done in Photoshop CS3. I no longer have the history, so I don't have the exact process. The original photo was an infrared raw file brought into Photoshop. I would have done some tweaking of levels and tones in the raw conversion settings. Then I probably tried it in tritone mode in CS3, only to take it back to RGB mode for further munging. Perhaps next, I tried different filters available in CS3, both artistic filters and distortion, plus experiments with sharpening. May have been watercolor and pinch filters. Don't have a clue what the individual filter settings might have been. They all make a great deal of difference. Final tweakings would have been bungling around with adjustment layers: curves and hue/saturation. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, but I realized a long time ago that most of the secrets to everything lie in the curves. Understand what happens there and you have incredible power.
I always keep a copy of the original, so that I can start over, if I want to.
I just make bold attacks and attempts till I get what I like or aim for. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't, and I abandon the image and go on to another. I tend to go toward the surreal and abstract, which has no boundaries, only total freedom. Nothing right or wrong.
HAVE FUN!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
7/29/2008 2:33:57 PM
Stan,
Thank you so much for your comment. It was a little bright spot in my morning.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
7/25/2008 3:20:51 PM
I'm enjoying a trip through your portfolio! Love your work! I shoot with a Sony F828, which has some of the same features of the F717, so I admire and envy what you have been able to make your camera do.
Unlike some other comments, I like the strong light on the mill in this one. Makes for a great reflection in the water. I also tend to enjoy the surreal and like an "edge" beyond exact realism.
Thank you for sharing!
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| Photo By: Milan KORMAN
(K:1052)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
5/7/2008 10:30:55 PM
Hussam,
Thank you! I actually submitted the wrong title. Should have been "Shadows of November". I LOVE November light. Photos absorb a magic, mystical quality in November light. This is one of my favorites.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
3/31/2008 6:29:37 PM
Naseer,
Thank you for sharing your appreciation. She is four years old and the most delightful child I have ever known. Always vivacious, fun, sweet, energetic. She was on stage, singing to an audience of her mother and brother. When I appeared with camera, she automatically struck this pose, and I luckily hit the shutter button fast enough, before she quickly changed positions. No time to think or plan; just one of those instant, perfect captures.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
2/5/2008 4:06:31 PM
I LOVE all your green apple shots! They have inspired and reminded me to stay within my own creative mind as I make my own photo-art. It's easy to get pulled away with trying to please others.
I singled out the green apples in my comment . . . but I love your other work, too.
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| Photo By: Rocky Berlier
(K:2009)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
1/7/2008 9:32:14 PM
Thank you, Mohamad! As long as I don't shake the camera, right?
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
12/20/2007 5:15:52 PM
Thank you, Anson. I find intense beauty in the simplicity. You can't create simplicity. It either is or isn't.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
12/20/2007 5:12:28 PM
Thank you so much. As I am telling everyone, the prairie architecture is fast disappearing for all time, and I can't take pictures fast enough. If you have opportunities to capture in photo the vintage architecture where you are, I urge you to do so. It will be a your treasure, when the structure goes away.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
12/20/2007 5:04:33 PM
Thank you, Sumedha. As I am telling everyone, the prairie architecture is fast disappearing for all time, and I can't take pictures fast enough. Capturing them in IR inflects a surreality of the sadness of these beautiful, simple structures being bulldozed away to plant a few more stalks of corn or soybeans.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
11/13/2007 3:17:41 PM
Arif -- thank you! The colors of these bushes were magnificent this year!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
11/7/2007 7:37:44 PM
Mary,
I love your description. Thank you.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
11/7/2007 7:36:36 PM
Thank you so much, David.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
11/7/2007 7:35:10 PM
Thank you so much, Peter. Is anything more beautiful than a tree, with or without leaves!?
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/23/2007 1:13:07 AM
Incredible clarity and focus! Beautiful!
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| Photo By: Michel Beaupré
(K:1725)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/17/2007 3:05:34 PM
Thank you, Sumedha!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/17/2007 3:03:20 PM
Thank you. I started out making pictures totally favoring color. As I have matured (I hope), I have worked on simplifying, and I am finding that color sometimes complicates. Thus, I am appreciating the depth of some subjects through eliminating the complications of color and pulling out the essence of a scene with B&W or simple color tones. This was shot with infrared filters. I am infatuated with IR!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/16/2007 11:24:18 PM
Yazeed,
How kind is your comment! THANK YOU!
Is there a finer form of international communication than the language of photography? We speak to each other without the need for words! With each beautiful photo I see, I breathe an unspoken "thank you" over and over.
And THANK YOU for all your beautiful photos, too!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/16/2007 10:47:22 PM
Thank you! Although the Sony F828 can do infrared via its Night Shot features, I find using filters makes infrared-ing lots easier and probably safer for the camera's sensor.
The vignetting is due to the stack of infrared and ND filters. However, I like the effect with the surreal qualities of infrared, so I usually leave it there. Also gives a vintage, old-camera quality when/if I increase the sepia tones fiddle with other effects.
Wasn't trying for the vintage effect on this one, so very light on the sepia toning. I'm nuts about the infrared!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/16/2007 9:21:47 PM
Thank you. It was a "magic" autumn scene. I hated to move away from it, but you know how it is for photographers -- so many pictures to take, not enough light-hours to do so.
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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Critique By:
DONNA SIERK (K:265)
10/4/2007 8:48:55 PM
Jerry,
In the words of Charlie Chan -- "Thank you . . . so much."
I looked at your photos -- outstanding clarity and brightness! Very nice!
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| Photo By: DONNA SIERK
(K:265)
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