A vision of life by Ment

[Ment]

Hello, since this is my first post, let me introduce myself. I'm a 18 year old student in the Netherlands with a passion for photography.
Since I don't have large budget, I use a Fuji S6500fd aka S6000fd.

Please feel free to criticize :D

1. Going up
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/man_met_hondII_klein.jpg

2. Labyrinthe
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/wandelpad_klein.jpg

3. Little girls
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/meisjes_op_bal_klein.jpg

[WoodstocK]

liked the first one most
don´t really have any crits right know... il try better next time :D

i think the second one, the first curve to the right (walking down way) it´s not "bleeding" and all the others are... so maybe u could try to crop them all inside the frame or all bleeding the frame just to try a more "proportional" thing...
something like what i did but i don´t like the results... maybe a re-shot do better...

[purplerose]

Pretty nice tones and composition in the first one.

[Ment]

@woodstock, thanks for the comment
Can you explain what you mean with bleeding?

@purplerose, thanks for your reply

I will add more photo's soon.

[Ment]

4. exotic

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/waaiende_bladerenII_klein.jpg

[Nike]

I like the first one a lot, too. Very nice atmosphere :)

With the last one, I'm not quite sure. I like the composition and I like the "feeling". It looks a bit like wind is playing with a few of the leaves.
It seems a bit overexposed, some branches are so white that they're melting into the background a bit too much - maybe that's matter of taste.

[Ment]

Thanks :)

I know the last one is quite overexposed, next time I will try to preserve more details.

[Ment]

A small update with 2 photo's from my archive:


5. snowy painting
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/tafel_in_de_sneeuw_bwII.jpg

6. Tree
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/boom_zw_klein.jpg

[Ment]

Another update, I tried to capture the sunlight in this photo.

Crits are welcome als always :)

7. Beam me up Scotty
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/garagepoorten_klein.jpg

[purplerose]

Nice tones in that one.

Keep playing around with your compositions though.

Composition exercise for ya: Whenever you take a photo, try to take at least 3 photos of it with varying compositions and angles. Should help you a bit. :)

[samsite999]

your first and second photos are great. the composure and tone are great on them. your 3rd one is a little blurd and i think you were possably trying to hard to take a photo here. it just doesnt work
4 exotic has nothing for me. the tone is ok. i just done feel anything here.
5 another great photo. i would have proabbly gone for more of a aggressive crop here and taken out a lot of the wasted space at the bottom.
6 there is to much going on here. no composure. What am i supposed to be looking at?
7 i can see what you were attempting to do here. you did what you inteded but as a photo it just doesnt work

all the best... ME!!

Sam Oliver

[Ment]

Both thanks very much for your comments, they are really useful :)

@purplerose: I'm trying to mind compositions better each time I take a photo, I will sure try it next time :)

[Ment]

This time an update with some architectural photo's I collected the last months.

8. Inside out
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/wintertuin_flats_klein.jpg

9. Left as it is
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/verlaten_schoolgebouw_klein.jpg

10. Lines
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/lidl_gebouw_klein.jpg

[Ment]

2 days ago I went to town, here are some photo's I made there.

9. I want to ride my bycicle, I want to ride my bike (as long as you got the song from Queen in your head :p)
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/verlaten_fiets_klein-1.jpg

10. Travelling to ancient times
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/sint_servaas_brug_klein.jpg

11. A little fighter
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/klimop_klein.jpg

12. Drowning
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/pilaren_te_water_bw_klein.jpg

13. See inside
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/doorkijk_fortezza_klein.jpg

And keep the crits coming ;)

[VenomVindicta]

Holy crap some of these are immense!

Especially #5, i absolutely LOVE that one :D

Keep going, theres alot of potential here.(:

[Ment]

Thanks for the reply Venom, I will sure keep going :D

[Ment]

The weather was lovely, and when the weather is lovely....
Anyway here are 2 experiments from today.

14. Alien scape
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/landschap_hard_klein.jpg

15. Mc. Loud
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/wolkie_bw_klein.jpg

[Ment]

Here is my weekly update, this time featuring nature.

16. Lonely
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/laddertegenboomstam.jpg

17. Composition of lines
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/laddertegenboomstamII.jpg

18. Flowering
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/bomeninbloei.jpg

Crits are more than welcome as always, thanks in advance for using some of your time to look at my photo's ;)

[Nike]

I love the colors in alien scape. That picture has a nice feel :)

I think in the last batch, all are lacking contrast a bit. 16 has nice colors, in 17, maybe it would be more interesting if the ladder would stand out more (wider open aperture)? from the background? But maybe only a little more contrast helps most.
Nice idea :)

Keep them coming!

[Ment]

@Nike, thanks for you comments, they are really helpful :)

I made my own IR filter, so here are some experiments from the local park.
Crits are very welcome here, I'm still getting used to this form of photography, it's quite difficult ;)

19. Dreamscape
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/overzichtpark_klein.jpg

20. Blue and shiny
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/blauwedruifjes_klein.jpg

21. Snowwhite
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/deglorieteI_klein.jpg

[daedicurus]

i like the experimentation in your new ones IR filters are usually shot in B&W and its nice to see some coloured shots, (how did you make your own?)

[Ment]

i like the experimentation in your new ones IR filters are usually shot in B&W and its nice to see some coloured shots, (how did you make your own?)

For me the color added to the atmosphere :)

You take two pieces of developped but not exposed dia film and glue them together. When you hold them in front of your lens, you get IR photo's.
Mr. Mu had a topic dedicated to IR filters and how to make them in the old forum, here you can find much information
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=95584

[purplerose]

21 and 19 have really nice moods. Good work . :) I'm gonna try out that DIY filter technique.

[Ment]

I experimented again with my IR filter, this time a little closer to home :)

22. Weeds
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/onkruidoptrap_klein.jpg

23. Sta(i)rs
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/trapnaarbenedenI_klein.jpg

24. Fantasy
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/bloemetjesII_bew_klein.jpg

[carolupus]

I really like 23. nice composition and that melancholic feel to it..

[purplerose]

I like 23 too, it's very surreal. I'm so psyched to try the IR filter technique though. :)

[thorshammer]

Some of these photos are great! I really love #'s 2, 10, 12, 19, and 23. #'s 19 and 23 have such a unique atmospshere to them that they really feel as if you are in another world.

Great Work!

[Ment]

Thanks all for your replies :) I'm uploading some other IR photo's soon, I really love this kind of photograpy.

[Ment]

It took some time, but here is another IR experiment. I hope you like it ;)

25. A road to heaven
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/visweg_klein.jpg

[carolupus]

wow!
yes, I like it. beautiful colours! that IR filter stuff looks very interesting to me :)

[Iliada]

23 is beautiful, because it's surrealistic. Lovely atmospheres at 22 and 24 too.

[Ment]

Thanks all for your comments, I'm glad you like them :)
Here is an experiment focusing on atmosphere rather than technique.

26. Lost
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/eenzameboomII_klein.jpg

[Nike]

I like the quiet feel in Lost - it reminds me on older photos from my parents' childchood, that have that soft, warm colors as well. :)

I think it could be a tad bit sharper though - exspecially the tree.

[Ment]

Thanks Nike, I will definitely try that :)

[Grumbledook]

as nike said its come out very soft

might also want to alter the composition, remember the rule of thirds, your horizon line is right in the middle of the frame

vertically though you have offset the tree in a nice position

[Ment]

I was aware of the horizon, so I tried to take one with the horizon higher, but that didn't work out. Maybe I should crop it more.

[Ment]

Here is my update of the week:

27. Farmlive
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/akkergrond_bw_klein.jpg

28. Isolation
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/veldvolbloemen_klein.jpg

[Grumbledook]

I like farmlive, think the B&W works well with the leading lines and the texture, have you tried playing with the contrast at all?

For isolation, I don't think there is quite enough seperation of the dandilions from the buttercup. Perhaps bringing them further towards the forground and offsetting them to the right a bit more would help. Can't see what aperture you used either, obviously the background is blurred, but using a larger one might again help (if you have a larger one).

[Ment]

In the first one I did tweak the contrast a little, I don't know if you mean it positive or negative, anyways ;)

For the second one I used f2.8, which is my widest aperture. When I find the time I will do a reshoot, with the dandilions more in the foreground. Thanks for the advice :)

[Nike]

I like #27 a lot - great composition!

I agree with grumbledook regarding "Isolation". It doesn't really "work" for me as well. Maybe getting closer to the motive would help to separate them more, too?

[purplerose]

Nice work in #27. maybe you should try to play around more with cropping and rotating? I feel there may be a bit too much foreground.

[Ment]

Thanks again for the wonderful comments :)

@Purplerose: I tried cropping and rotating a little, but for me the composition of lines wasn't as strong as in the original. I will consider a reshoot, with 'Isolation', it saves me a trip ;)

The photo's for this collage are made on the same day as the two photo's above. I like combining two photo's to emphasize the contrast.

29. Cooperating
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/collagelijnenI_klein.jpg

[Ment]

I have been busy the past weeks, today I got finally time to take some new photo's.

30. Roaring
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/dreigendelucht_klein.jpg

31. Line up
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/lichtspeloptrap_klein.jpg

32. Spacious
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/doorkijkje_klein.jpg

33.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/eenzamevrouw_klein.jpg

34. Diagonal
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/stamboom_klein.jpg

35. Sunshine
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj26/Mennt/terrasje_klein.jpg