Somebody Eyeing Up My Gal!

[Rob MacKillop]

This is James Boswell, the notorious womaniser, friend of Dr Johnson, eyeing up Susan. Even the owl is getting in on the act:

With Boswell by RobMacKillop, on Flickr​

Some others from our trip to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery:

From a painting - I'm sorry to say I forget the name of it and the artist. But it does show how I have tried to make some of my 'shaken, not stirred' pictures look:

Surgeons by RobMacKillop, on Flickr


Seat by RobMacKillop, on Flickr


Hi by RobMacKillop, on Flickr​

 

[Pete Askew]

And another fabulous set Rob. Susan looks cooly resigned to the attention! And I love the blurred painting - what a great idea and a great way to see a painting anew (even though I don't think I've ever seen in aold - that word really should exist!). I am sure it changes the whole feel of the image and they certainly now look pretty shifty! If one were to be tempted to indulge in pretentious claptrap - and why not I say - one could say that the use of movement imbues the doctors depicted in the painting with the guilt that they should feel from their covert use osf stolen cadavers in their anatomy classes. Tying them to actions of Burke and Hare!

Great chair and the PP and soft, subdued light add a great sense of mystery (and echoes the feel of quite a few of your indoor shots). Do you know the lady in the last? I think it works very well - she looks so uncertain there amid the busts. I'd be tempted to lose the top light and a bit off the right (to lose the floor in the bottom RH corner - maybe close the bit out on the left too) to close the picture in on the main subjects though.

As I said. Great set.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, Pete.

The blurred painting - that's a straight shot, that's how it looks. I like the way their essence, as it were, seems to be lifting off them, drifting away before their time is up. They do look shifty! Anyway, the blurring brings a feeling of separation, between an inner and an outer world. What I call The Dissolving Self. I've tried to give a sense of that in some of my images, with varying degrees of failure!

I think the lady in the last is a TV news personality, but I don't know her name. It's an odd room. The libarary is used by art researchers, but the curators have stuck a number of heads in there, presumably as they have nowhere else to stick them. I agree about the cropping. I should have taken more time over it.

 

[Pete Askew]

Aha, now I can see your point of reference, I misread your comment. And that does make your movement shot even more interesting. I was also thinking of you when I saw the following image by Kansuke Yamamoto - but yours manifested itself so much more effectively.

Japanese Photography: A Tale Of Two Artists : The Picture Show : NPR

 

[Rob MacKillop]

What a great link! Thanks for that.

 

[Beth Carter]

the first one had me laughing, nicely timed and historically accurate too. nice lighting and mood in the third too.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cheers, Beth!

 

[Paul Lange]

4 wonderful photos Rob. i thought the owl in the first looked a little scary and then I saw the doctors!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

LOL. They are certainly scary! And the painting is huge - "life" sized!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That first shot is a hoot Rob.....


... I'll get my coat


I like the seat shot a lot - lovely use of available light, and I'm partial to a nice pano crop

 

[Pete Askew]

Now I know why that owl appears to be rolling its eyes!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Here's the full shot of the scary painting...Three Oncologists by Ken Currie



"The men represented in this painting are professors in the Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee. The Head of Department and Professor of Surgery, Sir Alfred Cuschieri, is in the centre. Sir David Lane, Professor of Molecular Oncology is on the right. On the left is surgeon Professor Steele. All three men appear to have been disturbed in the middle of their duties: Professor Steele has blood on his hands and Sir Alfred Cuschieri is holding a medical implement. The luminous quality of the paint makes the figures look almost ghostly, expressing the sense of horror and anxiety associated with cancer."

 

[Pete Askew]

Nah, I liked my version better.

 

[Nihat Iyriboz]

Particularly, first and the last for me, Rob. You framed the framed JB eying unaware Susan very well! Where unaware Susan is perfect.

I agree with Pete on the last. Cropping the top lights and closing in will bring more dominance to the main theme of well angled busts and a lady. She appears to be a person from Madame Tussauds' which works perfect with the busts.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, Nihat. Appreciated.