Untitled

[Mike Milton]

rock: Breaking Through by mikemilton, on Flickr

Well, it actually does have a title but, perhaps it is better not to lead with that info.

I'd welcome discussion on this one. It it what I call a constructed image.

 

[Pete Askew]

What an interesting shot Mike. I like the stress lines and the colour combinations. I would be tempted to add a slight vignette though and maybe edge the saturation up a tad but I also like it as it is. Why a constructed image?

 

[Mike Milton]

Interesting... It might benefit from some lighting effects. Thanks for the idea. I call it a constructed image because it is a composite. The main thing you see is a rock that is on our shoreline, but there is more.

 

[Mike Milton]

The image with a vignette and without the 'extras'

 

[Pete Askew]

More? All very mysterious! What elements did you composite tpgether? I would have gone dark with the vignette myself.

 

[Katherine Lihou]

I like it very much. An unusual subject. I love the colours and contrast of textures, and the face is intriguing! Looks like a man resigned to his fate with infinite patience. Makes me wonder which of the gods trapped him there Did you see the face before or after you took the photo?

Cheers,

Kate

 

[Mike Milton]

I like it very much. An unusual subject. I love the colours and contrast of textures, and the face is intriguing! Looks like a man resigned to his fate with infinite patience. Makes me wonder which of the gods trapped him there Did you see the face before or after you took the photo?

Cheers,

Kate

Exactly....

This rock has been sitting on my beach for as long as I've been here (40+years). I've bumped boats into it, tripped on it, tried to move it and then, one late fall day about 10 years ago, took a picture of it.

That rock captured, perfectly, an experience I was having at that time. I was breaking free from something that had held me fast for 30 years and there I was reflected in a darn rock that had been there all that time with me.

There are actually 2 faces in the image. The larger one, mine, and the smaller one, my son.

 

[Katherine Lihou]

Ah, now I see your son too!

Perception is an endlessly fascinating thing. When I worked looking down a microscope for a living I learned that no matter how vigilant you thought you were being it was still possible to entirely miss something that you hadn’t been trained to see. We’re all good at looking but must learn how to see. Walking in the same countryside with a botanist, artist or hunter can change our view of it forever

I like the story of the rock very much. I had a similar experience in the past when I was fighting for breath, close to death from pneumonia, and it gave me the courage to break free of something that had been suffocating me for far too long. Things like that often seem to come just in time to save us, it seems, and the symbolism can be intriguing.

Cheers,

Kate

 

[Paul Lange]

When I saw the photo first of all it struck me that it has a sense of scale much larger than it has in reality. Looks a bit like a satellite image of an island.