Comments on: psychedelic wrasse by mattias ormestad

By: jenny lynn walker

jenny lynn walker — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:47:25 +0000

At first I was excited. How it filled the frame from top to bottom – an apparition from the future – slowly unveiling itself into: a fish?! I was NOT expecting a fish! But give it time and there’s so much more, like the natural world itself… perfection, harmony, balance… a living planet basking in the sun…

If I hold my hand over the reflection, I feel contented if a little bit lonely and confined, and a mystery with my hand over the fish. It’s sad that the fish can’t see it’s perfect reflection. It looks like a return to ‘the universe’ in the future, and mysteriously ‘beautiful’.

On the other hand, it’s just another fish… and we are only human.

Mattias: I wish you would think about changing the title!!!

By: Mattias Ormestad

Mattias Ormestad — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:34:30 +0000

To me the subject doesn’t really matter, and here it happened to be a fish. I just want to make good looking and interesting photos, not pleasing Eric or Jim… No offense! ;)

By: Mattias Ormestad

Mattias Ormestad — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:16:35 +0000

Wow… I hadn’t realized my photo was published here until just a couple of minutes ago. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it!

/Mattias

By: david alan harvey

david alan harvey — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:05:04 +0000

JESUS…

what a cruel thing to say….i am so sorry i missed this the first time around….and not even with your real name…what the hell??? what a loser!! Patricia sees the good in everyone and everything…too bad you are not as fortunate as her…

By: alun severn

alun severn — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:38:01 +0000

I think I like it. What seems arresting about it (to me at any rate) is that it *isn’t* a nature or a wildlife picture… Although it is a fish, it’s also somehow a bit more mysterious than that.

By: lisa hogben

lisa hogben — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:05:45 +0000

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=j1kftCx5-tA&feature=PlayList&p=DB93E79625FEAFB6&playnext=1&index=3

By: Paul Treacy

Paul Treacy — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:01:24 +0000

It’s nice to get a break from humans. Thanks. Most refreshing indeed.

By: James Chance

James Chance — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:02:37 +0000

Yeah its just a fish, but it is a nice one!

My reaction was positive on first viewing, mainly because it was a surprise and different to what we often see here. I’m all for that.

James

By: erica mcdonald

erica mcdonald — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:56:59 +0000

ok yes, it is a fish and I am not a fan of nature photography, but when I saw it, I saw the excellent execution yes..and beyond that I SEE sadness and death. The weight and curve of this little guy’s body DESPITE the buoyancy of the water..the isolation, his own reflection as his only companion, his stillness makes me feel even sadder still..his little mouth looks like he could speak a thousand sorrows..that’s what I see and I ain’t lying!

By: David Clifford

David Clifford — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:21:15 +0000

simply and amazingly beautiful! wow…

By: bobblack

bobblack — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:40:03 +0000

kubrick 2001 space odyssey

without being stoned….

http://atypicalsnowman.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/2001sunrise.png

By: Janko

Janko — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:31:32 +0000

Yeah, that’s amazing.

By: luzz biteyear

luzz biteyear — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:47:46 +0000

a fish is a fish is a fish.
peace

By: Jim Powers

Jim Powers — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:26:00 +0000

John, it’s a technically well executed photo. But so what? Technical competence is common.I am speaking from the perspective of being a competent technician with photography myself. I’ve done it so long that I know how to make a photo look like I want it to look. But it’s easy to make a spectacular subject spectacular. The struggle, the art, is to make the commonplace spectacular. I simply have no interest in photos of fish. It’s a great NatGeo photo, but I don’t look at photos of fish in NatGeo, I just turn past them. I’m more interested in people. So there’s my bias.

By: unevolved neanderthal

unevolved neanderthal — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:23:37 +0000

Quite a sophisticated picture. Clearly no accident. To Say ‘its a picture of a fish” is both true and blinkered, at the same time. Its appeal to me is that it clearly is NOT that which it is. im not suggesting that its in any way purposely magritte-esque, but on one level ‘I’ do read it that way. But mainly I just think its a very well made picture, that just happens to have a fish in it. Would have it on my wall in a new york minute.
john

By: Josh Wentz

Josh Wentz — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:02:16 +0000

I also don’t get too excited about wildlife pictures, but I am attracted to abstracts pretty often and I like a good composition. My monitor doesn’t show the whole image either, but scrolling up and down I get the impression that the excess black at the top and bottom provides something nice and unexpected here, composition-wise. Looking at the closer horizontal crop on my screen, though, to me it comes across as just some really well done picture of a fish.

By: Eric Espinosa

Eric Espinosa — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:38:20 +0000

John,

From my standpoint, there is really no cynicism. I am actually in admiration of the photographer “know-how” as I have said. The light, the reflection, the quality of the shot are amazing wihout a doubt. There is no way I would have a clue myself how to take such a picture so, much respect for what Mattias is able to do….but at the end, subject matters to me a lot. I look at the great technique but the picture does not generate any emotion in me…it becomes a test case on how to take a perfect fish picture but it fails to go beyond for me as I do simply not relate to the topic…. I would wish for Mattias to use his talent that is there for a subject that touches me more…. I like mother nature but prefer humans :):):)..

Eric

By: John Huber

John Huber — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:43:10 +0000

i can’t find anything in her comment about David.

By: John Huber

John Huber — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:41:41 +0000

I think we fool ourselves into thinking we know what we like and how we think, even how we will react to each other. In fact we don’t know and shouldn’t know instance to instance how things will go. This photo was greatly executed and leaves us in awe of mother nature. Yes, I will say ‘us’ because it should I think highly of others. My sloppy logic/language is due to 1) such a rash harsh reaction to Patricia’s comment. Perhaps joke? I hope. 2) The idea that this photo could just be a picture of a fish. It isn’t. It doesn’t have to be creatively executed. It is. That reflection is misleading the color and light glows. The black is very much so. Is it that there is so much on the internet that leads to a dismissive cynicism. Jim, I’m thinking of your ready dismissal. Sorry, but some constructive criticism is always helpful and the reciprocation of which helps us all.

By: panos skoulidas

panos skoulidas — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:30:23 +0000

Eric,
I’m covered…
Loved the reflection though!!
Crop that mother… Halfway and
you got me…!
But……