PhotoTalk #5 - Mark Foard
Let's talk about photos in the fifth PhotoTalk
This is the fifth PhotoTalk and we are gonna discuss a photo of fellow Substacker Mark Foard today. He writes MarkĀ“s Substack
Prefer not to receive future emails for PhotoTalk? Check the footnote 1
For those of you who do like to watch photos and comment on them, letās go!
How to proceed?
Answer the poll with 5 questions and leave your comments afterwards.
Want to have a little more background on the questions in the poll?
Quickly read the introduction
Now, let us know what you think of this photo by leaving a comment. If you have any criticisms, make sure you justify them - so that not just the photographer, but everyone can make up their own minds and maybe learn from it.
Thatās it for this week.
Till next time,
DARKROOMS is a reader-supported, weekly photography newsletter. If you enjoy this newsletter, the best way to help it grow and support me is by becoming a free subscriber to receive new posts or upgrade to support my work
Please share Darkrooms with your friends who might enjoy it as well.
Prefer to not receive future emails for PhotoTalk?
You can easily unsubscribe just for this section, by going to your account > Manage subscription and click the toggle for PhotoTalk. This way you will still keep getting Darkrooms in your mailbox
I really love this picture. Very tragic. This looks like a holiday gone completely wrong, a holiday in hell. A pool with no water in it. Big fences around it as a barrier between the sea in the background and the small, safe, controlled environment of the hotel pool? Or maybe it's a municipal pool. And I also wonder how much fun visitors are allowed to have there with all the warnings, No diving and no running. The empty lifeguard chair doesn't predict much water fun either. As I said, a very tragic image of something that should exude fun. The saturation of the colors contributes very much to the atmosphere you want to convey with this picture.
First of all, a big thank you to everyone for your comments. Itās really appreciated.
To put some context to the photo, it was taken in early February of this year. This is a municipal pool located in the west end of Toronto on the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Due to our winters, all the outdoor pools close down and get drained. It was a cold, cloudless but bright day and the pool had a sad feel about it. I had considered taking the shot from the other side as there seemed to be some interesting options but there was too much background distraction to get a decent photo. Usually, my edit of choice is black and white and that was what I was originally thinking with this photo. However, due to the sky and light, a bnw edit didnāt work for me and the cooler colour palette seemed a better fit.
In case youāre interested, the camera was an Olympus OMD EM 5ii with a Panasonic 20mm f1.7.
The reason I suggested this photo to Marcel for this post was because I had mixed feelings about it and I was interested in what others had to say. All of your feedback has been very helpful and now Iām considering doing a small project around this theme.