Today’s selection comes from Flickr searches for the Leica X1 and X2 digicams. Photographer Andrew Xu uses the latter, and I once owned the former. Originally from China, and living in New Zealand, the VFX artist is true to his profession, by posting photos that punch you with their terrific visual style.
I could easily fill the remaining 324 Flickrs a Day with Andrew’s images, which is comment about the challenge choosing one. I left the decision to fate, picking the pic from my initial search. Andrew’s style is so strong because, in part, he has a photographic philosophy that merges art and science. I recommend reading the full explanation on his Flickr profile page.
But in brief, he expresses:
What makes a interesting photo? What makes a extraordinary photo? Why my photo is just boring even [if] it’s almost technically perfect? I want to develop a rating system to analysis my photos and others’ to find out what makes a photo good and what makes it boring. So that I know what to shoot (and what not to).
This really is my personal exercise only. The reason I put it here is this is a convenient safe place for me to come back to check it. The rating method is confuse enough even to myself. Here is what I think, to me, an interesting/visually pleasing photo comes from four factors: the moment, the subject, the support environment, and the presentation. The weight of each is: 40 percent the moment; 30 percent the subject; 20 percent support environment; 10 percent presentation.
He considers that, by this measure, photos rating 90-percent-plus, “are world class masterpieces—those go to exhibition”. Photos rating below 40 percent “are something to delete”.
He shot self-titled “Couple” on Sept. 7, 2013. Vitals: f/4. ISO 800, 1/125 sec, 24mm. How would you rate the pic on Andrew’s scale?
Photo Credit: Andrew Xu.