May 18, 2014

Putting the prom in promenade.

I was contemplating the Golden Pavilion from across a field of grass and wild tulips:



Then, in flowed a progression of teenagers in prom-wear, the girls all in bright colored strapless gowns with big, flouncy skirts:

7 comments:

Quaestor said...

Or maybe it's putting the promenade in prom.

grackle said...

Good composition on the bottom photo.

I like the photo quality of your camera but I need one that has a file format of Tiff, RAW or bmp. I would like to ditch my Lumix FZ7, which I've had forever, for a compact but cannot find any with the file format I want.

If any photog buffs out there know of one ...

Lance said...

My wife tells me the craze for strapless dresses is actually about cost: the extra material and work of sleeves adds significant cost. And since the dresses are already very expensive, most opt to forgo the flouncy frilly sleeves.

MadisonMan said...

I've been looking at dress pictures all through my friends' facebook feeds.

Girls from West High mostly wore straight skirts -- no poof. McFarland, Middleton, Verona? All of them wore very Disney Poofy Dresses.

I'm not sure what drives the fashion differences.

rhhardin said...

There's the classic man's interest, Stress analysis of a strapless evening gown.

Ann Althouse said...

In the old days, there used to be a problem "holding up" a strapless dress. Apparently, the breasts themselves were doing the work of holding the dress up. But modern fabrics create a firm, elastic structure that will stay up and hold up whatever you have (I believe!). So the top part of the dress is pretty simple, and the bottom is just a lot of layers of what seems like nylon tulle. I don't really see why these dresses should be expensive. The teenage girls seemed to be having fun wearing them, and it was nice to see the boys humoring the girls.

grackle said...

This is a pretty good photo. The pavilion, as the focal point, is positioned well. The main subject should never be centered. The dark limbs entering from the right seem to reach for the pavilion, adding drama. The green trees & foliage on the left and right frame the scene. The sides should almost never be empty – should always have something to stop the eye from wandering off the edges.

Having a winding trail leading toward the focal point is good but here it is too flat, almost disappearing before reaching the pavilion. A higher vantage point would have been better. Should have found something to stand on. Or even have Meade hold you higher while you snap the shot.

Another problem is that the group of red dresses on the right distracts from the pavilion. The eye naturally seeks out red in any work of art. Especially if placed in a contrasting green color field. Some artists find an excuse to place something red near the center or near the main subject. Even a small point of red, such as a small flower in an expansive meadow, will have this effect. This effect disappears if red is the main color in the work.