Zone Plate II


Dreamscapes #2
Copyright Howard Grill

I would like to solicit some opinions on this one. I personally enjoy this image as much as the prior zone plate shot. However, when I have shown this to an admittedly small number of people they seem to strongly prefer the previous one. The interesting thing is the reason. They all seem to say that this one appears much more abstract and that it is more difficult to tell 'what it is a picture of'. I was a bit surprised as it seems pretty clear to me that it was two children at the water's edge.....but then again, I took it, so perhaps it is a bit more clear to me. What do folks that might be reading this think? Is it too abstract? Is it not clear what it is a picture of? Perhaps in some ways it doesn't really matter, but I would like to get a feel or understanding of what the viewer's experience is like when looking at images like these.

By the way, if anyone is interested in some resources that explain the technical aspects of zone plates, here and here are good places to start. However, I have to admit that at this point I haven't really tried to undertake a scientific understanding of the process in order to manipulate it....I have just been shooting to see what I get and trying to see what types of subjects seem to 'work' well from an artistic standpoint.