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toko β new york bokeh skyline
Published: 2011-05-19 15:16:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 25872; Favourites: 832; Downloads: 0
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Description
Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline, New York, 2011.Last time I've been to New York I thought about taking a different, unusual skyline shot from this great city. There are a lot of shots - including some of mine - from the typical skyline-shooting-spots and actually this is one of these spots, too.
I tried to do something different and unusual in anyway. And this is what it looks like.
I hope you like the result
-- Blurred on purpose of course! Print is also available in original size and ratio.If you like my work check out my Facebook page: TOKOgraphy.
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Comments: 61
I respect the risk you took with this picture. I definitely do. The problem is that in order to do so, I had to check your other pictures and make sure you're not making fun of us, while the risk you're taking is of your own reputation, which you apparently put a lot of effort in building.
Having said that, in order to get through the technical part as quickly as possible, the colours are pretty good. As a personal preference and nothing more, I would have liked to see the blacks pumped up a bit, but this is my conventional thinking in the way. As long as the concept is the abstraction, it might work better this way.
Now to the more important stuff. I'll tell you my reaction when first seeing the picture. My eyes tried to focus for a split second, they failed, the brain took over and thought that this is due to the jpg loading slowly for another split second and then my eye fell on the word bokeh, which took me another second to process and end up thinking the semantics of the title, where the problem is that a bokeh is a property of a lens and not of a skyline. Nevertheless, I got what you were talking about.
I do understand what you were trying to do with this, but a first reaction is that I can only see this being used as a very decent background to something. You'd also have to have a very impressive frame to make a print of this look like something that went through a coherent thought process. A lens blur is a lot more effective than a Gaussian blur post-processing effect and the bokeh allows for the city lights to look completely round (since you obviously used your lens' maximum aperture) and less dull. Nevertheless, I fail to see this as an abstraction and I'd rather see the dark silhouette of the city or something similar. Another idea in order to produce a similar result, at least in my eyes and my completely subjective view, would have been if you had a very small, unimportant object in focus in the foreground (like an insect, which I understand that it's very difficult to capture or of a parachute seed, both of which can be achieved by sticking things on a glass surface that you hold in front of the lens) and 99% of the rest of the picture would be the well framed out-of-focus cityscape.
Two things for which I consider you deserve a lot of credit is the sheer BRAVE ORIGINALITY of this work and the fact that it has an obvious impact on other photographers like myself to start thinking out of the box.
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I am extremely impressed by the risk you took with this picture. When I clicked on it, my set of reactions was "Eeerrr... what? wait... oh... wow!". This is an original approach and some people may be taken aback by it.
However I think it works amazingly well here. As you said yourself, you chose to shoot an extremely classic picture of NY. Almost everyone has already seen pictures took from this angle. Your colors would have still given it something more because the shades of various blues and reds work extremely well here, but still I agree it would have been one picture in dozens.
What happens there is that by giving away a pretension to sharpness, you uproot your picture and instead of shooting a picture of New York, the subject of your photo becomes the silhouette of the city, the brilliance of lights and the movements you can guess on the roads. You don't shoot a place anymore, you shoot a concept.
I love how well balanced the values are, how nicely pale is the sky without being too clear, how interestingly the setting sun (or is it rising?) answers to the red hue of the car lights. I also love the contrast between the black silhouette of the skyline, so weird and unsettling, and the peaceful perfect blue of the sea.
Most of all, I love how the lights are made bigger by the bokeh and bring the viewer's attention to the life of the city.
This pic is a dreamer's pic. It's the view of someone who's standing before a huge city and stares so far away that everything else becomes blurred - and it's okay, details don't matter, it's only the dream that counts. In fact, what you achieved here is something quite incredible: you didn't shoot "a" city. You shot "the" city, abstract, luminous, fascinating - beautiful. Hats off.
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Ich glaube, dass ist das perfekte Bild als eyecatcher in meiner Wohnung, super das du es als print anbietest!!! es sieht toll aus
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i love photos like this. It's awesome. Great job
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Gibt's ne mΓΆglichkeit das als Wallpaper zu bekommen ? 2550 x 1440 AuflΓΆsung
hello@olivergareis.com
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I need this btw. it's exactly what i've been looking for, for my living room. and I'll be buying it as a christmas gift for myself. enjoy your money (:
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I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE this! Seriously, I'm a bokeh freak! 
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you have done an excellent job giving us this different work.. congrats
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bokeeeeeh. ah was fΓΌr ein tolles foto <3
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I can't get over how beautiful this is. The shapes are so powerful yet the bokeh and the colours give the photograph a soft and delicate feel. Lovely!
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you think? but thats just the way it should look like..
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ich finde es echt schΓΆn, die farben sind toll und ich liebe sowieso bokeh-lichter 
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SPLENDIFEROUS CAPTURE LOVE IT direct to my
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Brooklyn Bridge is one of a kind
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Such a beautiful photo and a different look indeed 
liking it very much. *faved*
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this is beautiful! i'd love to travel to new york someday!
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awesome city - always worth a visit
thanks
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someday i shall venture to new york
you're welcome
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Obwohl es unscharf ist (by the way, sau schΓΆnes Bokeh!
Super Bild!
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denke, das ist irgendwie auch typisch new york. die stadt MUSS man einfach erkennen.
danke dir
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wow what a beautiful view! I love the blurry effect^^
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awesome! this would make the coolest desktop wallpaper! (just throwin that out there) great shot, toko!
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