What, in your opinion, is the most beautiful.

I have followed with interest the thread, https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1477775 in which it is oblivious that
most of you spend much more time perusing galleries/shows/whatno​t than do I.

Limiting my query to photography, whether it be manipulated or not...what is your single most favorite image, regardless if the artist is well known.

chauncey wrote in post #18307328
What, in your opinion, is the most beautiful?
I have followed with interest the thread, https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1477775 in which it is oblivious that most of you spend much more time perusing galleries/shows/whatno​t than do I.
Limiting my query to photography, whether it be manipulated or not...what is your single most favorite image, regardless if the artist is well known.

Wow - what a question! It seems so simple, yet you have completely stumped me, Chauncey. I will definitely be following this thread, with interest.

And I will ponder over the question of what one image I would select as a favorite. One thing I can say with certainty is that whatever my favorite is, it will contain only natural elements, devoid of humans or things created by humans.

Even if only considering my own work, I can't think of any single image that is my favorite, or one that I think is more beautiful than any other. I can think of lots and lots of 'runner up' photos, but not a clear 'winner'.

In trying to determine a favorite, most beautiful photograph, I can think of the things in the world that I think of as the most beautiful things - such as ice, sunlight, snow, mountains, clouds, fog, blue sky, and wild animals. I suppose that if I ever decide on one 'favorite image', it would be one that incorporates most of those things.

By the way, 'favorite' and 'most beautiful' can be two very different things; if I ever decide what my favorite photo is, it will most likely be a different photo than the one I think is the most beautiful.

Thanks for starting this thread and asking this question - it gives me something to ponder over, and such pondering is greatly enjoyable to me!

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Great question... and I have no answer.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18307614
By the way, 'favorite' and 'most beautiful' can be two very different things; if I ever decide what my favorite photo is, it will most likely be a different photo than the one I think is the most beautiful.

Absolutely. Among all the photos I've ever seen, I can't choose just one in either category. Among just my own, which is a much more manageable set, I know which one I think is most beautiful, but some others would constitute the short list of favorites because they're more interesting.

Ansel's - Moonrise Over Hernandez.

http://www.afterimageg​allery.com/featureadam​s.htm

I really don't care about genre...just the one that shows something magical.

This is nearly impossible to answer.

Heck, that's like asking what is your favorite Beatles song.......fer cryin' out loud.

Or asking what is or was your favorite car? Depending on my mood and the terrain and the weather, that answer would change. Ditto for art, sometimes I may really enjoy an abstract, other days I would rather look at a landscape. A favorite, whether food, vehicles, or anything really, changes with mood, attitude, age, and experiences.

That being said, I would love to see what types of photos, past or present, pique's one interest. I thought we had a thread on this at some point though? Perhaps that was on another board though.

Are you guys saying that you can't choose your all-time favorite magical image?

I certainly can't pick just one and I would have to throw in a couple of paintings to.

Be like asking me to pick only one film or only one album or only one book etc.

chauncey wrote in post #18307809
Are you guys saying that you can't choose your all-time favorite magical image?

That's what I'm saying.

Out of the hundreds of thousands of pictures I have looked at in my lifetime I surely can't pick an all time favorite. Heck, picking an all time favorite picture that I have taken would be hard enough.

A couple however always come seem to stick in my head....Andreas Feininger
http://time.com …am-the-road-goes-ever-on/

And most any of Dorothea Lange's pictures.
https://www.google.com …_AUIBigB&biw=19​20&bih=921

"Magical" is a ridiculous adjective to describe a photograph.

It immediately evokes the MWC who just got her first batch of business cards from Vistaprint, "Magical Captures In Time Fotography by Kimberley, LLC"

chauncey wrote in post #18307786
I really don't care about genre...just the one that shows something magical.

chauncey wrote in post #18307809
Are you guys saying that you can't choose your all-time favorite magical image?

Chauncey, Buddy, I think you are throwing too much of a curve ball to us here!

Hey, I know you have fun starting these "off" discussions, so...do you really want or expect "real" answers here?

Hey, how about you throw out what you yourself consider a good quality "magical" image! And what exactly do you mean when you say "magical"? Your OP says "the most beautiful", now, really, you say "no genre"...

Really, Chauncey, maybe you could post your own "pick", and describe how you would term it as "magical" and how you would compare it to another shot that you might consider "not so magical"...?

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chauncey wrote in post #18307809
Are you guys saying that you can't choose your all-time favorite magical image?

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Actually, we were saying that we can't pick our favorite image. And that we can't pick our 'most beautiful' image.

But now you move on from that to 'most magical'?

Which is it? What is it that you want us to pick - most beautiful, favorite, or most magical?

And what do you mean when you ask 'magical'? I am not sure how magic relates to photography.

I am not trying to be difficult with you - I am just trying to figure out precisely what the question is that you want to ask us, so that I can try to give the most accurate answer.
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And for me it is many times a body of work like Robert Franks The Americans or Adams Yosemite and the Range of Light or Avedons American West portraits.

Having said that here are a few of my favs.

Pissarro Hoar Frost painting
Duchamp Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 painting
Danny Lyon Sparky and Cowboy photograph
Adams Yosemite Clearing Storm photograph
Weston Cypress Tree Point Lobos photograph
Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring painting
Bresson Hyeres, France (bicycle photo) photograph
Walker Evans River Hill Cafe photograph
Newman Stravinsky at the Pianophotograph
Meyerowitz Porch Lightning from Cape Lightphotograph

I gotta stop now. This could go on for a while....