Colin,
Your eagle eye detected a crop. The pears have more room on the original frame, but I wanted to emphasize the actual treatment of the pears for this comparison example. (By the way, it appears that Hanneke’s drawing is also a crop.) I think I agree with you about focus; I posted this version partly to make that point about the technical point about photography.

Karl,
I agree about the shadow importance. There’s so much to manage even in such a simple arrangement! Thanks for the other suggestions, too. I do want a more prominent surface for them to be resting on, but I haven’t located one I like so far, so I just used that dark paper in this try. Lighter paper brings the shadows on the surface into greater prominence.

Hanneke,
I like your word robust. The solidity of the pears comes through better in color, I think. I’ll show more versions in a future post. And yes, I think pears have re-captured my heart.

The comments are fun and illuminating, although at least as much about the artistic vision of the person commenting as about the pear photo.

I particularly chuckled at Karl’s comment: “The variation in focus for the different contours further separates the middle pear; it seems to almost “fall out” of the photo. In a painting this would be seen as a weakness, if the intention were to capture reality. In the photo, it could be regarded as a strength, a breaking from reality.” My instant response was something along the line of “contrariwise, eh?” In a painting, the object is to imitate reality even though one is confined by all sorts of limitations, and in photography (which tends to mirror reality) the object is to break from the real. Whew! Thanks, Karl.

And the pears are a bit anthropomorphic, now that you mention it.

Fascinating start with the pears! The one in the center doesn’t look as three dimensional as the other two. The left and right pears seem to be leaning forward. The variation in focus for the different contours further separates the middle pear; it seems to almost “fall out” of the photo. In a painting this would be seen as a weakness, if the intention were to capture reality. In the photo, it could be regarded as a strength, a breaking from reality.

I think the shadow on the right hand side is a powerful part of the picture. It would be interesting to have a bit more of this dark area.

As in Hanneke’s drawings, I find my self projecting human characteristics on the pears. The one in the center seems downcast because of its drooping stem, whereas the others seem concerned. Looking at the photo, and thinking about Hanneke’s drawing, I can see why she had difficulty trying to render both the lighting on the pears and the light/dark pattern of the pears themselves. The texture of the pears leaves me wanting to see more texture, perhaps a more pronounced texture for the surface the pears stand on.

In this scene there is not a clear distinction between the foreground and background spaces. It might be neat to try having the pears on a flat surface with a dark void behind them.

David,

Neat idea to vary the lighting, like a hole in the clouds giving a spotlight effect in a Dutch landscape painting.

Colin,

You say you feel crowding on the right side where I wanted to see more of that shadow. You see the focus choice as not working. Interesting. You say “I think that this issue of plane of focus is one area where photography struggles in comparison with the other visual arts on a like for like basis.” That’s another Colin line that I would like to hear explained further!

This feels crowded to me (especially the lower and right edges). Also, I think that your choice of focus is a compromise that I don’t think works. Neither selective enough, nor inclusive enough. Out of focus foregrounds are difficult to pull off i.e. I can’t do it :-)

I think that this issue of plane of focus is one area where photography struggles in comparison with the other visual arts on a like for like basis.

For an example of luminous pears that I prefer to any drawing that I’ve seen, try Don McCullin’s book ‘open skies’ if you have a good library - I’ve just checked and it is available via Abebooks, but is pricey.