Does this say texture?

[RoyGBiv]

I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the concept of texture as something other than an extreme close-up of a piece of fabric.

Is this sort of thing appropriate?

Emergence

[F.Gordon]

1. I'd say yes

I'm also very confused about this whole "texture" thing.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Okay ... why?

From the topic announcement message, texture is:

Texture:
1) The visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of an object

2) "something that invokes a sense of feel, emphasizing how something would feel if you were touching it, smooth, rough, soft, prickly, ripply, whatever."

Several of the photos people have posted, having the same confusion I'm having apparently, don't invoke any sort of "texture" by those terms to me. One in particular, which I will not name so as not to get into a side-by-side comparison thing, is a beautiful picture that I think would probably win or come close to it in the context, but I, personally, get no sense of tactile stimulation from it. It's a beautiful scene, but the surface characteristics are essentially non-existent.

The above photo has some issues that are related to the photo itself, but the first thing I noticed about the scene of this sculpture when I came upon it was that it begged you to reach out and touch it because it is filled with texture. In fact some of the smooth parts of this sculpture are due to visitors being compelled to touch it. Everyone there while I was touched the object, were essentially waiting in line to do so.

Anyway, the whole thing screams "touch me" to me, but perhaps the photo doesn't bring that across, and so I'd be interested in any thoughts on why this does or does not invoke "texture" per the topic's definition. (Not trying to start "a thing," just wondering because after looking at other suggestions, I'm simply not getting it.)

[CC]

3. There is texture there

but the lighting might be detracting from it. Side light might of brought out more texture in the photo. Though remember this comes from a person that can't seem to get the textures to show on photos that she took and is seriously thinking of begging bird to hold still for a texture shot.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Hehe...

I'm thinking bvar's idea of trying to find some way to pull out the cat's tongue long enough to take a picture might be the best idea I've heard, if we can find enough iodine and bandages to treat the resulting wounds. :-)

Lighting definitely might be it. The lighting at the time I took the picture was horrible. I took a dozen pictures, and that was the one that didn't throw off a massive glare that made parts of it unviewable. There's also a picture of the arm coming up out of the ground that would have been better for the texture thing, but the photo of this is atrocious for that purpose. It was backlit by the sun, and it was so big that I couldn't get close enough for a flash to do fill-in.

Anyway ... I may go with a cave picture, which is pretty much nothing but texture. :-)

And, FWIW, if anyone is in or ever near DC, go see this sculpture. It's huge altogether, seeming to be a man emerging from the ground/dust. A lot of people apparently miss it, and I had no idea it was there. I just happened across it while touring the area around the various memorials and parks. It's basically impossible to get a picture of the whole scene that does it justice.

[CC]

5. Do you remember where in

DC? I am going to have to see it next time I am there. It does look neat. Though not sure about putting my hand near teeth that big.
Maybe a picture of the bleeding wounds from trying to take a pic of a cats tongue would work? :rofl: Our red lory has a weird textured tongue but she would take out hunks of my skin. She doesn't like women. But then the gray doesn't like men and takes hum ks of flesh out of them.

[RoyGBiv]

6. All I remember ...

It was near a park, in the maze of roads downtown, and I think behind the Jefferson Memorial somewhere. The next stop was the FDR Memorial, and IIRC was about 5 minutes away from that.

I was completely lost and being driven around by a friend.

I'll ask him next time I talk to him and get back to you.

[RoyGBiv]

7. Is this better?

I've mostly decided not to enter this pic, in part because the original tied 50/50 for whether it was appropriate, and I Gimped this thing to death to try to get it closer to what *I* saw as I was taking the pic. (I also remembered after originally posting this that I wasn't using my normal camera and was just snapping without being able to make adjustments.) I have a couple other pics of a different subject I'll wonder over before entries begin.

Anyway ... this is closer to what I saw when I viewed the sculpture, after some major enhancements. Just wondering here if this looks better, or if it simply looks manipulated.

[CC]

9. Yes and you could use it

if you wanted. Lots more texture showing there. Though its the teeth would keep me from touching it.

[intheflow]

8. Yes.

But those nostrils scare me. :scared:

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. A serindipitous discovery that makes the texture more prominent.

When it first appeared in my window, only the top part down to the upper lip appeared visible. The texture was prominent, and I had no idea that it was anything but a rock formation. The nose seemed like an octopus-shaped piece of rock. When I saw the whole face, my brain's labelling/interpreting function make the texture largely disappear for me.

So here's my idea: crop out only the nose, eyebrows, part of the upper lip, and only as much of the left eye (its left eye, right side of the photo) as is necessary but not enough to identify it as an eye. Of course, I have no idea if your original has enough pixels to chop out that much and leave a decent image.

[RoyGBiv]

12. That's a good idea ...

And thanks for the explanation of how you saw it. That is most helpful.

Unfortunately the original wouldn't crop well. I took that pic with a bad camera. I hadn't actually been planning on taking any pics at that time. I thought we were headed for a bar after grocery shopping actually, but my friend wanted to show me that "really quickly," and afterward we ended up touring several places. Thankfully I had *a* camera with me, but it's just a cheapo. I didn't even have to scale it down in size to meet the size limitations of the contest.

I'm going with a cave photo. I just haven't decided which one yet. But, again, thanks for the input.

[Gregorian]

11. I'm lost on this challenge.

It's good to see someone else suffering about textures.

That's a pretty cool shot, by the way. (:

[RoyGBiv]

13. FWIW ... the Scene

This is the best pic I could get of the whole scene, and it sucks, but I thought I'd offer it just for general purposes. It's missing one of his hands, and the damn people wouldn't get out of the way. This one guy kept walking right in front of me every time I lined up a shot. Everyone wanted to touch specific parts of it ... almost no one would stand back and try to take in the entire thing.

Anyway ...