Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: RSL on May 11, 2012, 03:51:01 pm
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Haven't had much chance to get out and do my favorite thing, street, this winter or spring. But here's one I shot shortly before I left Florida and posted on Dgrin's "Documentary" forum -- recently re-named from "Street & PJ," a title that didn't come close to describing the family and tourist shots posted on it. The responses over there were interesting, so here it is for my favorite forum: LuLa.
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Nice juxtaposition of the real people and the mural.
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Where's the street?
Cheers,
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Oh yes - please get out more often, Russ, and post here. A winner for me. Lovely tones too.
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I almost fell off my chair. That's a wonderful "double whammy," Russ!
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Boy, does that look Soviet!
Rob C
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The art work was done by the American Artist Gary Kelly.
Peter
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The art work was done by the American Artist Gary Kelly.
Peter
I wonder if he's on the CIA's list of subversives?
Rob C
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That particular art piece was printed as a repeating pattern on industrial wallpaper by the mile, and used in every Barnes and Noble coffee shop for quite a long time. Not sure if they're still putting it in new ones, since I haven't been in one for ages.
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Sorry, could not resist: would you consider... gulp... a crop that would eliminate distractive edges and concentrate solely on the mural and people?
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Boy, does that look Soviet!
Rob C
No way! A lot of drinks, but not a single bottle of vodka.
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Sorry, could not resist: would you consider... gulp... a crop that would eliminate distractive edges and concentrate solely on the mural and people?
Actually, I could have stepped forward and done that, Slobodan, but I wanted it to be clear that the whole mural is in the picture.
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Very nice, I specially like how the people and the background mix together.
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Not to present this at the same level as your piece, but I shot this last summer in Manchester, NH. I too was struck by the cleverness of the muralist to paint the shadows of his patrons directly onto the wall over another scene. It caused me ot take a double take look, hence the shot. Cheers!
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8164/7208765066_1f2e101ffd_o.jpg)
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Nice shot.
Great scene.
Certainly brings a smile to my face!
Regards
Tony Jay
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Hey Russ
Would it be asking to much to have had the big guy in the white shirt and shades to have been more to the right? I am sure that is the direction he is coming from - he would have "balanced" with the mural perfectly.
It is still a great shot!
William
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You're right, William, and it's been bugging me ever since I first looked at the picture on my computer. I should have waited until the guy carrying the coffee got just to the left of the guy in the weird shirt facing the other way. Actually, what I should have done was shoot two or three frames. But hindsight's always 20-20. It's what HCB once talked about: how you finish shooting, make contact sheets, and then you see where you failed. And as he added, the failure usually is because of a lapse of attention.
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You're right, William, and it's been bugging me ever since I first looked at the picture on my computer. I should have waited until the guy carrying the coffee got just to the left of the guy in the weird shirt facing the other way. Actually, what I should have done was shoot two or three frames. But hindsight's always 20-20. It's what HCB once talked about: how you finish shooting, make contact sheets, and then you see where you failed. And as he added, the failure usually is because of a lapse of attention.
I don't see failure in your shot, but I do see failure in too much belief in the reported sayings of any one snapper, however successful he may have been!
Anyway, who is to say whether the characters in your (or anyone else's) shots will really move into better positions? If I may suddenly coin a saying of my own: better to catch what you can catch than to catch nothing awaiting what ain't gonna happen!
I think you do pretty damned well as it is.
Rob C
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You're right, Rob. Looking back at what was going on around me I'm not sure I could have gotten off two or three frames. And here's something I posted on Digital Grin's "Documentary" forum this morning on a similar criticism:
"With due respect to ****, who's a good photographer, I have to say that I think attempts to tell a photographer where he should have stood, how long he should have waited, or how he should have aimed his camera differently are mistakes. Unless you're able to stand in the same spot at the same time you have no basis for that kind of criticism. Critiques like that remind me of civilian judges who've never been in harm's way feeling they're qualified to make decisions about what a soldier or a cop should have done under fire. Yes, there are a bunch of rules of composition that it's nice to follow, as there are laws that one ordinarily must follow, but to understand the situation you have to be there."
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You're right, Rob. Looking back at what was going on around me I'm not sure I could have gotten off two or three frames. And here's something I posted on Digital Grin's "Documentary" forum this morning on a similar criticism:
"With due respect to ****, who's a good photographer, I have to say that I think attempts to tell a photographer where he should have stood, how long he should have waited, or how he should have aimed his camera differently are mistakes. Unless you're able to stand in the same spot at the same time you have no basis for that kind of criticism. Critiques like that remind me of civilian judges who've never been in harm's way feeling they're qualified to make decisions about what a soldier or a cop should have done under fire. Yes, there are a bunch of rules of composition that it's nice to follow, as there are laws that one ordinarily must follow, but to understand the situation you have to be there."
That's a pet peeve of mine about what seems to be flavour of the year in the UK. Facing crap from the judiciary as well as the press, I wonder why more cops don't just resign and go into private security.
As ever, we seem to be a nation bent on protecting the 'rights' of everyone bar the victims of crime. But then there's money and lots of left-wing political capital to be made out of it, isn't there?
Rob C
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better to catch what you can catch than to catch nothing awaiting what ain't gonna happen! - Rob C
Amen to that a thousand times.
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Amen to that a thousand times.
"better to catch what you can catch than to catch nothing awaiting what ain't gonna happen! - Rob C"
Seamus, the responsibility for that instant saying is starting to weigh heavy upon my shoulders. But such is the lot of the mystic.
;-)
Rob C
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Even so, Rob, it should go down in the annals.
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Rob, there is a more general version, and my favorite:
"Life is what is happening to us while we are waiting for something to happen".
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Rob, there is a more general version, and my favorite:
"Life is what is happening to us while we are waiting for something to happen".
Nope, I think you got it a little skewed:
"Life is what happens whilst you are busy making plans." is what I think you refer to in your counter-claim to glorious posterity!
;-)
Rob C
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Rob, perhaps I just tailored it to suit my personality, existentially-wise? I tend to be more of a waiting-for-something-to-happen type of guy than a busy-making-plans one. At best, I can be a busy-daydreaming type of guy :)
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Rob, perhaps I just tailored it to suit my personality, existentially-wise? I tend to be more of a waiting-for-something-to-happen type of guy than a busy-making-plans one. At best, I can be a busy-daydreaming type of guy :)
Daydreams are expensive - daydream believers have a hard time: it's written in the music.
I've not been above the odd dream or two, but generally, I find that things happen to me - good or bad - more than I can make them happen of my own volition. This could be seen as the embodiment of laziness but not so: it's the acceptance that what's for me won't go by me and what isn't for me I may as well stop agonizing about.
Thing is, that psychology makes for a lot of empty time, and as you know, nature abhors a vacuum, so I find life fills up with all manner of shit I didn't look for, which brings me back full-circle.
Perhaps time for another plan or even, dare I say it, daydream?
Rob C
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Sorry, could not resist: would you consider... gulp... a crop that would eliminate distractive edges and concentrate solely on the mural and people?
Slobodan, you dared to crop the anti-cropper and didn't come a cropper!
A really nice shot Russ, I really like it and it has great tones (as always). Might have been just that little bit sweeter if a few more faces were towards the camera, but I agree with Rob that you have to shoot it as and when you see it.
Dave
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Actually, I could have stepped forward and done that, Slobodan, but I wanted it to be clear that the whole mural is in the picture.
Good on you! I agree wholeheartedly. Cropping turns it into an ad for something. I avoid ads but I love documents.
Cheers,
W
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Good on you! I agree wholeheartedly. Cropping turns it into an ad for something. I avoid ads but I love documents.
Cheers,
W
When I was young I loved and sought ads; now that I'm not I have no ads but ever more documents tumble through the post box bringing pain. It's an ill-divided world.
;-(
Rob C