montreal

[GEOFFREYJAMES]

After years of shooting film,  am playing with a Leica M9 and a 35 mm lens. 

[ckimmerle]

Geoffrey,

I see what you're trying to do and applaud the effort, but for me it does not quite work. To make it better I'd crop off the entire top half (just kidding, Russ)...

I very much like the chaotic and lyrical qualities of the spray paint and cement cracks and the way the curb is curving  into the background, but feel that the static, organized structure of the bricks on the right side brings it down. Sort of like having a great party, then Melvin the bore showing up and ruining it for everyone.

Don't get me wrong, I do like it, but not as much as I could have.

Chuck

p.s. Crap, on second and third look I like it better. Could it be I was wrong?

[GEOFFREYJAMES]

 Hey, Russ,

  I actually made a print, then drew on it.  Just kidding,  but it was only a little  visual  game. I suspect I am a bit out of place here, because I don't crop and refuse to use the word composition in photography.  You can compose a song, a  salad, a painting,  but unless you are a photoshop monster,  you can only frame a photograph.  It's where you stand that matters.  The hardest thing is to make a photograph that isn't totally cliched.  We are in a period of visual overload and boredom. 

[John R]

I quite like it. It is whimsical and understated. Despite the many shapes, the dynamic lines carry the eye and our interest through the whole image. Is it about about juxtaposition, or making the ordinary look different and appealing? Doesn't matter, it works and is appealing in its whimsy. IMHO!

JMR

[pegelli]

Agree with John, there's a great "flow" that leads the viewer through the image.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I like it a lot, for reasons others have stated. This is my kind of "street" photography!

Eric

[RSL]

+1. Also, I agree with Goeff that you don't compose (unless you're in a studio); you frame, or, to put it another way, you crop time and visual reality. What Goeff's doing is called "seeing," or, as HCB put it: "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything."