A good day for fishing

[Chris Calohan]

[amolitor]

This either does work for me, or comes very very close to working for me. I sort of oscillate between being able to really feel the moment, and it slipping away from me!

Somehow the posture of the guy in white, leaning back, nails some ineffable feeling for me. I almost feel the warmth of the day and hear the water. I can't really speak to the composition right now, because I am groping my way through my visceral response to this one.

[Timprov]

There's something about their placement horizontally in the image that just makes me uncomfortable.  And I don't really want to be, cause it's nice.  I think I'd be happier with it if the gentleman in the light-colored shirt were not so spot-center.

[amolitor]

One of the things that's going on here is the bizarre (to me) combination of idyllic green scenery, a picture postcard sort of landscapey feeling togther with an HCB style decisive moment. The two fishermen are intent, it looks like a more or less intense moment. I think the framing is sort of stuck in a no man's land between:

- not close enough in to the action to make it exciting
- not far enough out to make it scene idyllic

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does put the viewer off kilter.

Like the previous commenter, I don't like the centering of everything (shoreline, dude in white). The background foliage does not feel particularly fortuitously placed, it seems just a random collection of green masses. There is the one mass leading from the upper right corner down to the boat which is good, but it's like it's trying to be compositionally strong, but not quite making it. Not your fault, of course, that's where they were at that moment.

[Chris Calohan]

I've done some editing: took off a bit on each side and more than that off the bottom to try to get the fishermen in aa "easier to look at" position, natural to the scene or not...and, I guess it is since the eye could just have easily seen this aspect ratio as the original.

[RSL]

Two points:

Amolitor, Almost everybody thinks that by "the decisive moment" HCB meant the peak of an action, for instance the guy in mid-air in "Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare," but if you do some research on the subject you'll find that what he meant was, more or less, the moment when the photographer is ready to be decisive. Incidentally, regarding HCB and "The Gare," you might be interested in the little film clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4qZ3Z8shZE&feature=related. It's a fascinating revalation.

Chris, seems to me that the demands of composition call either for the boat to be entering the picture on the left or leaving the picture on the right. That central placement makes me yawn.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Chris, seems to me that the demands of composition call either for the boat to be entering the picture on the left or leaving the picture on the right. That central placement makes me yawn.

Hey, Russ! That could be corrected by cropping, couldn't it?   

[Chris Calohan]

It could and would require the exit scenario. This is one of those shots where I didn't have the right lens and would have lost the shot had I taken the time to switch lenses. What kills this shot more than a crop is the guy wearing a white shirt as it makes it hard to place him in a focal point that didn't center him as the primary interest.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to critique. Everything helps. Now I'm yawning....raining cats and dogs and I want to go out.

[amolitor]

I have always interpreted "the decisive moment" as "the right moment" whatever that meant in context, and that's my trouble with this image. It does look like the "right moment" or at any rate a good moment, for the fishermen, but not necessarily the right moment for the scenery. The men are fortuitously positioned, the canoe less so.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

It is just another of yours commercial/editorial images (nothing wrong with that, btw). It does not really matter much which lens you used or could have used, where the horizon is, what crop to make or not, or whether the moment is decisive or not. You could fiddle as much or as little as you wish with all that, it would not change the basic nature of the shot or make it what it is not.

EDIT: I really did not mean for the above to come across as harshly critical, but rather matter-of-factly.

[RSL]

Hey, Russ! That could be corrected by cropping, couldn't it?   

Not really, Eric. There's not enough room on either side to place the boat where it should be with a crop.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

OK, Russ, then how about CS6's new "Content-aware move."  Just select and drag the boat where you want it.   

[RSL]

How about just framing it right in the first place? Problem is that some pictures just aren't worth the trouble to spend a lot of time in post-processing.

I'll say it again: Your reputation as a photographer depends on the pictures you show. Each good one gives you an "attaboy." A bad one wipes out a whole bunch of "attaboys." The most important thing a painter needs to learn is when to stop. The most important thing a photographer needs to learn is when to cull.

If you need any more aphorisms, just ask.