"53"

NeilLNeilL Registered Users Posts: 4,201 Major grins
edited July 9, 2009 in Street and Documentary
*



585715805_Hbjxu-XL.jpg










In the medina, Casablanca.

Enjoy!

Canon 40D, 24-70mm F2.8L

Neil
"Snow. Ice. Slow!" "Half-winter. Half-moon. Half-asleep!"

http://www.behance.net/brosepix

Comments

  • bdcolenbdcolen Registered Users Posts: 3,804 Major grins
    edited July 8, 2009
    NeilL wrote:
    *



    585715805_Hbjxu-XL.jpg
    In the medina, Casablanca.

    Enjoy!

    Canon 40D, 24-70mm F2.8L

    Neil

    Close; very close. And nice as it is. But I want to see a bit more of the boys in the back, and want to see either more of the legs of foreground boy, or less. This is one that could have benefited from working the situation a bit more.
    bd@bdcolenphoto.com
    "He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan

    "The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
  • NeilLNeilL Registered Users Posts: 4,201 Major grins
    edited July 9, 2009
    bdcolen wrote:
    Close; very close. And nice as it is. But I want to see a bit more of the boys in the back, and want to see either more of the legs of foreground boy, or less. This is one that could have benefited from working the situation a bit more.


    Thanks for your crit, B.D., much appreciate!

    I did get another shot of this which has mainly the background boys, which I haven't processed. Of the two, I chose this, because though I mostly agree with your comments, this one *is* right somehow, I think. The way I see it, the FG boy is being propelled forward out of the frame by the energetic action behind, and this connects the front and back of the image - look at the way the kicker's and the FG boy's bodies deflect from one another. The boy sitting still to the side emphasises this dual but connected action. So there is that whirl of action from front to back which is expressed also in the way the arms of the boys move together. Both the BG group and the FG boy are concentrating on something other than me, and in the case of the FG boy, he is looking forward out of the frame, is being drawn out of the frame by something. His being partially out of the frame to the extent he is, and the motion blur, seem right to me for his reaction to these two forces on him. I love the expression on his face, to me it is like seeing him take some experience from behind him forward to what is in front of him, at the very same time as he is detaching himself from the action behind. Like a messenger taking a despatch from the battle.

    So, one of the things I find worthwhile in this image is that connectedness of energy.

    Some more thoughts - I should have used the burst mode to take a quick sequence. I was unprepared for the opportunity because these boys were playing in a side alley which I suddenly came upon. They noticed me a moment later, with my relatively huge 40D+grip+24-70. I wanted to keep the moment fresh so I just shot off two shots, there and then.

    This kind of street photography is unlike photojournalism. In PJ the interest parties are typically involved in what they are involved in. You might be able and have the time to orient and walk around the scene and then move in, and you might be generally disregarded. In the case of my image here, boys in the street are just primed for anything to happen. You appear, and instantaneously you are the center of attention.

    No, there is no hiding around corners and in the shadows. The news of your appearance is called out, it goes into the open windows and doors of the houses contagiously together. Then the women go up to the roofs - look up and you see half a dozen heads quickly retract - and from roof to roof word spreads like wildfire through the whole neighborhood!

    What's left for you??!!
    "Snow. Ice. Slow!" "Half-winter. Half-moon. Half-asleep!"

    http://www.behance.net/brosepix
  • bdcolenbdcolen Registered Users Posts: 3,804 Major grins
    edited July 9, 2009
    NeilL wrote:
    Thanks for your crit, B.D., much appreciate!

    I did get another shot of this which has mainly the background boys, which I haven't processed. Of the two, I chose this, because though I mostly agree with your comments, this one *is* right somehow, I think. The way I see it, the FG boy is being propelled forward out of the frame by the energetic action behind, and this connects the front and back of the image - look at the way the kicker's and the FG boy's bodies deflect from one another. The boy sitting still to the side emphasises this dual but connected action. So there is that whirl of action from front to back which is expressed also in the way the arms of the boys move together. Both the BG group and the FG boy are concentrating on something other than me, and in the case of the FG boy, he is looking forward out of the frame, is being drawn out of the frame by something. His being partially out of the frame to the extent he is, and the motion blur, seem right to me for his reaction to these two forces on him. I love the expression on his face, to me it is like seeing him take some experience from behind him forward to what is in front of him, at the very same time as he is detaching himself from the action behind. Like a messenger taking a despatch from the battle.

    So, one of the things I find worthwhile in this image is that connectedness of energy.

    Some more thoughts - I should have used the burst mode to take a quick sequence. I was unprepared for the opportunity because these boys were playing in a side alley which I suddenly came upon. They noticed me a moment later, with my relatively huge 40D+grip+24-70. I wanted to keep the moment fresh so I just shot off two shots, there and then.

    This kind of street photography is unlike photojournalism. In PJ the interest parties are typically involved in what they are involved in. You might be able and have the time to orient and walk around the scene and then move in, and you might be generally disregarded. In the case of my image here, boys in the street are just primed for anything to happen. You appear, and instantaneously you are the center of attention.

    No, there is no hiding around corners and in the shadows. The news of your appearance is called out, it goes into the open windows and doors of the houses contagiously together. Then the women go up to the roofs - look up and you see half a dozen heads quickly retract - and from roof to roof word spreads like wildfire through the whole neighborhood!

    What's left for you??!!

    I agree with you completely about the value of the foreground figure - I don't know that I buy all the blah blah blah arty analysis - rolleyes1.gif - but the figure in the foreground makes the image. My point was simply that I would ideally want to see a bit more of the backround boys, and the feet of the foreground boy...

    Street photography is really tough - not every shot is going to work; most won't, in fact. We know Gary Winnogrand for those photos that worked - not for the literally 10s of thousands that didn't. One of the hardest things about doing street photography is coming to recognize that the near-misses are just misses, even if they're near.

    As to burst mode - shut it off. You can get off plenty of shots if you depress the shutter release multiple times. If you use burst mode, you're not taking the photo, the camera is. (Of course there are exceptions to this - for example, sequence shooting in certain high-speed sports.) But train yourself to get off multiple shots quickly and don't rely on burst mode.

    And again - I like the shot...:D
    bd@bdcolenphoto.com
    "He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan

    "The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
  • NeilLNeilL Registered Users Posts: 4,201 Major grins
    edited July 9, 2009
    bdcolen wrote:
    I agree with you completely about the value of the foreground figure - I don't know that I buy all the blah blah blah arty analysis - rolleyes1.gif - but the figure in the foreground makes the image. My point was simply that I would ideally want to see a bit more of the backround boys, and the feet of the foreground boy...

    Street photography is really tough - not every shot is going to work; most won't, in fact. We know Gary Winnogrand for those photos that worked - not for the literally 10s of thousands that didn't. One of the hardest things about doing street photography is coming to recognize that the near-misses are just misses, even if they're near.

    As to burst mode - shut it off. You can get off plenty of shots if you depress the shutter release multiple times. If you use burst mode, you're not taking the photo, the camera is. (Of course there are exceptions to this - for example, sequence shooting in certain high-speed sports.) But train yourself to get off multiple shots quickly and don't rely on burst mode.

    And again - I like the shot...:D


    Thanks.

    I mostly agree with you, except of course your blah blah blah anti-intellectualism! :D

    Yes, I can imagine the FG boy being further back in the frame, and that it probably would look better, in a certain way. However, I should warn you, I am on a campaign to beat the border! In other words, to put the whole of the boy completely inside the frame would be, I feel, to trap him in the frame. I hate that, and some of the images I admire succeed in reducing the walling-in of the edges. It's, as I say, a goal of mine to break up and dissolve those four edges.

    I take that you mean when you advise against using burst that each shot should be framed uniquely? Put that way, I find it a very valuable point. I would not however want to sacrifice getting a great shot for that principle.mwink.gif

    Good dialog again, as is our custom! thumb.gif
    "Snow. Ice. Slow!" "Half-winter. Half-moon. Half-asleep!"

    http://www.behance.net/brosepix
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