The street sweeper

Richard

1.


2.


Thanks for looking. C&C always welcome.

Wil Davis

I like them both.

#1: is ever so slightly too contrasty for my taste, but the juxtaposition of the group on the right with the solitude of the sweeper and his trusty barrow is great.

#2: brilliant idea! I wonder if you could make the window & contents less intrusive and the reflections more? …sort of reverse the way they are at the moment? I like the sharp focus of the sweeper & barrow, but I'd prefer to see them with the range of contrast you have in the window & contents; and lower the contrast of the window etc.

Here's what I think is happening in #2: Much later that same day: The barrow being too tired, has refused to do any more work, and the sweeper, getting fed up with the cantankerous barrow, has decided to teach it a lesson, once and for all (look at how he's holding the shovel)… (to be continued…)

Nice job!

- Wil

alexf

Agree with Wil on the second one. I find the first one overexposed.

adbsgicom

Agree w/ Wil. Love your compositions.

Richard

Thanks for the kind word, Wil, Alex and Andrew. I think I may have pushed the first one too far in post. It was shade-your-eyes bright out there and I was trying to recapture that feeling, but it sounds like I might need to back off some.

Cheers,

bdcolen

Richard wrote:

Thanks for the kind word, Wil, Alex and Andrew. I think I may have pushed the first one too far in post. It was shade-your-eyes bright out there and I was trying to recapture that feeling, but it sounds like I might need to back off some.

Cheers,

Actually, Richard, I'd burn the street sweeper in more in the first one to make him stand out better. I might also crop a bit up the left and across the top. I really like the shot, but the subjects are a bit too far off.

Richard

bdcolen wrote:

Actually, Richard, I'd burn the street sweeper in more in the first one to make him stand out better. I might also crop a bit up the left and across the top. I really like the shot, but the subjects are a bit too far off.

I reworked it some. How's this?

bdcolen

Richard wrote:

I reworked it some. How's this?

Definitely improved! Now the juxtaposition between the street sweeper and the 'suits' is much more obvious.

dlplumer

Richard wrote:

I reworked it some. How's this?

Excellent

Wil Davis

I think the contrast is better…

…but I think the crop loses some of the scale of the original.

- Wil

michswiss

I like the rework as well. It's extremely hard to work in that sort of direct, harsh light. But, what I find interesting in the shot isn't the people, rather the intersection of the anonymous modern building on the left and the older architecture to the right and I want to know where MacDonalds fits into this cityscape*.

I don't enjoy the juxtaposition between the street sweeper and the "suits", mainly because the street sweeper is dehumanised by having his back to us. It leaves me bothered.

* It's nice to think that MacDonalds is an active sponsor of Opera in Spain. I tend to think they are a company that tries to do the right thing.

Richard

Thanks, BD and Dan. I appreciate it.

Richard

Wil Davis wrote:

I think the contrast is better…

…but I think the crop loses some of the scale of the original.

- Wil

Yeah, and in fact, the original was already a 17 x 10 crop of the real original. Part of what I saw when shooting was how all the people were dwarfed by the scale of the building on the left. But you can't have it both ways--I guess I was trying to do that with the original crop.

Richard

michswiss wrote:

I like the rework as well. It's extremely hard to work in that sort of direct, harsh light. But, what I find interesting in the shot isn't the people, rather the intersection of the anonymous modern building on the left and the older architecture to the right and I want to know where MacDonalds fits into this cityscape*.

I don't enjoy the juxtaposition between the street sweeper and the "suits", mainly because the street sweeper is dehumanised by having his back to us. It leaves me bothered.

* It's nice to think that MacDonalds is an active sponsor of Opera in Spain. I tend to think they are a company that tries to do the right thing.

Thanks for your comments, Jenn. As I explained above, the original was actually meant to convey the dehumanization of both the sweeper and the suits, but that's not where the image took me in post. Funny how that happens sometimes.

As for McDonalds, it's a sign pointing to a branch in a nearby plaza, popularly known as Ópera. The building is the Teatro Real, which is Madrid's opera house. It is actually quite a bit older than the other buildings in the frame, but is better maintained. Madrid's opera has quite a few corporate sponsors (including Coca Cola and IBM), but AFAIK McDonalds is not one of them.