New crop of Station Rd. boys

PattiPatti Registered Users Posts: 1,576 Major grins
edited January 7, 2010 in Street and Documentary
A friend suggested I crop in on one of the boys in this photo. What do you think?

Original

750900924_Wja5m-L.jpg


Cropped:

759216804_gfobS-L.jpg
The use of a camera is similar to that of a knife. You can use it to peel potatoes, or carve a flute. ~ E. Kahlmeyer
... I'm still peeling potatoes.

patti hinton photography

Comments

  • rainbowrainbow Registered Users Posts: 2,765 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2010
    The original photo is stronger. The new crop loses most of the context of the group walking away before noticing you. Now it makes no sense why a snowball was shortly headed your way... ne_nau.gif
  • TonyCooperTonyCooper Registered Users Posts: 2,276 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2010
    The suggestion is more than a crop. It's a complete change of what is presented. The first is a photo of a group of boys with two of them looking back. It's a street scene. The second is a photo of one boy.

    You have to decide which is the more interesting concept. I think the group is more interesting. There's not much point to the boy alone.

    It's a crop when you take something out that is extraneous; something that doesn't add to image.
    Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
    http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,967 moderator
    edited January 7, 2010
    Patti wrote:
    A friend suggested I crop in on one of the boys in this photo. What do you think?

    Tough call for me. I wouldn't approach this as an either/or question, but rather, does the crop work as an another, separate image. The original is a great shot and you should keep it. As for the crop, it (naturally) shares the gritty, 50 year old look of the original. Since it's all about the one boy now, I think the conventional wisdom would say that he's not isolated enough from what surrounds him, but another part of me says, the hell with conventional wisdom. What does bother me some, though, is the posture of the kid on the left. There's something a little odd about it close up that doesn't seem strange in the original version. Perhaps it's because in the original it is clear that they are walking on snow and ice, so looking down is not a bad idea, whereas in the crop, this isn't apparent. ne_nau.gif
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  • PattiPatti Registered Users Posts: 1,576 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2010
    Richard wrote:
    Tough call for me. I wouldn't approach this as an either/or question, but rather, does the crop work as an another, separate image. The original is a great shot and you should keep it. As for the crop, it (naturally) shares the gritty, 50 year old look of the original. Since it's all about the one boy now, I think the conventional wisdom would say that he's not isolated enough from what surrounds him, but another part of me says, the hell with conventional wisdom. What does bother me some, though, is the posture of the kid on the left. There's something a little odd about it close up that doesn't seem strange in the original version. Perhaps it's because in the original it is clear that they are walking on snow and ice, so looking down is not a bad idea, whereas in the crop, this isn't apparent. ne_nau.gif

    You're bang on Richard. I'm sorry that I wasn't clear. I meant this as a totally separate shot, not an either or proposition. I totally agree that the original is the much stronger shot. I was wondering if the crop worked on its own.
    Interesting comment about the boy looking down. It is a bit off-putting.
    The use of a camera is similar to that of a knife. You can use it to peel potatoes, or carve a flute. ~ E. Kahlmeyer
    ... I'm still peeling potatoes.

    patti hinton photography
  • bdcolenbdcolen Registered Users Posts: 3,804 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2010
    Patti wrote:
    You're bang on Richard. I'm sorry that I wasn't clear. I meant this as a totally separate shot, not an either or proposition. I totally agree that the original is the much stronger shot. I was wondering if the crop worked on its own.
    Interesting comment about the boy looking down. It is a bit off-putting.

    No, no, no. Don't go listening to 'friends.' rolleyes1.gifrolleyes1.gif
    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
  • PattiPatti Registered Users Posts: 1,576 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2010
    bdcolen wrote:
    No, no, no. Don't go listening to 'friends.' rolleyes1.gifrolleyes1.gif

    mwink.gif As my mother used to say to me, if your friends decided to jump off of a bridge, would you do that too?
    The use of a camera is similar to that of a knife. You can use it to peel potatoes, or carve a flute. ~ E. Kahlmeyer
    ... I'm still peeling potatoes.

    patti hinton photography
  • DonRicklinDonRicklin Registered Users Posts: 5,551 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2010
    Patti wrote:
    You're bang on Richard. I'm sorry that I wasn't clear. I meant this as a totally separate shot, not an either or proposition. I totally agree that the original is the much stronger shot. I was wondering if the crop worked on its own.
    Interesting comment about the boy looking down. It is a bit off-putting.
    As a separate image, the boy looking down can add imaged senario to the image, more so than in the original. Will the boy looking back trip up over hi and they both go down??? What is about to happen next in this image....

    Definitely gives the crop an interest of its own. They are both good images!

    Don
    Don Ricklin - Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, was Pentax K7
    'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
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