Stop!
rainbow
Registered Users Posts: 2,765 Major grins
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rainbow
Registered Users Posts: 2,765 Major grins
Comments
I'm also not crazy about your B&W conversion; the sky and the road both seem like they should be darker to help other things stand out against them (other than the network of cables), and even the darkest shadows in the shot aren't all that dark.
I feel like there ought to be something interesting about the boy in the center with the dark jacket, because his face stands out against the dark clothes behind him. But I'm not picking up on anything. He's just sort of there.
On the plus side, it's a really sharp shot with great DOF, and your verticals are nice and straight.
Got bored with digital and went back to film.
Title refers to multiple subjects: the sign, the streetcar stop, the rush of students (who were also illegally boarding in the back), and especially the car, which creeped up the street and swerved to the right as if it could squeeze past.
I am a novice at B & W conversion, but the sky was very washed out. It was sunny on a hazy/foggy day. You can see the limited visibility on the hazy trees just on the right corner of the streetcar. The sky in the original (color) only had a hint of blue. And yet, the blacks (kid's jacket) is quite black. So I do not know if it is the lighting or the conversion (probably both...).
Thanks for looking and commenting.
Remarkable? Perhaps nothing. Distinctive? It is unique in the annals of photography.
Thanks for looking.
In compositional terms, there appears to be a lot of negative space at the bottom that could be cropped out, and perhaps you could also lose a little off the left. That would focus the image more on the activity going on.
But I'm still unclear what I could or should take away from it.
The shot, in my opinion, is an interesting slice-of-life capture. I think it could stand some cropping at the bottom and a little at the left. It would be closer to remarkable and distinctive if a few if the kids were shown with a little more detail, but the angle was wrong for that. A side shot or a front shot of the kids crowding into, or coming out of, the streetcar would be more interesting to me, but I suspect the shooter grabbed the shot that was available.
All in all, an interesting shot and a worthwhile capture.
http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/
Good try, but W.W. is essentially correct - it's a shot of a streetcar, people, and a car. And? And? I think my reaction to it is, 'okay, but why?' The problem here is that I don't know the kids are boarding illegally - I don't even really know they're boarding; I don't know anything about where or why the streetcar stopped; and I know nothing about the car. I certainly know why you tried this, but I don't think it worked - not everything does.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
We see a lot of street shots that are just that - "street shots". There has to be something else, surely! I just don't know what was intended in this case.
Thank you Tony. I like your phrasing of "slice-of-life" capture. I certainly appreciate your pointing out that "Remarkable" and "distinctive" are a tall order. And you are discerning in realizing that I grabbed the shot that was available because I was at the next intersection behind the wheel when this rush of students charged out into the lane of traffic. I know of few places where people, much less kids, have to stand in lanes of traffic in order to board public transportation.
I can accept that maybe I missed. But I also believe that you are perhaps overstating it as "but why?" If you say "I don't even really know they're boarding; I don't know anything about where or why the streetcar stopped; and I know nothing about the car" then you have to realize that something CANNOT be normal. Why? Because there are forty or so teenagers standing in a lane of traffic next to a streetcar with a car askew that perhaps came close to hitting the most prominent kid if it did not swerve...
So I accept that maybe I missed it. But not so big a miss as to imply that the three elements appear completely unconnected.
I appreciate this second post as it is much easier to read and react to than your first one ("What's remarkable or distinctive about this image? What am I missing?"). I will let you read my reply above to B. D. as an answer, even though I expect that you will still think that I failed to convey what the "take away" should be. And that I can live with because my viewpoint as photographer and yours as viewer do not connect.
My immediate reaction to this shot was "So what" as well. I played with a centre crop based on your description above and the story you outline becomes much more apparent. But, I still didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Wrong implied question! There is nothing out of the ordinary. Every day after school, a whole bunch of students rush out into the street to catch the streetcar to go home.
And that is why I shot it. I was driving up this street behind the streetcar and suddenly a whole bunch of students rushed out into the street. The car in the photo certainly reacted by steering to the right. I reacted by taking the shot and THEN turning left to avoid what was probably a four minute delay.
And the fact that this is "ordinary" is what is extraordinary to me. Students boarding transportation from school is usually a safe operation. Here they literally cross a lane of traffic and stand in the middle of the street waiting to board.
Now this photo really does not bear up to all this explanation. You are the fourth poster who has said "so what" or "I don't get it" or similar. I have maybe read every post in this forum and nowhere are these the nature of the responses that photos generate. It's okay to say "I think you missed because..." But to have to defend myself on issues of being remarkable, distinctive, ordinary, and "why?" from four different people is just truly remarkable, extraordinary, and unique. I don't get it...
I do thank you for the suggestions and comments. Forgive me if my comments felt directed at you personally.
I think I am overly sensitive to the nature of the feedbacks in this thread as I expressed in the response to your first post because they are somewhat impossible to respond to without feeling defensive (eg - what is remarkable about this photo?). I did give a backstory afterwards and do understand that my photo must fail to communicate much of anything to many viewers. Again, I accept that, although personally I still like this shot well enough to have posted it.