Which of these...

[abufletcher]

Eric, as a left-hander, I'm just curious...why do you think a "right-handed"

version looks better? : ) I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm just wondering what we

gain (ever) by reversing a photo left to right).

[takaaki]

<i>you don't have as a goal "documenting"</i><br><br>If there is such thing as a goal,

then the process of photography is the goal for me.

[abufletcher]

Sorry forgot to resize that last photo. BTW, I have to say that I haven't really

gotten used to all the interpretive work that goes on during the "post-camera"

phase. For years and years I just shot slides and sent them into a photo

editor. I'm not used to thinking about whether the light could be make a little

more directional or colors darkened or altered.

 

I'm trying come to terms with these things though. Rarely have I been able to

come up with ONE definitive rendition of a "digital negative" They seem to all

be works in progress.

[ray .]

I like the look of the woman in the second, but other than that, it's

clearly the lesser of the two photographs. The first is nice in

either color or black and white. Aside from whatever small

improvements you could make with contrast, I think it's a nice

photo. A little looseness and imperfection in composition and

content isn't necessarily a bad thing...

[EricM]

Donald, the western eye, due to reading (?), is more comfortable with the subject in the right corner. So, depending on how the culture reads text, I put the subject in the corner that text would finish. But rules are ment to be broken too...

[abufletcher]

OK, here's another version incorporating many of the suggestions offered

here including a tighter crop (thanks Eric) and some hopefully light burning,

and a little work in curves. Keep in mind though that I'm making these

changes on a LCD laptop monitor (Mac) and it could look horrible on a PC

CRT monitor.<div></div>

[ray .]

You know, when I look at it again, the figure of the woman is the

most appealing part of the photo. Half of photography is finding

good subject matter, and you did that. You did a fair job of

capturing it, but I think you know it could have been better. Post

processing isn't going to make this a great photo, but it's a nice

one anyway.

 

Sorry Eric, but I don't see the point of reversing the image.

[abufletcher]

Eric, interesting! Maybe I spent too much time in the Arabia! Anyway, so

you're saying that the eye should read across a photo to end on the subject. I

wonder how this would have worked with ancient Greek which I understand

was often written beginning in the middle and spiraling outwards? : )

 

I appreciate everyone's extremely civil comments. Thanks.

[abufletcher]

Ray, you've pin-pointed another part of the problem with"pretty Japan."

Apparently, only women are attractive and as such they are disproportionately

represented. Maybe because female photographers are even rarer in Japan

than on the Leica Forum. I've found I too have to fight the urge to look right

through the male population and only see the females in their fine flumage.

And this is not just some western male fascination. After all it's the FEMALES

in kimono, the school GIRLS, and fahionable LADIES who seem to "get all the

press."

 

Females, such as the one in this photo, are trained from their youngest years

to present just such smiles as these to total (and bizarre looking) strangers --

men are not. Almost immediately the women began playing for the camera

while the male really only "got with the program" on the second shot after

seeing that his lovely bride was posing for the gaijin.

[abufletcher]

...,<div></div>

[________1]

The people in the background are a bit annoying...<p>

 

<center><img src="http://members.shaw.ca/mywebspace88/married.jpg"></center><center><i>...onlookers be gone!</i></center>

[henricus]

I suggest the last onlooker be removed and the eyes of the two main subjects be moved up in the frame. Here is my crop version. Donald, your original comment regarding the light is on the mark.<div></div>

[henricus]

A little tighter wouldn't hurt. Here is a version with a grid for reference.<div></div>

[charles_stobbs3]

Color is the only choice, your color vertical crop is the best.

[lutz]

Donald, your last (larger and cropped) version looks perfect!

[abufletcher]

Henry, thanks for your suggestion. I do like the numberical balance on your

crop. All in all this has been a worthwhile exercise and a reminder that

photographs happen in the camera and not in the darkroom. This was

probably a no win situation -- these were the only two shots I was able to get

without completely intervening in the situation, e.g. by stopping them in their

tracks and asking them to please go back into the shaded area. They were

on their way to have formal wedding photos taken (by the pro in the BW

version) and I just stumbled across them. And in reality it was more a case of

trying out a new lens on my D70 (an old 100 Series E lens) than really being

"out there" doing photography.

[abufletcher]

...,..<div></div>

[abufletcher]

...,..,...<div></div>

[nesrani]

Donald, I have to say that of all the pictues in this thead, my favourite is the last one. 80% of Japan looks very visually stimulating. I certainly wouldn't be photogaphing weddings if I had the opportunity to photograph all those signs and junk, believe me. Your subject is staring you in the face.

[abufletcher]

Noam Chomsky, noted linguist and political activist, has claimed (way back

before it was popular to do so) that despite claims of a "free press" the

Western media is trapped in a cycle of "economic self-censorship." In

essense, any editor worth his salt has a sense for what sells and what sells is

essentially what has sold before and what people of familiar and/or

comforable with. We tend to hear the same type of news stories again and

again and again.

 

I suggest the same is true of photograph -- particularly travel photography.

Both the general public and therefore also photograhers and editors come to

associate certainly places with certain types of photographs -- and then that

type of photo becomes the definition of what a good photo (for that context)

should be. Here that means "pretty Japan." Bee Flowers has some curious

photos made in Israel/Occupied Palestine (depending on your point of view)

that are striking primarily because they run so counter to what we expect to

see when we hear about Palestine and the Palestinians. The photos show

kitschy clutter in homes -- which is in its own way typical of many of the Arab

homes I have visited. But it's not what we expect and most people would

immediately reject them.

 

Below is another photo that I like because it flies in the face of "pretty (or

"exotic") Japan" type images.<div></div>

[abufletcher]

Bob, basically I agree with you and this is exactly the direction I'm trying to

move. But it's really hard to fight off the impulse grab those "pretty Japan"

images that are so popular back home. I like this street scene as well but it's

certainly never drawn the sort of praise my festival shots have.

 

I suppose that's the really hard part of good photography. You just have to

completely ignore other peoples ideas about what's good (or more accurately

worth photographing) and follow your own drummer.<div></div>

[abufletcher]

And I'll add one more thing, although at this point I might just be talking to

myself (which is ok I guess) and that is that I DO have as the goal of my

photography documenting either literally or impressionistically my

impressions of what and how Japan is.

 

I wouldn't be satisfied with just going around creating "rectangular art" that

could just as well have been made anywere on earth. So while I appreciate

looking at a gritty B/W of a dead bird on the asphalt as much as the next guy,

it's not what I want to do with my limited camera time in Japan (or the next

place I end up).

 

A recent w/nw thread on the theme of "Metal" was full of incredibly impressive

images but ones that nevertheless have little or nothing to say about the

about the cultures and peoples who created them. And I guess that's the

reason I started taking pictures to start with. It was never a desire to "make

art" or even a love affair with the gear -- though after many years together I will

admit to a certain familiar fondness.

[boris_ochan]

Donald, as an "outsider" photographing Japan have you looked at the work of two other

"outsiders" - Paul Graham and Chris Steele-Perkins?

[abufletcher]

Boris, I've had a look at the Fuji book by Chris Steele-Perkins and I can't say

the photos do anything for me -- although they do reveal the "non-pretty" side

of Japan. But most of the photos themselves are pretty ordinary aside from

having Mt. Fuji appear somewhere in the background. It's the sort of gimmick

that's going to appeal to publishers -- particularly on a topic so massively

photographed as Japan.

 

Many gaijin photographers seem to be caught up in documenting the colorful

and vibrant "youth culture" of Japan but that's really not representative of

Japan today which is being crushed by the weight of an declining birth rate

and an ever more elderly population). After living in Mexico were something

like 50% of the population is below the age of 15, one of my first impressions

of Japan was how "old" everyone seemed. All of Japan (outside Tokyo and

Osaka) seemed to be one giant Leisure World. But the elderly of Japan in

their grey sweaters and sensible shoes don't seem to make for very appealing

subjects for street photographers.<div></div>