Some M9 combat photography from Bangkok.

[roland_dobbins]

<p>Critique welcome!<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/null0/sets/72157623955904271/</p>

[frank uhlig]

<p>Glorious pictures of the police, their weapons to kill, their disassociated brutality and unconnectedness towards the subjects of their aim (the people) is frightening and cold. <br>

I do like the graveyard black vignette on most of the pics. Well deserved satire, it seems to me.</p>

<p>How were you embedded with the "authority" for so long, riding on the back of the tanks etc ... ? Why not any 'people' people shots, I mean pics, sorry? Of course I realize you had to make a decision to be in one bed here. The proper bed, I wonder? But this is nice work, though the colors pop too disneyesque at times .. the blues; no blood reds, though, are ever visible ... Was nobody killed?</p>

[sumo_kun]

<p>Personally I think the vignette is a little cheesy... or at least overdone. The pictures themselves though are nice. I would liked to have seen some more pictures of the people getting fired at and maybe some shots showing a bit more interaction with the crowd.</p>

[richard_bud]

<p>I don't believe this qualifies as 'combat' photography. While work as a photographer for the Wisconsin State Journal, I covered the civil unrest of the late 1960's at the University of Wisconsin and Madison Wisconsin.<br>

The State Journal gave me a riot helmet which I never wore, the police were armed and we had armed National Guard guarding the campus. Eventually one person was killed from what we now call a 'car bomb' that also destroyed a high rise building housing the Army Math Research Center. <br>

I don't consider myself a combat photographer.-Dick</p>

[roland_dobbins]

<p>I think getting pinned down by two snipers for 20 minutes at Din Daeng in the middle of the night gives one the right to the sobriquet, but that's just me, perhaps. At any right, I wasn't claiming it for myself, but for the photos, a couple of which show soldiers firing full-auto into/past the barricades (I had to scramble so quickly to get out of the way of one of the APCs when it retreated posthaste in reaction to a false report of an RPG team, firing its twin .50s directly over my head and to my right, that I didn't get a proper shot of that, worse luck).<br>

As to other feedback - yes, vignette was too much, I removed it, thanks. As to why no pictures of the Red Shirts in this series - they were far, far back behind their barricades during the 3 hours I had available to go and shoot, so I never got a direct visual on one. Folks were killed, but later in the day, and I wasn't there to record it.<br>

Same for lack of interaction with the crowd - there was no crowd, physically, the Red Shirts were behind the barricade, loosing off what sounded like an occasional 5.56mm shot, but that was it.<br>

So, the bottom line is that the only kind of photographer I consider myself to be is an amateur who has quite a bit to learn from those who provide constructive criticism which helps me improve as a photographer, as opposed to those who merely snipe (get it?) from the sidelines.<br>

;></p>

[richard_bud]

<p>I suggest you read the book 'War' by Sebastion Junger and see his film 'Restrepo'. By coincidence, I am going to meet Sebastion tomorrow. Sebastion does combat photography.-Dick</p>

[roland_dobbins]

<p>Already read the book, thanks.</p>

<p>Again, I've not claimed to be a combat photographer, I'm just an amateur (who's sold a few images, but nothing major) trying to learn - why you and the other malcontents here are intent on setting up a strawman argument and then demolishing it, I've no idea.</p>

<p>I suggest *you* and your fellow nose-in-the-air martinets learn to read what people actually *say*, not what others say about what they supposedly said, heh.</p>

[elijah_free]

<p>Hi Roland, some great pics. Don't let some of the folks here bother you too much. It is far more important what you believe about your experience than what some others are trying to tell you about it. Sounds like it took some nerve to do what you did. I wonder if they could have done the same. Either way, congratulations on some fine picture taking. And stay out of the way of live fire. regards to you.</p>

[michael j hoffman]

<p>I think the criticism of some here is because the conflict is never captured within the confines of a single frame. For all the viewer could know from any of these images on their own, they could just as easily be looking at a a fire or military training scenario, as opposed to any kind of actual maneuvers. In that respect, the images were rather pedestrian for what I would call "combat photography" (your chosen label, not mine). Technically, as photographs, the images are very good; and, I am especially impressed with your use of direction-of-light. The content is excellent in nearly every photograph, but the context is lacking in nearly all images, as well.</p>

<p>Michael J Hoffman</p>

[photo_galleries]

<p><em>I suggest *you* and your fellow nose-in-the-air martinets learn to read what people actually *say*</em></p>

<p>If people actually have to read words to understand combat images, then I'd have to say that those images failed.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>I think the picture quality is very good and hats off to you. I came away thinking maybe you were "embedded" with the Govt. forces because of the perspective of just seeing soldiers and government personnel. Thank you for the context of what you were doing, and I think it's amazing to get them. Michael makes a good objective point, in that you never see the whole conflict in one frame and so from a certain perspective it's a little disconnected. However, I don't agree that the pictures look like they could be training exercises, they look "real" enough for me and present the activities of the govt. forces very well. It be great to find someone who was shooting behind the barricades and put together a set with that person. It's easy and foolhardy thing to urge someone to get photos of the reds while in the middle of live fire especially while sitting here safely behind my computer screen. You got bigger nads than I as I would not be out there in a gun battle. Think you did amazingly well. Good job.</p>

[gadge]

<p>Thanks for sharing and thoroughly deserving of your post here, especially considering the often rather lame stuff submitted here these days... IMHO!<br>

Gadge</p>