Mixed Message (I Love You?)

I love U 2 :):) great finding dear John :):)

and Thank you ;)

Biliana

This one says it all, doesn't it.

I just found this, but it was a 'find', wasn't it?

John

Ok this is me after the reststop photo (2/2). It seems you have a very creative portfolio. You are definitally a "city-kid" and very few have the guts to show examples of this the creative way...Most of the times they show apealing 30 second empty streets with glazing lights but not the hard stuff you show. Its very easy as I said in my previous comment to show nudes sunsets etc. (Ok not very easy)- Sorry John Peri - no offence ;-)...But you show something else. And because you have the camera with you all the time you get the best shots also. This one is the first great. 5/7 Bravo :-)

What else to add that others havent added ?

Actually, this was a totally 'easy' photo to take and post.

It had 'winner' written all over it.

I showed it to a local photo shop owner who used to be (and is once again returning to be) a very successful pro photographer, and he said 'wow, can I sell that in my shop? It'll sell lots.'

I deferred, but it has markings of a huge winner as a poster or on a greeting card, I think.

And the 'view' numbers back it up.

I occasionally watch people view my portfolio and they almost always 'click' on this one -- even call people over from across the room to look at this one -- and who knows how many people on 'My Space' have kiped it. (If I find out, I'll try and get the space shut down until it's removed, so let me know PNers.).

I took a fairly representative number of photos, with varying depth of field and from different distancees -- this was a sure shot, but I wanted to get it right, and I think I did. It's a powerful photograph; even people who read and write foreign languages usually know enough English to understand this (even if they read a different 'alphabet' -- e.g. Cryllic -- they still get it, because, say, McDonald's has appropriated part of these words for the slogan 'I'm Lovin' It' which they've translated into lots of languages and placed on their cups in foreign countries and copyrighted the phrase (is it legal? I doubt it, but to fight it, you're facing a phalanx of McDonald's briefcase toters who'll bankrupt you.)

City kid?

I grew up in prototypical small town America -- literally the 'test kitchen' for small towns, where there were always tests and experiments from the local university from which extrapolations made for the general population of America and always in school, this study and that study.

I only went to school (university) in the big city (Big Apple). I happen to live in the country, too far to walk anywhere but the beach or the place where people camp who walk to the beach or neighbors who never talk to one another (they always drive to their friends).

I like Eastern Europe because as one 'fellow traveler' once noted to me recently -- an older guy -- much older -- these people seem to get a lot more out of life than we do don't they?

And I said, 'yes, you're right, it's part of why I always come back - as well as wonderful photos because they live life on the street.'

John (Crosley)

Fascinating thread, John, with a really interesting photo. Perhaps the broken window was an accident that just happened to be heart-shaped, and so someone decided to make a bit of a joke out of it.

Great presentation, John! It just gets better and better. I hope that you keep this format so that people referred to your site will immediately see the string of photos related to background. They can always click on any photo if they want to access all of your posted photos.

--Lannie

I am pretty sure it was an accident and someone's heartsick (possibly) 'joke'. . . . if it is a 'joke' at all -- perhaps more of a 'lament'.

In any case, when I drove by, I stopped by, brought out my camera and the rest is one of my most-viwed photos.

An other person took the same photo, but with a point-and-shoot from some distance away, not getting close at all, and so the main point of that person's photo had to have been very small compared to the bulk of the auto, while mine zeroed in on the actual 'point' of the matter.

And I do plan on keeping this same format, at least for the near term and probably for the long term; I like it, and I'm glad you do also.

I especially like it when my critics steer me the right way.

Best wishes,

John (Crosley)

I love this photo! Whenever I see it I always think of how wonderfully intense and yet sometimes tragic love can be.

Do you ever sell prints? If so, please contact me because I would love to get one from you.

Thanks,

Jade

I'm working on the print thing now.

But I'm working with a world famous printer who images collector prints.

He was Helmut Newton's personal printer, among many other famous individuals.

Just their 11 x 14 printing cost is about $100, but museum quality.

I haven't sold prints so far because of the logistics, but am working on it.

I am told by experts I may have gems worth collecting, and I don't want to screw up that market by sending Costco prints to people for a few dollars.

But I'll put you on the list and contact you when (and if) things are worked out. I should know in a month to three.

By the way, that is a great compliment.

It pleases me greatly.

John (Crosley)

...

I agree -- it so aptly summarizes what one experiences in life.

When affairs of the heart are broken even this tape, called duct tape, which is used to fix even the most difficult things in America -- in this case a broken heart -- cannot be fixed by strong tape, which is used by everyone to fix everything else. In fact, duct tape is almost the universal panacea.

Not here, however.

There is a phrase 'just duct tape it' - meaning that if something needs a good, strong fix, one uses duct tape.

Here, that fix fails, and here it also testifies to the futility of the endeavour.

Which is the whole point of the photo, isn't it?

Thanks for the comment.

John (Crosley)

This is a very interesting shots (Best of the Best)! I tried to read all comments for this shot! But this broken heart says more than all the words!

It is not my policy to take photos of others' 'art'.

It this scene/object were in an 'art'  gallery, I would not have taken and posted a photo of it.

But when I find it on a street, with nothing to explain how or why it came to be, then it becomes 'found art', and when I photograph it, then the photograph becomes 'my art'.

Sometimes in life, after taking thousands or hundreds of thousands of photos, you will pass something as interesting as this, even go home and consider whether to photograph it, and then, as I did, return quickly, very quickly, and photograph it to the best of my ability.

It has proved to be a very wise and happy decision.

Never pass by 'good art' just because it seems 'too easy'.

Viewers don't view' or 'not view' based on whether it was 'easy' or 'not easy' for you to 'see' and 'take the shot' but on whether it's worthy and/or interesting.

This was both.

There may have been times in life when I've passed up wonderful decisions because of lack of insight.  In law I passed up several cases I could have retired on, because I did not 'see' their potential; I was too short-sighted.

Regrettably one client never got representation, and her case disappeared, I think while others saw less than the best lawyers to pursue their cases.

But in many, nay the VAST MAJORITY of cases that I saw or examined for possible representation as an attorney very long ago, I saw greater potential than attorneys who had passed over those cases and turned them down, judging them without merit or without substantial hope of success.

In fact, I based much of my law practice WAY BACK WHEN (now, decades ago) on just such cases, where few could see 'why' I even took such cases, but I made a small fortune on them, because I could 'SEE' things in them few could see.

I often then was the 'attorney of last resort' in such cases, and if I didn't take it, it was garbage, (mooser), but if I took it, 95%+ of the time I and my client prevailed, and the few times we didn't was when my client did not tell me the truth or disappeared, or some other thing out of my control happened.

I had the same 'instinct and insight 'in law' and analyzing cases, that you see in my photography -- the ability to 'see' far more than the average person, or even the average or most above-average attorney. (I was rated by other attorneys and judges and that was the semi-official rating very early in my career, after I think three years, placing me in the top 20% of all practitioners in the highest-skilled market for attorneys in the USA.)

But alas, I fell too much in love with the practice of law, and took my clients' cases too much to heart, got too close to many of them, forgot that many of them are people, and some people are greedy, some are selectively forgetful, some are hypocritical, and some just are out for themselves, and if they have to scuttle someone in the process to help their cause or feelings,, they'd do it. 

Not too many are that way, but it hurts to give heart and soul to clients who are like that, and EVERY good attorney in America who represents clients well has heart-wrenching stories to tell (or maybe cannot because of client confidentiality.)

Photography is different.

What you see, in 'street' here, is what there is.

Your ability to 'see' is open to scrutiny forever, not hidden in some file that can never be shared with anybody forever, because of 'client confidentiality' . . . . whereas a case brought into a law office in figurative broken shards, often could be pieced together and sold almost as brand new . . . after the use of considerable skill and effort. 

Sometimes such cases even can be sold at a premium.  Very often in a damage case, I was able to achieve a first recovery for my client representing money damages for their damages.  Then as they were thanking me and ready to leave, I would pull out a second, often much larger check for them, and tell them I had caught their own insurance company cheating them, which they had not known of or found out, as it is in the nature of insurance companies to 'play the odds' and selectively cheat those they deem who don't 'press their claims aggressively', those they deem seem 'unaware of their rights' or 'ill prepared to press their claims' or those who are under-educated, immigrants, not intelligent, and those who (at one time) were not represented by an attorney.

It's harder for insurance companies to represent individuals represented by attorneys, and much more dangerous, at least in California . . . but in some states, it is the order of the day to cheat and dare attorneys to sue and then 'settle on the courthouse steps'.

Insurance companies can wait forever; injured clients cannot.

Time (as in Communism) was in the side of insurance companies, and they full well knew that.

(I last practiced in 1987 or so, and not since, and have not been 'in the business' since then, but some things seem immutable, such as human behavior and the behavior of large corporations, especially insurance corporations.)

Every photo I take is 'custom' just like I tried to make every law case.

I cannot imagine being the photographer who takes the student photo of every student in a school, with three minutes for each student to sit down, pose the correct way, have three shots taken (to adjust lights and be sure they don't blink), then move on.

That to me would be photographic hell.

Everything you see that I do, is 'custom work' and has my imprint:  "hand made and selected by John Crosley, who aspires to be a master craftsman at 'street' and other genres of photography".

Maybe some day I'll make it.

Even this broken windshield above, is 'custom'.  Too much depth of field, and you'd see the steering wheel, the seats, the seat belts, and so on.

The wrong reflection, and it would look terrible, whereas it has a range of tonalities, caused by using reflections of the sky and background woods (part of small roadside forest), to make a range of whites to blacks with good grays.

I even purposely cause the 'U' to be slightly 'out of focus' so one would be FORCED to view the center 'break' which forms the 'heart', which in the minds of most American English speakers forms the word 'love'.

So, in common parlance, in America, this says 'I love you', and the photograph was taken with far more loving  care and skill than ever can be understood by the average viewer.  Most see it and most say 'it's wonderful, I love it', but don't know why.

If another PN member of less skill took it, maybe few would look at it seriously.

Here, even if you analyze the glass cracks, they form a radiating pattern that draws the eye in from the frame corners to the center, but not quite the center, just 'off center' enough to add 'tension'.

In fact the heart-shaped 'break' adds considerable 'tension' in and of itself.

Even the tape (duct tape, the universal fix-it adhesive in America) has detail, -- it is a fiber-reinforced tape, and it shows in this photo, but only if one looks hard.

This photo was taken looking directly at the car's 'dashboard' from outside, yet one does not even notice the dashboard.  It would distract.

If another took this photo, it would be hard to throw the 'dashboard' out of focus, or get an appropriate angle where outside reflections would block it.

What seems to have been such an 'easy' photo to take - a photo that 'anybody could take' - may not be that at all. 

Anybody could try and maybe make a passable photo, but over time this has worked into a show stopper.

The reason that even though it appeared 'obvious' to me, I worked on it as a 'custom job' . . . . .

As I do everything that I present.

Best to you, Svetlana, in this unseasonal fall warmth in Kyiv.

john

John (Crosley)