Dancing Girl

Ack! I hadn't noticed the double-jointed finger. Now I'm going to have nightmares.

 

I agree that Miss Snottypants' (what cruel parents) photo makes better use of the full frame, and displays a bit of what this POW could be. I'm not sure I like the contrived de-colorization of Snottypants' shot, but hey, no one named it POW.

I really don't like Ms. Snottypants' shot. I think the POW choice is much better. It's all subjective, but Ms. S's shot looks completely

unnatural to me. What I like about A Kochanowski's shot is the naturalness of it. It's a moment out of time. I don't care that you

can't explicitly tell she's dancing, I don't care that it's grainy, I don't care that her hands are cut off. It seems really pedantic to focus on those characteristics of it, to me. I think pictures that are technically perfect, but don't hit you in the gut are really kind of boring. This one is not technically perfect, but it has a bit of the gut quality. I think it's really amusing that people have bothered with "I find no redeeming quality in this photo whatsoever" kind of posts. Sure, ok. This photo draws me in, makes me want to know more. I don't think that's a bad thing at all.

Wow! What a beating you take when one of your photos is selected for POW. It's hard to say if its even an honor when your photo is selected. I might be better off to take pictures of Clifford.

Beaten Black and Blue

.... right Rick. But I was thinking of hundreds of times the elves picked my photos for POW and I said NO, thank you but No :0) I believe Andrew was ready for this.

It seems to me that part of the problem is that the POW exists in a vacume in it's place on the main page. I think this photo would work well in context with other photographs telling a story but standing alone it's not as well received.

 

If one were to see it as part of a whole spread on what was happening that day at that place it might be more effective.

 

That said the photograph does have broken rules but that may also contribute to telling the story.

 

Context is all sometimes.

I like it. The expression is introspective. I like the grain. Im surprised that its IR film, I wouldnt have guessed. Overall, its an interesting shot.

1) What I like about the photo:

Good image and expression. I like people photos and capturing "the moment" is an art. Nice backlighting and DOF.

 

2) What I don't like:

Hand / elbow cropped out. Photo 101 mistake right there.

 

3) Worthy of POW?

Absolutely. Capturing the right expression in a candid certainly equals a three hour set up to capture the right lighting on a stationary object and certainly beats having the luxury of an "undo" feature in Photoshop.

 

Don't let the Ansel Adams disciples persuade you, keep picking ones like these.

Well after a week of looking at this and taking interest in everything from the 'snot balls', the blotch on her left hip, her amputated parts, is she dancing/did she drop something, too much/not enough grain, to that little mole above her navel I still like looking at it and that's good enough for me. Miss Snottypants photo put this one over the top for me as it is so much more 'correct', but it doesn't have what Kochanowski's 'Dancing Girl' has. While some have argued here that you need hands and feet to communicate 'dance', I agree with the photographer's desire to concentrate on torso, hands and feet are superfluous distractors. I have liked her more and more each day. Congrats on POW.

I disagree with a number of previous posts regarding the dancing. To me, it was obvious that she's lost in the moment dancing, even before I read the comments and captions. I think it conveys that quite well.

 

I'm not so convinced of the use of the infrared, which has a much broader pallette of effects than are shown. I like the heaviness of the grain though. I think this photo could have been captured with a red 25 filter and 3200 film pushed a stop or two.

It was metered at 80ASA, and I think (but am not really certain) I used a red filter. As I said before, I don't recall the aperture but it was fairly open, as I wanted to isolate the woman from the background. [Could someone be kind enough to send me a copy of the correct photography rulebook some of you referenced? I misplaced mine, and want to be certain that the rule I keep reading about calls for exactly 2.5 inches apparent space clearance each side of a photographed limb. Thank you so much!]

I really like this photo, and it works for me for a number of reasons.

The movement of the body and position of the hands bring movement and life to the still photo. The bright back lighting and DOF to isolate the subject make it work. There is something strangely nostalic about this. The subject is a fee spirit, somewhat of "out of the mainstream"- reminiscent of the flower children from the an anti war days of the late sixties.

I like the grain, it highlights the emotive subject.The viewer is drawn into the subject. However over burnt highlights are wrong no matter what film is used. The bright highlight on the left of the girl are "TOO" dominant.Maybe if you had changed your view point a few degrees and goten a darker back ground...All the same well seen, well done

I'm not sure why I like this picture; but I do. I've got to say that I'm mightily

amused (and heartened) by all the comments regarding this POW.

Technically, I would have liked to see this not on an IR film, but that's been

said already. It's a good picture and yes, I would have liked a different crop,

but I'm thinking that wasn't possible given what was left in the picture. Overall

it's hard to fault this picture given that I find the image itself pretty appealing,

though as I've already stated, I can't quite say why. Usually I can't stand grainy

B&W images. This one overpowers my unreasonable bias and therefore it

works quite well (IMHO).

Image ok, not memorable. Pensive, brooding even. "world within-a-world feeling of dancing"? I don't sense this - one in a million people shot, pedestrian. Composition almost stagnant. Not dynamic, nor eyecatching. Technically competent.

This is not a good photo. Look, the cropping is bad, there is no expression, no movement, nothing to suggest a dance. I am a dancer and dance photographer, and have seen lots of dance photographs. This is not one of them.

Interesting but not much average street shot. No immediate recognition of what's going on in photo. Why do I need to read the description to know what's going on? Selected because she's dancing? Thanks for telling me.

 

The use of IR to create the grainy effect accomplishes nothing of particular interest.

 

I dislike the positioning of right hand as not knowing she is dancing at first makes me wonder if it's deformed in some way. Expression is interesting, but not all that informative as to the intensity of girl's participation in dancing.

 

This is a photo worth viewing, but it's then time to move onto something with more interest. I wonder if the grainy IR isn't counter to being useful? Does it blot out her intensity, detracting from a main aspect intended when making the photo?

 

Ugh, the angle of the nose ring does nothing for me. Photoshop that out or discard the street shot. In combination with the "deformed right hand" there's too much distracting my attention and possibly preventing this photo from being more effective because I do like the composition. Nice shapes and forms, nice background.

I put my picture up because it had the whole upper body, the hands (as freaky as they are) and no snot bubbles like everyone felt was so important to the picture. i feel that after looking at mine, that the pow is much more pleasing.

My first thought when looking at this photo was: interesting. Under closer

examination I found the blown out highlights very distracting. I believe some

burning and printing the image darker can dramatically increase the quality of

the finished product. I still not sure if I "like" the picture, but it is interesting.

not impressed.

In fact i'd go so far as to say there was favoritism involved in making this photo of the week.

I believe the grain in the photo softens the photo to make a very touching b&w. Good job.

I love this photo. It truly captures the moment in the dance and the woman's emotions at that time.

 

Don

 

 

When dancing is it not the relationship between all parts of the body, their shape, form and position that is of importance in expressing whatever is being felt or communicted, and yet the arms are all but invisible which leaves just a shot of a girl looking at her feet. Its little more than a snapshot.

I think if her right arm was not chopped off, it would give it more expression, and I think it is a little over exposed, esp on the lower right of the pic.

 

Cheers

Shelton.

I feel if the framing had been less close, and more 'centered', it'd have been significantly less strong a composition.

Good film-choice ( IRs make skin .. smoother? .. something ), Good context-choice, a Good Work.

Thank you for doing it.