Kinds of impellent activity

If you look, you will see plenty of footprints leading to/away from the driver (left) side of the one car that has moved, none for the passenger side. So, all the many cars that have slipped in and out of this spot (the other car has not moved at all, observe the snow on it) had only ONE person in them is my conclusion here.

 

Just as in the USA, so it is in Moscow now, too: 4000 lb machines of steel designed for 4, used by only one lonely person ...

 

Enough of a human story for now? [Try to locate your imagination, folks, somewhere; activate it, this process helps in seeing and visualizing pictures worth the taking ... ]

 

I am amazed that so many ph-netters have apparently lost their eye for imagination. Sorry to have to point this out on such a lovely picture with many a story to tell. Wake up, or survive on wedding pictures of the ordinary, if you must ...

i don't think you're right here... your turn to look even more closely, please ; )

i see some footprints between the cars, most of them erased by the tracks of the tires of the left car... they are not fresh, but so are some of the car tracks... they must be from a passenger of the car (maybe the same, could be a private parking place) that was (according to the tracks) standing more to the left earlier, and who maybe went around the trunk to leave the scene to the left... and maybe others just went off in the hood direction? we can't see, so we don't know...

the tracks show only 3 cars, btw... 4 double pairs: the first car leaving, the second coming and leaving and now this one coming...

three is not many, and surely not enough to give your story a profound statistical backup...

 

but then again... wow... not a story to blow my socks off... mhmm...

and i doubt it was the intention of the photographer to depict the dilemma of cars not being used to their full capacity, so we could argue if a story a picture tells just coincidentally and not intentionally is adding to the artistic significance...this, of course, is quite a different matter...

 

however, i think my imagination is quite well, thanks for asking... ; D

regards...

parking a car on a "used" place. going away. forgot to close up the car. come back. went away. cold.

nicely documented by foot steps.

Dear Alexey, I really like this picture. The composition and the idea behind it is great, loneliness/illness/not going out for whatever reason, on the right, and activity, movement, hectic life on the left. Maybe both are lonely, maybe both are happy, one drinking beers with friends in bars all the time, the other reading great Dostojewsky or Tolstoj or Susan Sonntag novels at home, who knows. I like the picture. I just think the print is lousy, too grey, too soft, not enough contrast. I miss the blacks of the tiretracks.

I think you should print it again on grade 4 paper, or 3/half, or freak around in PS, whatever you do, it needs more contrast in my opinion. Congratulations on this torture called POW anyway. Cheers and have a nice week.

I would agree with some that this photo doesn't stand out enough, although it is a good photo. Maybe if the second car was not there then the story would be much more enhanced.

aaw! cute doggy playing fetch. sooo keeeuuut!

Alexey, you have a good eye. This is a well chosen composition, quite befitting a POW choice, and comments otherwise are being made by those who don't understand what the POW is all about. This is a thought provoking photo. I want to follow the individual tracks to determine how they were made, and some are not so easy to figure out. Were any of the tire tracks created or eraised digitally?

Sorry. This just does not do it for me no matter how much I stretch my imagination. I do not find the subject matter interesting nor original. The lines from cars is sort of cool but the image cannot stand alone, IMO, on some semi-interesting tire tracks in the snow. The composition is good for the subject, I can say that for it. Overall technically I find the tones flat and blah as well. Maybe that's to do with the lighting at the time? So it may be but then good lighting for this subject was just not there. The flat lighting adds to the boring subject for me. Also seems quite grainy for Tmax film. I think Gloria put it best and I concur: With extremely ordinary scenes such as this, there needs to be something extraordinary about the shot."

Moderator edit due to comment which shows a clear misunderstanding about why a POW is chosen. Please understand that to say an image is not worthy of POW is to misunderstand what the POW is. POW is chosen by a collection of elves to be an interesting image to focus on for the week. It is picked to encourage both positive and negative constructive and civil critiques.

People who gave this a 7 for originality and a 7 for Aesthetics, please explain how this image reaches an absolute highest rating for you. I'm really curious.

If I were to suggest an alternative photo, Id suggest Opposition (no number) or The first (35), but frankly I dont see that much to choose from within the two folders either. No offence to the photographer, but that is my sincere opinion. For example: the photo titled Hook (41) or knot for memory (12) (there are others also) are way too ordinary. The fact that a scene is covered by snow does not automatically qualify or elevate it above what is there excluding the snow. I am well aware that the POW choice, and even the two alternatives I suggested, are an exemption because it is the snow precisely that makes the pattern and the scene / or the break in the affluence of the normal scene. But, nonetheless, these alternative photos are perfectly (or close to it) framed and cropped. Yet, the mere fact that a photo is properly framed and/or cropped does not qualify it as a winner. One quick example is Waggon and car casesthis photo is framed and cropped as close to perfect as you can get and it has an immediate attention-grabbing-quality to it. But it falls short of perfection by not containing an interesting subject (or message) to keep the viewer interested long enough.

In closing, Id like to add that the photo is good or maybe even excellent and definitely not a throwaway, but it is not a clear winner either. But then again, if we take into account the lesson learned in last weeks POW about image size and the lack of detail in the print due to it, Id have to give the photo the benefit of the doubt and score it a 6/6.

I myself have loaded many pictures that look good in my monitor but look like _ _ _ _ in the web. So this explains the lack of contrast for me.

I think most of you are missing the Russian punch conveyed in this photo-- The Lada on the left gets used despite the weather, while the European/Japanese car on the right is left deserted =).

 

I myself like the photo- it's simple, yet this simplicity works well. The photo also has a story behind the nice geometric shapes; Look closely, and you'll find it there. Nice work, Alexey.

I don't think that the POW is always necessarily supposed to be considered a great, fabulous work to everyone who views it. I think it's to help feature artists, and to also spark discussion. I don't understand the whole "witch-hunting" thing about people who dislike POW's and vice-versa. It's supposed to open a can of worms, not cause everyone to crow "WOW! 7/7! 7/7! Brilliant!"

 

Personally, this image might not be anything unusual aesthetically, but I seriously love the originality. I like the curves of the car coming and going, the little feety prints...it's just cool. I wish it was a tad higher contrast, though.

I think it does have an interesting aesthetic! :D

 

I like the curves of the cars entering and leaving the spot. I think I need to go to sleep now, because I'm missing cool details like that. :P

 

I still wish it was higher contrast though. :)

This just points out that the Lada driver is a woman.

This is the kind of vision I'm after, Alexey is a genius :)

I enjoy this photo; I love the lines and the scene, I also have a general enjoyment of winter photos. The vantage point of the photographer is great. I feel like I'm getting to watch the ordinary not be so ordinary (a vision that compels me and I believe many others to make pictures.) However I do find it flat. I've not been making pictures for very long but one thing that I'VE found is that I'm not real fond of TMAX 400 or 100 (personal.) I'd like to see this image with a slower film (not that it's possible, but it would be nice.) I'm really hooked on Ilford FP4 Plus (ISO 125.) I love the results.

KISS

 

I dont understand why a story is required to value an image. This picture has some graphical quality that are pleasing: simple, light (not heavy), graphical image. A journalistic picture without a story has no value, but this picture has no journalistic pretension

 

To me, this image has good balance (light, crop, strait lines and curved), composition which are pleasing to my eyes. An other example where simplicity wins.

Unfortunately, I've seen this exact image at least four or five different times. It was original and interesting the first time I saw it (I thought "GREAT eye!") but by the second time I saw it, it made me wonder if the photographer saw the other one, too, and just copied :-(.

 

Lots of images are done to death, and I'm not saying this is necessarily one. However, this image only works once -- the magic of this shot is that it is fresh and original the first time you see it. By the time you've seen it twice, IMO it works even less well than other iconic images you've seen a hundred times.

 

If I'm not clear, I am not saying this is a bad shot or from a bad portfolio (it is a very good portfolio!), just that I'm disappointed this shot was chosen for POW.

I think this is a well-composed photograph of an ordinary subject most people would miss. It's not a photo that reaches out and grabs me and holds my gaze, but not every photo has to. As far as criticism of the contrast, the snow is white but still holds detail and the shadow between the cars is a nice black (as much as one can discern from a jpeg on a computer monitor) with the faintest hint of detail. Overall it may be a little flat, but I think that probably reflects the lighting and adds to the mood.....

It's like Puzzle to me. The moment i saw it i was trying to trace the marks left by individual car. Really Nice.

To add to my last comment, I think I'd give this photo a lower rating than previous. After looking at you folder, Alexey, I think your other photos are much more amazing and show up better, at least on my monitor. Not to say it is a bad photo, but your others are on a level above.

No offense, but this is just an abstract snapshot.

Nice lines and perspective though.

When someone says they've seen 'this shot' before, if it's one I

like, I find I really want to see what subtle variations someone

else can bring to the idea. I don't doubt that there are other tire

tracks shots out there, but the angular composition, the

placement of the cars, the complexity of the tracks and footprints

all make me wonder what a better version of this would look like.

I'd have to be shown.

When someone says they've seen 'this shot' before, if it's one I like, I find I really want to see what subtle variations someone else can bring to the idea.

Carl, again I should be clear that I really like this photographer's portfolio and I don't think this is a bad shot, just that it doesn't capture my interest as much as it otherwise would, because I've seen it (or similar shots) a few times before. Sort of the way slot canyons shots eventually lose their impact. As for examples, there was a shot almost exactly like this on photocritique a couple of years ago -- it may even have been the same photo by the same photographer, I don't know, but I don't think so. That's the shot I had in mind when I commented.

I also remembered another very similar shot in a Kodak book, so I just looked on my shelf until I found the photo. It's in "The Art of Seeing," on p. 64. Actually, that photo is a little different, because the car is not there, but IMO it's a more intriguing shot. Check it out if you want to see a bit of a twist on the same idea.

This shot gives me hope that one day, one of my relentlessly mediocre shots will also be a POW. Really, it's neat shot but I see dozens of others posted every day that are vastly more compelling and original.

I'd like to see a little darker contrast on the dark colored car and the tire tracks, as the print has a bit of a "washed" appearance. Could just be the digital version? Otherwise I think it's a fantastic composition and has a great angle to it.