Subway Mystery...SOLVED!

Is that you shooting at a mirror on the ceiling? I like this shot a lot more than the other one. Why is all that white "stuff" there? Is it just normal subway dirt?

 

Simone

Dam it Doug! Your latest few images from the metro are simply great. They make me miss home even more. Nicely done.

This is very interesting Doug. Great perspective and an enjoyable composition. A bit quicker shutter speed would benefit the sharpness I think.

Very good. Better than the other one. I would try to center it (perhaps it is centered, but it doesn't look like it because of the snow, foam whatever) by moving everything a bit to the right.

So, I won too, huh...?! Well, besides that I actually disagree a bit with Birgit... Meaning that yes, this one is of course aesthetically more dynamic, but imo not better or worse - both are equally good to me in the end, because the other one was clearly more original.

Both are very good, Doug... Cheers.

Really like the visual trick here. Looks like a wall, so it must be a shutter or ladder and this guy is trying to . . walk . . down? . . . out? . . . . ooh . . . I see!?

Very interesting and original photo. I like it!

The companion shot to this is simply the camera turned horizontal from what we see here. It's an escalator and this fellow is rushing to catch a subway train. Part of the softness in this and the other shot might be due to the stairs moving. I suspect the shutter speed was 1/60 sec, but didn't take notes, so I don't know for sure. What I've found very interesting going through these old films is that I seldom bracketed my exposures, or shot anything other than the one view.

Birgit, it looks off center to me, too, but the guys head is smack dab in the middle. It's an illusion that it looks off-centered and I suspect it's because there's so much snow on the right side. I used the photoshop transform>distort tool to make sure both of these were distortion free, as if they had been photographed carefully with a view camera, rather than hastily with a 35mm. I know commercial photographers that don't use their view cameras anymore: They shoot on 35mm and 6x7 format and then correct for distortion in photoshop. The times, they are a changing.

Thanks everyone for your comments and ratings.

very nice feeling of movement, well done.

This and your other similar shot are well observed and packed with graphic impact. The vertical is precision striped like bars on a flag and the head like a pin hole through the middle. All carefully worked out. Then I noticed your reference to the transform tool. Is it just me, a curve in my monitor or what, but do I detect a faint deviation in his LHS stair rail (RHS as we look at it)? Does it bulge ever so slightly out to the right? The other thing I imagined was the white bits sticking out of his back looked like they served as a harness. But I couldn't see any rope and he wasn't wearing a tin hat either. Is he SAS?

Hey Phil. Agree with you regarding the rock climber. He's always out hiking around and as far as I can tell, never working. I think he's retired and independently wealthy.

 

Not sure what you mean by bulges and SAS, but I know the the snow over there, on both sides actually, plays with the eyes so the bulge might be an illusion. After Birgit's post I measured the sides fromt the edges to the rails, and from the edges to this head. Although his head is centered, the staircase is not. It does favor one side, but only by a few pixels. I used grid lines and guides to be sure everything was level, but i'm notorious in my own mind for stopping just short of where thing ought to go, so you could be right.

 

I don't know what's in his backpack, but it's not a mountains climbing harness.

Unusual perspective,

Great shot!

Hi ..DOug. I like this one ..it makes me feel a bit dizzy. I think you have chosen a good angle here it is really creative and I I also like the fact that you get 3 vertical BANDS ..very good. Regards PK.

Just panning your thumbnails on this folder and this one stood out. I thought it was a shutter in abstract until I viewed it large. It has a feeling of movement but for quite a different reason. I see it as a skateboarder or a surfer skimming across the foamy water. Did you know SAS stands for Surfers Against Sewage... no kidding. But I guess Phil was talking about the British Special Air Services. And his bulges, that's where the grey background blends into the rail, either that or he's been in the guiness. Anyway, I like the shot because it's a treat for the imagination and a bit abstract at the same time.

Hello Hanna, and thanks for letting me know you were here. No, I surely didn't know SAS stood for Surfers Against Sewage. How in the world do YOU know that? I agree about Phil. Half the time I haven't a clue what he's going on about, but that doesn't bother me much because the other half neither does he! ( ut oh. here he comes. Thanks again Hanna.)

I have this talent a fiver to my best mate for making up is hard to do every other word association football boot as I go along.

(See what I mean)

Doug, I found this photo in your new 'gallery' on photo.net. I wanted to comment on it but cant and had to dig into your folders...

I think this image to me for some reason, is REALLY GOOD in terms of composition, textures, scale, tones, well, everything. The perspective you have is great, and you've divided it all up in 3 sections.. rule of the 1/3? haha..

 

It doesn't communicate much meaning to me, but the whole picture is somewhat balanced. I've no idea what the texture one the left and right of the frame, yet it somehow gives me a sense of materiality. The contrasting form of the escalator with the textures gives a sense of identity and that creates a sense of place. The man in the middle identifies a program or some sort of 'event', either he is running down the escalator, or he agains't it. For me, there are 3 center of interests, the man, the escalator and the 'peeling-like' parts. The geometrical character has some sense analogue and digital feel. I suppose a sense of dualism can sum it up. Man as machine (human motor on mechanics), machine as machine (mechanics being mechanics), machine as man (mechanics of paint, peeling in a form of a life cycle, almost giving a skin texture like). Okay, I've contradicted myself once again, with the first line of this paragraph. It does somewhat narrate something.. subtle.

 

I've not gone through all your photos as yet, but I think, so far, this is one of your finest, in my opinion. At least, this picture works for me!

 

I'm rating this high..

Thanks for this comment, David. Im learning that you have a good eye for critique and it appears you have a joy in writing, as I do (sometimes) On the radio last night two film critics were being interviewed and they said that they personally read critiques not so much to find out about the item being critiqued, but to read a good essay, to enjoy the writing style of the writer, etc. So, its not all about the pictures here, is it. Its more, and I can appreciate your efforts. Thanks.

 

The textures on the left and right of the frame is old snow, partly melted, refrozen, melted, refrozen, etc.

 

Again, your critique is very enjoyable to read. Thank you very much.

 

Excellent. Love the flatness of it. You can post it in any angle or in fact have four copies on one wall, each different angle and differnet wall of the room and people would spend a good while trying to find out if it's four differnet photos. It's a classic.

Thanks Chris!