Father and son

Rashed; Elves Elvis

Hot Elves - 2 Flash Games

I always wanted to photograph this man, he is a Thai, every night passing across the walking street of Pattaya with all of that fancy dress, never had a camera to take his image, both the real and him are identical, I will make sure to take his image this time to show my friend. Oh ( is it my spelling for the Elvis is wrong ?) :)))

Yes Rashed it is the spelling, that one letter makes a big difference :-)))))

I am so sorry my friend Gordon, I did not mean it all, I have a great respect for the Elves and I should checked that spelling more carefully.

I think this photo is nicely done, good composition and tonality. It looks like an honest moment in time, with the two men talking about something. If it is truly a documentary photograph, you have to work with the lighting that is there and this was done effectively. There is some obvious "energy" between the two characters as they relate to each other.

this photo don't give me much.
-its slightly over processed, from what i can see from the ambient light, it would be more interesting if the image was processed to have more lights and more darks.
-the story is lacking, i can only see one man showing the other man something. i don't get anything that they are father and son. their is no concept, no symbolize, no juxtaposition, no contrast of subject.
-Water bottles and a shovels in the background gives me something but not much.
-most importantly the faces of the two subjects are lost. in this case if the shot was closer in detailed to your faces might work.
-solution: wait for something, a reaction, a face expression, go closer. position them in a background that tells more, shoot them with foreground. middle, and background elements. or what if a closer shoot of them close enough where their top heads bleeds off the photo, close enough to get all the details of your cloths, hands, facial lines, shoes, and what that guys is showing him.

If this were my shot, I'd lose the entire right side. The story, as has been pointed out by so many before me, is weak. So let's not have a story. Let's have an old man pondering who leaves us wondering.

??

Please tell me I didn't kill this discussion. I didn't mean to :(

Dear Alberta, the image has a story where the oldest man been so engaged following the other man demonstrations using his drawing or writing bads.
Your version did end all of that story and we ended with just the aged man looked depressed and sad, this is totally changed the message of this image and changed its content, never the less, your version is another good photograph.
Gordon, stop laughing at my English, it taken a lot of time to reach this format:))

Rashed - I applaud anyone who can speak and/or write more than one language.
As for the old man looking depressed - I think he looks contemplative, not depressed.
And who amongst us hasn't cropped information from a photo, changing the story line but ending up with a better photo - technically and/or aesthetically?
Cheers ~
Alberta

Alberta,
I like your crop. It certainly makes for a more visually pleasing composition. As for the story: guy holds pad - old guy looks in general direction of pad.... Can't say I miss that story much.

Rashed,
As I recently mentioned to you elsewhere at PN, I have the greatest respect for the added challenges, in the form of a language barrier, which you face in participating in this forum and I respect and admire your perseverance. I felt in part responsible for your continued use of Elvis in place of elves and thought it proper to set you straight about the difference. Beyond that admission, I tend to make fun of everyone, including myself so please do not take offense as none was intended.

This is very interesting to read all yours comments. Thank to all! I am very glad about this. This really means to me. Maybe I should say some details about this photo. On this photo, there are my father and grandfather. They was talking about new gate, and they didn't know that I take photo of them. My grandfather want to make new gate (for my father new house), and my father explain to him how he would like to gate look like. They are in shadow, because above is very big gallery, but sun was in that time almost on other side of house. I wanted that old gate show on this photo, and some tools. About lamp at floor... That is lamp with specially oil against mosquito. When I took shot this photo wasn't especially interesting for me. But... now when I look it. It is very interesting. I can recognize a lot of details and remember how we work on house this summer. In few year this photo probably will really means a lot to me.
Sorry about bad english.

Bojan - your English is just fine.
The stated purpose of the Photo of the Week is for Photo.net members to discuss a photo's strengths and weaknesses. Most often, we know nothing of a background story. We evaluate based only on what we see.
Now, having read your story about the family ties that will forever be remembered because you have this photo, I don't think the POW critique is fair.
And I say a prayer each week that the Elves will never enter my portfolio.
Perhaps photos should be submitted to the Elves for consideration?

Opps ny friend Gorgon, you have two now instead of one with poor English, Bojan joining in.
Bojan, your English all ok for me and I am happy for your photo being the POW, you deserve it my friend.
Gordon, my friend I know you don’t mean it but at the same I do not mind it also, you add a great atmosphere and reducing the tensions, which is a credit for your afford.

I love this photograph. Why ? because it is an intense real life moment.
Expressions and posture are so true! and the B and W conversion goes to essential.
congratulations for this excellent work and to the elves for choosing this picture.

....maybe Gorgon works....................(sounds like an Ed Wood feature!)

I'll try talking about the good old boy. For one he appears to stuck with the younger one trying to change his world which he is already familiar with and happy to live in. Poor man is stuck having to act interested in a process of washing away his memories that gate might hold of days gone by. With the way the picture holds many of the items of past days work and use I don't see how he could be much interested in really having his gate changed. So possibly the distance between the two of them could be said to highlite the distance of his thinking on the subject of changing the gate.
Of course possibly the older man is just happy to see his kid isn't doing something like using his best cuts of wood in the shop to build a useless toy to play with. Just another possible reflection in his mind that could happen.
Nice picture. I like it as is with no cropping. Of course seeing that everything changes and technology gets more and more put to market possibly the next options for discussion and argument will be cameras that take pictures of brain waves eminated from animals and we could discuss with more unknow ideas of what is going on.
I'll leave this with my old man input of darn whipper snappers always want to change things. Rashed whipper snappers is a term for younger ones like they are just playing with a whip to just play with things making noise like cracking a whip as the snapper term adds to whipper. Whipper snappers just don't have the insight us more refined individuals have :)

This is a great shot of your grandpa and dad that you will treasure forever. I thought it would be more intimate and even warmer if they were closer physically. The distance between them is distracting to me and takes away the intimacy. I hope you don't mind my cutting out the space between them to see if it changes the feeling.

Hmmm. Something is bothering about the original shot. Why is the father on the right higher than the grandfather on the left? There's no hill. The line is straight on the bottom of the step below the tree. Why is the ground darker on the right. Is this a composite shot?

Boy, am I going to get it?

...and to think, he used to have a bedroom........

Alan Thank you.
Yes this image is two images combined in one, look carefully for the another circular chair behind the man with the writing bad’s , one of the the legs comes under where the man is setting and it is a cut where its come under the blocks structure, also the the steps on the background on the left are no more steps on the right side but different.

A Gorgon sounds like something that lives under a bridge and eats puppy dogs and children... so yeah Ed Woods would have loved it. Plan 3/3 from inner space.

Very astute of you Rashed. I do not know about all of your assertions however I am certain that some sloppy cloning went on near the base of the chair leg which runs between Dad's legs.
I always thought that the distance between Dad and Gramps seemed odd. Even if we assume that Gramps has amazing vision for his age why would he sit that far away from his son in order to look at the details of a small drawing ?

Maybe I am losing my vision, but again, I don't see anything unusual with the legs of the father's chair. There is just another stool behind him, whose top you can see right above his right (his right) thigh. The steps next to the house are steps, the structure on the right of the frame is a small retaining wall. We can see that there is obviously a slope here, look how much higher the gate is, thus the steps and the retaining wall so these guys aren't on a slope--which is not handy for a patio. Also, they aren't that far apart, really, it has a lot to do with being men and the wide lens. I think folks are just getting a bit used to looking for fabrication in shots, as has been so prevalent lately. Sometimes things are actually as they appear!