street The Wind (II)

John A.
There doesn't seem to be any action here or mystery introduced, except maybe the clothing.
 
At very first glance at the image I asked Where is the Cauldron ??
I have clicked the photo from the link of photo.net newsletter.
then I read the title and looked again to see that the atmosphere is so very different from the witch house,it is a street image in a windy day,yet with a costume of a witch and even with a stick ,that I mistaken at my first glance for a flying brush.But the Good news for me it is a street image ,and now have to figure what she is doing,looking at the image enlarged and found that the lady is just having her left hand over her hat preventing it from going with the wind and that had made for me all the difference in my view of looking at this image,this is a decisive moment that have been captured with the surrounding atmosphere and in a good looking street too,and I agree that her action of being preventing her hat of flying with the wind is somewhat not very obvious,the hand have a similar tone with that of the background,but it is very clear in the enlarged version,and having another indicative sign,the hat is being flipped back from the front backwards,and it seems to me that Carlos have captured the image a second or two after she have hit her hat.
And I do not care if it is off centred or not,taken from the ground level or above,though the image may be looked much better from an another perspective ,the most important thing for a street photographer is to catch the moment and I think confidently Carlos have did it successfully from a very difficult point of view,.
All other elements of the image are supplementary and enhancing,from the waves the winds have inflicted in her coat to the tones and lines of the street,the only thing that I think it could be done better is the grey conversion which could be done better without that very subtle greenish tint.
 

Nive image! I would love to have seen this slightly zoomed out and panoramic with more of the two paths on show - it would have made it more dramatic.

  I liked this photo, even though I don't usually like B&W.

  To me, it's the kind of picture that draws you in - what's the story behind this? 

  The fact that there's virtually no shadow cast, and the tightly cropped picture almost makes the background appear to be two-dimensional. This clearly wouldn't work the same in a color photo of the same subject. This person also seems to be isolated, because of the lack of other people or animals.

  Because the feet are set at an angle to suggest bracing the body against the wind, it also conveys to me a sense of motion (along with the cape in the wind). It seems to be a point of decision or a pause - is she waiting for the wind to die down before taking another step? Is she deciding to maybe turn around (to her right)? This can indicate the motion within the mind, more than the struggle against the wind.

Kinda like King Lear, in the storm scene, "....Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!..." 

(Okay, maybe that's a bit over the top...)

And, oh yes, I also see the 'chicken' (but I do have to squint....)

Yes I like this one Carlos.

DSP

The story behind the character is what makes this image work and it is the reason why the image becomes atractive. But in my opinion the quality of the image and by that I mean overall composition, sharpness, b&w conversion method, DOF and dinamic range, its just average. In this kind of images the quality of the work becomes a secundary aspect because the scene is so timeless and emotional. Nice work.

This is one of those shots where you don't even think about the technical aspect of the image. The narrative content takes care of everything.

The Elves: "Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum: to help people learn about photography."

So, what have we learned?
1) The composition is good, the composition is not good.
2) The tonality is a problem, the tonality is not a problem.
3) There is no mystery, there is mystery.
4) I like it, I don't like it.

Take a look at: "http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/06/great-photographers-on-internet.html"....for a hilarious take on opinion in art. Have we learned that all there is is opinion?
Having said that, I just want to recognize John A for his thoughtful, educated and enlightened opinions. John always seems to say what I am feeling but incapable of articulating. In this case again John, I think you did a masterful job.

So, in my opinion,....what John said! :-) Best, JJ

First thing I noticed while looking over this POW is the cloning of the upper stones. Not very well done and I lost interest quickly after seeing this.

Beautiful street job.I really like the details and POW.Unique b&w shot and the camera angle was nice,also.
The most important point is the eyes to find this scene.

Regards(Bobby).

The story told to me by this photo (which, to me, is relatively rare and therefore not a cliche at all) quickly became more important than any technical aspects of the photo. In this sense, my initial reaction was like that expressed by Anuar and Andrew. A lone figure, clutching the cap with left hand while the cape goes flying in the wind, leaning on a long cane for support, the feet not moving but rather braced on the cobblestones, the centered composition so that emphasis is given to the lone figure, and no other organic element in the frame -- it's just the vicissitudes faced by a person struggling against elements of nature represented by the rough cobblestones, unrelenting wind, and presumably aging body. Whether on a personal level or symbolically representing a condition of life, I could immediately relate to the story being told. Any other technical aspect is secondary and, IMO, trivial to the universality of the theme captured by Carlos.

Twice I've dealt with the prospect of death in the very immediate future. The fact that I first saw this photo on my laptop while in the waiting room of a physician's office to consult about a third prospect gave me a mindset, I suppose, to view Carlos' image in a certain way. The mental image I've formed that has helped me accept these prospects is that of standing on the top of a high mountain with hundreds of other mountains stretching to the horizon in all directions. A very strong and steady wind is blowing from the southwest, coming from the across the Pacific Ocean, extending for miles above, for miles on every side, and down to the deep valleys below. The immensity of the wind is staggering. So I take a deep breath, face into the wind, and with all the effort I can muster I blow into the wind to get it to stop. Such is the futility.

I had formed a mental image of the struggle against an oncoming wind that predisposed me to immediately see a story in Carlos' photograph. Not everyone has shared my experiences, so our initial views of the photograph are going to be based on different frames of mind. We usually accept the present moment or our present condition as that which will extend indefinitely, and the possibility that things could or will be very different for us is far removed from our thinking. We interact with life and, for photographers, with photographs based on this view. That we have different experiences and different views is very evident by the diversity of reactions expressed regarding the POW. Some focus on the technical aspects that could be different or improved to present a more appealing photograph, one person even was immediately struck by cloned cobblestones (which even when I try, I cannot find, and the gulf between that person's view and my own to Carlos' photograph boggles the mind), and still others see more universal stories. So Carlos, who made the photograph for his own reasons, gets it from many different angles. John A's comment left me smiling when last week he suggested that rather than receiving a gold cup, the POW recipient should instead receive a purple heart. We simply come at photography from many different directions and for many different purposes, and the poor POW recipient, who wasn't even asked or warned that he or she was about to be scrutinized for a week, is left in the middle, taking it from all sides. But it's just an aspect of photography and part of participating with a group of like-minded individuals, and all of it, even the criticisms, can give us immense pleasure if we allow (though it's not always easy). Thanks to Carlos for the POW, which I found to be a wonderful illustration.

What a marvelous sculpture this would make, The Perseverance of Age.

The photo is wonderfully evocative of the experience of the woman. Perhaps the photo might have been better cropped with the woman just off center to the left but it holds my interest just as it is. Thank you.

Stephen, the stones I referred to are just to the right and above the persons head. When I saw those I was immediatly reminded of last weeks POW, that probably isn't fair in a discussion of this weeks POW...it is just my experience.

I think the cloning actually is pretty good except in one area to the right of the main work, where the stonework becomes somewhat nebulous. (by the way, it is the large, vertical paver above the head and the area right above that and it was taken from the upper left of the image--1st large vertical paver at top of that diagonal area) The problem with it is that it is too exact a "copy" of a rather large and distinct area. It is always better to take a little from here and there and combine them to create something new and different. But the homogenous nature of the stone here sort of hides it from first look.

Knowing this is here does detract a bit, but it isn't, obviously, very noticeable and I don't find it affects the basic quality of the image--although it should be worked on a bit more. For me, I wonder what might have been there in the original and if it might have added the counter point this image is in need of, sometimes we don't make the right decisions in these sorts of things...and sometimes we do.

I'm not a frequent poster to the POW because I tend to view photographs much more emotive than technical. However, I (sometimes) enjoy reading the comments of the more technically inclined members. In this case I find the image interesting and somewhat reminiscent of either a "Harry Potter" character or a hood ornament and very well presented, in spite of the slip with the cloning. I do, though, find in all the comments references to either a female subject or a generic person.... Uh, am I the only one to see the beard and the quite manly stance? All in all a well done photograph. Congratulations to Carlos... Mike

Yes, now I see the cloning. Either some of us have very good eyes or one of us has very bad eyes (or both!). And Michael, I was one of probably many who tried to remain gender neutral because I wasn't sure if the "figure" was male or female; I can see what resembles a beard, but I can't be certain it is a beard (although I think you're probably right).

Ray, I think one reason why you saw the cloning and I didn't is that we (and many if not most other vertebrates, and perhaps invertebrates) form search images in our minds that greatly facilitate finding things of interest, such as food. If you're tuned into cloning patterns, you're much more likely to find them than someone who is not tuned in. You were probably primed by last week's POW, while I was struck by something entirely different, so our mindsets regarding what we "wanted" to see in this photo were different. People are really, really complex, which is why these discussions can be so enjoyable, educational, and sometimes frustrating! If and when I clone something like this, I do what John A suggests and take bits and pieces from different places to create something that doesn't really exist elsewhere.

Well my first reaction after reading other responses was; thank goodness Gordon B does not get to appraise my photos! I like it and the contrast & mystery evokes days gone by.

I did not notice the cloning initially, in part because the image itself does not warrant deep inspection. My eye went from generic figure to generic road to wind day to Drab PP -- finished-- outta here. This being the type of image that warrants no more than a few seconds of viewing also explains why few people noticed or even cared about the gender of the subject.
Once I was alerted to the cloning by Ray it did add another negative to the already less than stellar PP work on this photo and it now jumps off the screen making me wonder how I could have missed it initially. As Stephen points out, people and their perception are complex. I cannot agree with John that the cloning is "pretty good" unless "pretty", as a qualifier in this case, means not very. The borders of the cloned area are smudgy and obvious, the vertical crack in the adjacent paver is significantly misaligned and the entire middle paver is a duplicate of another paver in the photo. There was not even an attempt to snip a few pieces out of the cloned paver or move some details around to disguise the redundancy. If the cloning is this apparent at 680 pixel width, it would jump out and bite you on the backside in a decent sized print.

In my previous post I wrote vertical when I meant to write horizontal.

Some good points Gordon. In fact, looking back at the image after your comments, I see cloning in places I didn't yesterday and may be the areas you are talking about. I wouldn't ascribe the "pretty good" moniker to those areas, the ones in front of the figure.

I know there are different biases regarding cloning and how much, or little, is ok. Although I consider myself a relative purest, I learned long ago that we are creating visuals to communicate something more than what is in the frame and removing detritus can be part of that. Had this been done well, I would be fine with it, I am just not sure that this image would be worth the effort to do it--and I still wonder if what was removed might have actually made the image better-probably because it isn't doing anything for me as it is.

John, I consider myself somewhat of a purist as regards manipulation at least in as far as my own work is concerned. However I always maintain that this is a visual statement we are making and whatever works to further the photographers vision is fine with me, provided that it is done well. I will not hesitate to clone out a cigarette butt on the sidewalk if it is a distraction and it would not bother me that Carlos cloned out several objects, some as large as a cat judging by the area involved, had it been done with care. Cloning like dodging or burning or any other manipulation for that matter, works in most instances when you do not notice it or when it is subtle enough to be secondary. In this case it is neither subtle nor well done and that is my only objection.

Very simple in terms of composition and it doesn't quite meet the requirements for Rule of Thirds but works very well IMO. I like the fact that there is a simple background and a strong subject captured in the frame. It goes to show that a photograph of a single subject can be so striking.
I think this image works well because it is in Black and White and would even say that it wouldn't give the same emotional response if it was in colour.
Overall I really enjoyed this week's picture and just would like to say "Good Job!!"

The rule of thirds is really not a rule to be followed in each and every case. It does not apply to this shot. This photo is a Rodney Smith image except for the fuzzyness. Rodney Smith is one outstanding photographer.

It should be called the "guidance of thirds" rather than a rule. It's good guidance because it very often improves the aesthetics of an image, but not in all cases. I don't think it works here for my own personal reasons that I described earlier.

Hi, Stephen. Good point, food for thought. I believe the term "rule of thirds" comes from the pure definition of the Golden Proportion which is also called The Golden Mean, Golden Ratio, 1.618. It originates with the Fibonacci numbers. It is such an old phrase and concept that it is just ingrained with we photographers. I try to find a way to use Fibonacci numbers in my photography. As an aside, I am a cancer survivor, too. Going through it certainly does change your outlook on life. Thanks,