'The Steps' (II)

...to cut a long story short: This is one of your very best. From the initial idea to presentation only applause, applause! Deserves a big frame and a nice wall...Compliments!

Thank you so much for such a fine compliment.

I'm so pleased this one seems to please you and everyone so much.

And a little surprised maybe.

But grateful.

Please accept my thanks again. E.P-B.

john

John (Crosley)

Love the simplicity yet perfection of the lines, motion from boy running, the straight extension of his leg confirming your accessibility comments on the steps/building.

I also like the fact that at the end of the straight step lines, you can see that they just continue at a different angle giving the impression these steps may never end. Very nice picture which would look great displayed on a wall at a large size.

Thank you.

There is a new feature at the end of your comment . . . 'was this comment helpful to you? directed at me, and I checked 'yes'.

Of course it was helpful.

Your comment has helped me see my photo through the eyes of another, and that always is something valuable, as I have written before, I often am very myopic about my own photos.

I know this was a good enough photo, and even had posted another photo two or three years ago from these very steps featuring a little girl that I though was excellent, maybe even better than this, but not getting nearly the response this has.

Your comment on the straight leg, for instance, (and mirroring the lines of the steps of course) for instance was helpful, as well as the turn of steps in the distance giving the impression the steps go on forever. (they don't, but seemingly do so.)

So, for the first comment in which I'm asked 'is this comment helpful to you' I answered 'yes' and would have added 'emphatically so' like most comments made by those who comment on my photos.

You see, the view through others' eyes is something I lack, and even a simple comment that someone doesn't like a photo (maybe because it doesn't have preying mantises or butterflies) tells me something.

I need to be reminded of those things, sometimes because I can be so single-minded in taking my photographs and evaluating them.

Mike, thank you for taking the time and trouble to express and convey your views to me (and for all the other myriad other commenters above)  You have all been very helpful to me, for which I thank you all.

john

John (Crosley)

Knowing your work, your technique, your interests, this is a fairly "easy" shot for you.

In general it's more of a cliché, even if it's quite well framed and objectively the little guy stepping out of the frame makes it very dynamic (or adds "tension" to it, as somebody might say).

So nothing really original.

I wonder how it would look had you included more of the perpendicular steps in the background. But maybe right of the frame there is stuff that would mess the picture up.

L.

You are absolutely correct, though it has (in the eyes of my critical audience) achieved a very wonderful result.

It was indeed 'quite easy' for me.

I had previously photographed a little girl (this same folder) at the juncture of these steps, one of my first attempts and first four frames on these steps, as she ran from the bottom to top.

They are too short to photograph adults without capturing distracting, surrounding area.

You are right about distracting matter to the right of the 'bend' in the back where the step direction changes, otherwise, I would have done what you suggest (there are rails, or other things, like ramps for sliding merchandise, carts or some such, completely out of keeping with this symmetry.)

Easy shot?

Well, easy to imagine but precious long in arriving.

I visited, visited and revisited these steps many times to try to get one more decent capture, and this is the only one.

Just one more, using all my 'techniques' etc., for such an 'easy' shot.

Easy to visualize, but it requires a kid in the right spot, going the right direction and no one knows where anybody will go, when and when to be in the correct spot.

I could not pre-visualize this, only to do that with these steps in general and capture what I could.

A very helpful critique and I noted such.

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

You might try looking at this view, taken earlier, same steps, taken within the first four or so frames in my attempts then an interminable wait and numerous other unsuccessful attempts to get anything interesting there until the posted photo:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6056254

You may have to cut and paste in your browser to see.

john

John (Crosley)

This is just an EXCELLENT composition.

Long ago I posted a really good photo from the other end of these steps of a small girl bounding up and decided after revisiting these steps that was the best I'd ever done there or could do, so why keep trying; shoot something new.

Yet I looked at older captures that I had not thoroughly reviewed, a couple of months ago, and found this one.

It stunned me I had not picked this one for exposition, even though it was taken much later, and is greatly different, and as critics tell me even quite better (subject is in foreground, which is an advantage on Photo.net).

It is classic good composition, I understood, and I wonder if perhaps in a hurry to view another capture, knowing I already had posted a wonderful photo from these same (short) steps, that I just didn't even look at or for this photo and didn't even realize it was there.  In short, this is an old photo,  overlooked and a great argument for reviewing old captures with a fresh eye.

Finding it was like finding Rolex under beach sand with a metal detector -- a real find!

Thank you for putting your imprimatur on it.

john

John (Crosley)

I love the tention this photo creates. The dramatic perspective, the hard contrasts and the subject running out of the frame all create an intense mood. Superb

Believe it or not, I either didn't see this in my capture review in initially a long time ago, or just passed it over and caught it on re-review.  The re-review is something I urge all to do periodically. 

Half my recent postings are from captures I passed over for posting in my rush to get to 'the photo' I thought was the 'best'.

Of those 'half' they dominate the ones that are highest rated. 

I think I have learned something about photography and editing my captures since I took this, if nothing else.

I'm so glad this pleased you; I could hardly believe I had passed it over and am so glad I resurrected it.

john

John (Crosley)