Bike messenger

I mistakenly submitted this for ratings a few days ago, but I was really

hunting the ever so elusive 'critique'. Shows how long it's been since I

submitted in this forum. Things have changed...hopefully for the better?

well, I'm perfectly willing to provide a critique, elusive or otherwise ;-)

it's a good subject as a kind contemporary phenomenon. After all, bike messengers have become quite the rage in a lot of major cities in the last decade or so. This guy seems to be a perfect exponent of that, a fairly young and fit guy who seems poised to move on to deliver his message. As such you did a fairly nice job to shoot him like this especially since his somewhat impatient expression fits nicely in with that. The square format is a good choice I think given that the obvious goal was to portray him. However, given the fact that he had to wait for a red light suggests you had a bit of time to compose your photo a bit more carefully and while I don't mind that chopped of wheel that much I think you could have done a better job in choosing your background more carefully. Don't you think yourself it would have added to the overall feel of the photo if you had chosen one of the streets, the one he is coming from or the one on the right that he is about to cross? I do actually because it would have created a bit more visual depth and looked less "confined" than it does now because after all, this is a bike messenger and I think it wouldn't have hurt if you would have included a bit more spacious city feel. Even then however, blurring the background somewhat as you did here was a good choice. I also like the rather high contrast although I think, given the lighting conditions that you overdid it a tiny bit. What I don't like is the perspective distortion. While I don't mind that in general here it's distracting because it concentrates mostly in the right half of your photo and given the square format and the fairly large amount of empty space in the foreground it draws simply too much attention. By no means a bad photo/portrait. It could have been a lot better though.

Ton, you and John (Crosley) have provided me with the best feedback to my photographs that I have ever received. Thank you! In my attempts at street photography, I'm still at a level where I depend heavily on serendipity. I can't process compositional aspects of potential photos as quickly as you describe...yet. One thing for sure: when I go back out there with my camera I will be thinking more about it. That's what is takes doesn't it? I learn a little, then I try to apply it the next time I go out to shoot. Thanks again. See you on the S&D forum!