'The Train Station'

Straight lines have little bends and curves, the water has undulations

and wakes in a sort of unexpected and almost Dali-esque world found

at 'The Train Station', somewhere in Eastern Europe. Your ratings,

critiques and observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate

harshly, very critically or just wish to make a remark, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment; please share your photographic

knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Beautiful image!! (6)

Thanks.

I had several shots that were similar, but each one had separate and different attributes, all taken from roughly the same spot.

Each, however, had an entirely different point of view or subject.

This is just the one I chose. 

I was fascinated by the overhead walkway and its mirror in the large puddle, so when the bicyclist came by, it was time, and SNAP!

Thanks again.

John (Crosley)

I too like the overall impression of this, John, and see your point about a possible Dali-esque feeling one could get, looking at this... The reflections of the overhead pass and biker are great (really pulls the viewer into the photo, imo), as are the different ('zig zag')verticals and diagonals visible (notably those of the poles and legs of the pedestrians on the RHS)...  Wonder if slightly cropping the left side of the photo -- to just before the diagonal pole -- would enhance the photo somewhat, and/or possibly better counterbalance the two extreme diagonal lines in your capture -- not really sure though... ?  A very strong & pleasing photograph nonetheless as is.  Best regards to you, Marjolein ( PS: what lens did you use ?)

This was taken with a Nikkor 12-24 more toward the 12 mm end, but I haven't checked out the exact mm setting - though I am inclined to say it was at its widest.

A possible left crop would leave out the start of the far left stair riser to the overhead walkway, which is why I didn't crop, plus an overall aversion to cropping anyway.

I looked at this and said to myself, 'this looks a little strange', yet it's not manipulated, and realized that the straight stairs, interrupted by the short landings, then the risers again and more interruptions, mirrored front and rear, gave a sense of discontinuity to the stairs.

The sense of discontinuity I feel is repeatedd in the large puddle foreground; it isn't static as one expects a puddle to be, but reflects the roiling of the clouds in the sky and the passing wake of the bicyclist -- for far more than a static mud puddle, though entirely reflective -- just not a perfect mirror like one finds in front of many mountain lakes -- this is an 'urban mirror' and likely to be gone in a few hours after the thundershower has long abated and there has been time for drainage, which already has begun.

This a strange photo, truth be told, and more than a bit gritty, which in my opinion captures the 'truth' of the place, as it is more than a bit gritty, though for that country, it is the 'train station' for a city/town, and the city/town is quite clean by that nation's standards -- a place where its politicians often choose to live because of high standards (residents without cars, however, freqently choose to ride the higher class buses which are less crowded, more frequent and somewhat more expensive than the trains which pour into a very much lower class train station) - then bus riders get first dibs on precious Metro seats as they are at the first Metro statino, when the buses let them out (jitney buses, marshrutka for those who care).

But gritty is relative, people are well enough fed, there is national medicine (not great, but the US doesn't have that), and very good public transportation . . . . transportation for the masses . . . . even though autos have greatly risen in prominence.

The people are remarkably restrained and also mostly very well groomed; it's a point of national pride for most -- they're handsome people and most try to show it off, particularly the young people.

Most are trying too hard to 'get ahead' rather than be anti anything yet.

Marjolein, thanks for the kind comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Yes, I agree with you re: the crop on the left.... (& that's also why I wasn't sure)

The overall effect of "the sense of discontinuity of the stairs" (using your expression -- or 'zig zag' diagonals, as I called them :-), is possibly the feature that is so intriguing here, and which immediately attracted me to the photo... 

This is not an inherently 'likable' subject or depiction, but I was drawn to it by its great compositional promise with the overhead walkway, the intermittent stairs, the mirror of the distant stairs (also intermittent), and the reflected sky.

So, I studied it for a while, took various shots, found that if I stood one place I got the sky and another I got other things but no sky.

I took one with a dog walking across the far end of the puddle, reflected,  and almost posted it, and another with a man walking crosswise from left to right, ducking slightly (for whatever reason - to avoid my ray gun camera blaster beam?), all with the essential elements of this composition.

So when I was there and framing, I was doing so seriously.

I now have two Photos of the Week, and in each case, the Photo of the Week was not my first attempt at photographing the subject that got the photo chosen.

In the first, a man walking by a poster of two women shown large, appearing to mock him as he walked by, I had photographed that poster two or three times before, and each time successfully.

I had no intention of photographing the poster again; as I thought I had worked it to death and no one needs three or four shots of the same poster in one's folder, even if it's a giant folder/portfolio.

When I saw that man begin to pass, I knew he would pass that poster, ran (well trudged ahead, but faster than him), bent over, and as he passed at the correct point took a photo of him in just the correct position vis a vis the background -- and voilà:  Photo of the Week with over 50,000 views and innumerable comments, all three or four years ago.

That photo's success, though it was only one photo, was not an accident, but was the result of careful study and practice on that particular background over time and then 'working the subject', so when the man came by, he filled out the canvas, so to speak, and I had only a moment to complete the magic, but I had already done my preparation weeks, months and a year or so before.

A few weeks ago, another Photo of the Week, this time at a bus stop in Ukraine.

I took about a hundred photos, as I worked the people lined up, spaced almost equidistant from each other silhouetted standing by the setting sun as they waited on a sidewalk for their jitney bus (marshrutka) in Kyiv, Ukraine.

I am not even sure I picked the best shot of the bunch, but the one I chose got about 90 comments - half under Photo of the Week and half in my portfolio -- and still is attracting beaucoup viewers.

I had 'worked the scene' thoroughly, as it was getting late, and returning buses were scarce, so I had plenty of time and so did the waiting passengers. 

I didn't even get one nasty remark or stare from them -- they were too self-involved in their own boredom or personal thoughts.

I had this very same lens on my camera (maybe even the same day or a few days before or hence?) and just 'worked the scene' there, just as I did here.

'Working the scene' cannot be given its proper due, even in 'street' where one spots something in a circumstance - e.g., a background, etc., or just a compositional possibility that might frame something interesting IF one can identify AND catch that something.

I'm not so sure I caught it here, but to me this scene is very interesting, even if not so appealing. 

This is more like a vinaigrette salad with too much vinaigrette, and my most recent Photo of the Week I feel was more like strawberry cheesecake for the PN audience (and for me too).

But I take all kinds, and I show all kinds of photos.

It keeps me honest and fully utilizing my time, brain power and talent.

I don't just look for the surefire winner; it that were the case, some of my best work never would have been taken, much less seen the light of a computer screen's bright pixels.

I hope that puts all this in perspective.

Sometimes I'm just a one-off kind of guy.  I see, raise lens and camera, instantly focus often in less than two seconds, SNAP, then walk on by.

Sometimes I can spend a half hour or more at a scene, scoping it out and 'working it', taking a few to a hundred frames until I either 'get it right' or give up.

It just depends.

Sometimes the results can be crap; sometimes not.

Sometimes I don't always know the difference too well, until the rates start flowing in as well as the views.

;~))

That's why I post.

I hope that's not overlong; some people like to learn how these things came to be in existence, particularly new photographers who are struggling with the question of 'how did that photo come about?'

I believe in telling those people the straight truth; when I came here, that commodity was scarce; it was just 'keep quiet and sooner or later you'll be noticed.'

I decided to set my own rules (tasteful ones I hope) and find that many now consider this style of responding to posts a beneficial style, which makes me feel very happy.

john

John (Crosley)

I feel an inexplicable unreality of this place!

Congratulations!

This is one of your best comments ever.

That is why I called it Dali-esque, almost.

You have seen what it is I feel I captured.

Thank you for such a wonderful comment.

john

John (Crosley)

This photo is a medley of several things that are bound together within the four borders. There is play of triangles, either from the overbridge and its supporting pillars or from the positions of the people and even in the trail left by the bicycle. Mirroring exists in the obvious reflection on water, the bridges (as already mentioned by you) the two people in the background and the man to the right (partial mirroring by the other person exiting the photo).

I can also view it as a mirror-world which the cyclist enters only to be mirrored himself.

I like to stop and photograph things that interest me, for most often they are interesting to others as well.

This may not have been beautiful in the sense that a nature scene is beautiful with beautiful colors, although it does have a great range of blacks, whites and grays, but the subject AND the composition, I feel are both 'interesting'.

Your comment is as usual 'right on' and does not require much to reply to -- almost all your comments (maybe all) hit the mark right on.

This is interesting in large part for me because, in addition to the interesting figures, it has so MANY interesting elements in it -- that one's interest is compelled, even if one rejects or does not feel particularly attracted to the scene.

In other words, there is just a whole lot going on here, and the eye has much to linger on -- which is one measure of the successful photo - whether the eye is compelled to linger (other than for reasons of remarking on what a bad photo it is and how awfully executed, which I hope is not the case here).

My best wishes to you.

john

John (Crosley)

Samrat,  I reproduced your comment above, for your comment required me to read it a second, third and even fourth time to digest it and deserved more than the simplistic reply I gave it above.

This quotation above gets as much to the heart of this photo and what I was trying to accomplish by standing there so long, waiting for passersby to be in correct juxtaposition to the structures and the puddle as anything I could have hoped for. 

In fact, it summarizes it far better than I could.  You have the makings of a skilled critic or at least analyst -- but then I've told you that here before, and like everything I write, it's absolutely true - no gilding the Lilly -- no flattery -- because it's just the truth.

Life's simpler when you just tell the truth -- you don't have much to remember, because you can just replicate your thoughts again and come to the same conclusion at a later time.

I do enjoy that you see so much in my photos; nearly as much (even sometimes more) than I initially see myself, and sometimes when I read one of your critiques or analyses, I have to re-look at my own photo to understand what it is that you see, and thus my photo is enriched by you even to me the photographer.

Thank you for that.

john

John (Crosley)

got to be one of the most amazing photographs i've ever seen. sorry. so much reality. it's all really actually happening, be aware. and i feel i'm there. yet so much so much happening in tones and shapes and perspectives that it is daliesque surreal... i believe dali would give you a big kiss for this one, John, feeling that wow this guy captured in absolute reality how surreal and chaos, purpose, busy all this and that that we facilitate for ourselves and that we need to do in life really is. phenomenal! ;-} dp

I once was a fan of the early writer John Dos Passsos who championed steam of consciousness writing . . . . .it is a way of writing in which formal structure is second or third (or somewhere, somehow subsidiary) to the 'ideas' and the feelings that the prose writer seeks to convey, often by writing phrases, shippets, and other bits of prose, then joining them together. It is a form of prose that borders on poetry and somehow may surpass it.

In reading your comment, I was reminded somehow of Dos Passos' 'stream of consciousness' writing. I sensed what you were trying to write - that you were somehow at once inside this reality (or fantasy) and that at the same time you were overwhelmed by it, and it shows in your writing. 

I am impressed by that and a bit overwhelmed.

I am thankful, also, that you enjoyed it so much.

It's a quirky photo; appealing only to some and for others, 'Oh gad!'  'Crosley took THAT one?' 

'Really?'

'He'll do anything and post anything, won't he?'

'Yes', is my answer.

I'll take any sort of photo as long as it interests me and feel nothing wrong with posting it.

That's the fun of being a posting member here.

And reading a critique like yours.

Thanks so much Donna.

You made my day.

john

John (Crosley)

I was browsing and was impressed without remembering your so interesting post at how Daliesque this scene was (and is) that I was going to remark on it and call attention to it.

It seems almost that the lines herein are liquid and pouring - in part because what should be a straight line of the stairs, left, as they rise, is broken into segments, and from a distance, they appear not to be segmented but more 'wavy' than segmented, and that 'mirrors' the puddle, foreground to middle ground where the man is riding his bike through, creating waves, and thus causing all things reflected to be distorted by the wave patterns.

I think I have to blow this up very big and put it on a wall or exhibit it.

********

And to think I never took LSD or indulged in 'mushrooms' or other hallucinogens other than some MJ while watching bombs blow thousands to smithereens in great glowing nighttime and soundless blasts which pierced the reflective tropical sky in Viet Nam over the reflective tropical Da Nang harbor and the South China Sea, a sky punctuated often by tracer bullets making their often undulating patterns from hill or mountain machine gun post to opposing hill, every hundredth or so bullet glowing of phosphorus or some other substance so the anonymous 50-caliber gunner could see where his otherwise anonymous little lethal lead objects were being spewed at highest velocity before they hit the ground, a tree, a rock, or sometimes, a human, which they then tore apart.

I am sure that given the number of bullets I saw fired, with every hundredth or so being a 'tracer' but it looking like really every very bullet was incandescent, that there must have been millions of bullets fired just within that vicinity, and that the chance of any one bullet finding a human target from a machine gun emplacement like that were almost infinitesimally small, but still with so many bullets fired, the chance of escaping death was not big if the gunner happened to be firing anywhere near you.

Overhead were little parachutes drifting in the sky, brightly also glowing of phosphorous, leaving smoky trails, all from military flares, illuminating the countryside, so the Viet Cong and their compatriots would have a harder time sneaking up on Americans, South Vietnamese, allies and villagers who were wary of being killed in the long, steamy and very uncomfortable and dangerous nights when death came out of the earth's bowels as the Viet Cong emerged from their networks of tunnels and crawled across the countryside from north to south, surviving sometimes on rats and a little rice, until they emerged victorious, handing America its first major military defeat.

It was that way every night for nearly a month as our steam ship went up and down the coast or in and out of Da Nang harbor until we could begin unloading our 16 thousand tons of bombs, designed to illuminate that sky, blow up Viet Cong and as collateral damage, also blow up villages, women and children and more than a few rice paddies, and forests.

I did not know that when I went on the voyage, and had little awareness as I sat on the fantail of the ship, smoking that marijuana, enjoying it allergically and in a perverse way the sight of the moment -- the macabre beauty of the lights of death from a distance, as the bombs exploded so far away their sound never made it to me, those tracer bullets danced across hill and mountain top passes and those parachute flares slowly drifted downward in the faintest of winds.

I was mostly dissociated because I had not yet seen it up close the fact that my cargo was bound not only to cause those lights but also the carnage that those lights presaged.

I had not yet seen those dead bodies, those maimed soldier and civilians and those villages bombed to smithereens.

That would come later, at the time it was only some marijuana, those dancing lights, their reflection off the clouds and South China Sea and/or Da Dang Harbor in my own little 21-year old Daliesque world, where I had gone without even knowing I was going, merely by accepting a ship's job, as an ordinary seaman, not even then knowing where Viet Nam was, or that my ship would be carrying those bombs.

********

In this photo, which now in my memory carries some baggage #above# I had to put some work into bringing the sky into tolerance -- to show it off and employ the sky, especially since the sky above is reflected in the puddle, and that's part of the key to understanding and displaying this photo properly.

If this were a barren sky, a blue sky or an indifferent sky, this photo would be nothing - a nonentity, but I stood there near the temporary mud puddle from the cloudburst for ever so long, just waiting for the right opportunity, and was well rewarded, even knowing that I'd get something good from that puddle and those overhead pedestrian walkways, and even waiting for a bicycle to go through the mud puddle so it would cause those distorting waves.

Another bike had gone through before but I missed it or was in the wrong place, so I repositioned myself and waited somewhere else, and when I saw this guy coming, raced into the right place to capture him and his 'waves' and the reflections.

I am aware after 'reflection' #excuse the term please# that this may be entirely a different photo for me.

But at  the same time, with the same camera I took absolutely regular 'Crosley' photos before and after.  I can turn it 'on' and 'off' just like that.

Some photographers write that for 'color' they have to take separate trips or for certain photos they have to use special equpment, or have certain mindsets - not so with me, I just sally forth, and if it interests me, I am game.

I'll take it, no matter what genre with no preparation and no special mindset. If I can 'see' it, I'll take it.

I think now I'll post a nude.

;~#)

And it's a good one too, from a while back.

I suppose my career might advance if I were committed only to one style and weren't multi-styled or multi-genred.  But I am, and I enjoy it. 

Color, black and white, realistic and surrealistic, news to nudes.  I enjoy the multidisciplinary variety; it's a renaissance way of photographing, though few practice it my way, I think.

I'll stay away from flowers and most landscapes though I can do them well, as there is a surfeit of able photographers ready and able to do those wonderfully, while I can do things most cannot dream of, and easily too.

john

John #Crosley#

Great sense of design. I like your work john ,paolo

'Design' in photography is another word for composition, or nearly so, and I studied this scene inordinately long as I tried to make it interesting.

The major task was the big thunderstorm-bred puddle, center, which acted as a good reflector and presented an unusual opportunity if used right, but it needed something more.

I tried one shot with a dog crossing the puddle and it worked OK, but this one with the bicyclist interrupting the smoothness of the surface, and the pedestrian going the opposite direction seemed to work best for me.

This is more than a little 'surreal' with what one expects to be straight lines, becoming broken lines and appearing disjointed, which coupled with the partial mirror reflection and the partially distorted reflection from the puddle and the spacing of the pedestrians made it 'work' for me.

I'm pleased to see you made it your first chosen work of others to place in your portfolio -- thanks very much and also for the fine comment.

john

John (Crosley)