'Life's Struggle'

The caption says it all. Your ratings, critiques, and observations

are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically or

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

John, to be honest, this is not one of your best.  There is not enough struggle and too much pavement.  I think you can "reshoot" this scene.  There is plenty of life struggles on American streets.  Get closer.

I'm no stranger to getting close.

This is a scene of anomie, not a close-up view of a guy struggling.

My portfolio has plenty of such scenes.

This is a scene of struggle plus geometry (composition).

You may not like the paving stones or the scene, but this is a once in a lifetime shot and never could be shot again.

Personally I like it; you don't.

Our views vary.

That's why they have chocolate,vanilla, and occasionally strawberry.

This scene is to be viewed as a whole, not of the man up close.

I find your perspective interesting and helpful though.

john

John (Crosley)

You say you personally like this photo; however since it is your photo your opinion does not count here. It's irrelevant. Therefore, none of the ice cream flavors are for you. I suppose if you could rate your own photo you'd do that too. As for the photo? Contrary to the above I kind of like the foreground. I guess he is going to sit down because otherwise, it he forges on he is going to trip over those fucking bags and then have to get a hip replacement and because of his age, suffer a post-operative fatal thrombotic episode and then no more ice cream for him. Maybe that's a good title: "No More Ice Cream".

I don't have a problem with not being close enough. To me it needs the pavement in front to set up the scene...he's struggling and without all the foreground it might not have the same impact.

What I don't care for is the processing. It seems too much. But that's my taste.

You get honorable mention for your critique writing this time.

Fair's fair

john

John (Crosley)

This man was very slow moving which gave me time to 'set up' this composition.

I'm sorry you don't like the processing, but could use some hints on improving it and maybe an illustration.

Thanks for the critique.

john

John (Crosley)

This man reached out ahead with his bags, dropped them then spent about five minutes trying to walk to where he had dropped them.  He was one of the slowest pedestrians I have ever observed.

I would have liked different tones than the paving stone pavement, the stone wall and the grass (dark green) for this setting.  Tant pis (so much the worse in French.)

john

John  (Crosley)

As I see it, this photo can be seen in two ways; one literal and the other, metaphorical.

To me, your caption actually serves to almost fixate the viewer on the single subject in the photo, regardless of the compositional aspects of the foreground. He is isolated in the vastness of the forground and all attention is diverted there. Your caption just makes the viewer think that in doing so, he is focussing right where you want him/her to. Therefore, I kind of understand why Alex Shishin laid stress on a close up of the man.

The second bit of course is where imagination takes flight and each viewer will have his/her own interpretation. Here, even taking into account the caption, the long stretch of the pavement, as emphasised by the (almost) perpendicular column in the centre, seems to co-relate with the stooped man as he struggles to take the next step. The distance he has to traverse with each step, however small, is almost magnified by the 'vastness' of the foreground, in a way 'personificating' the effort.

The placement of the man in the frame is perfect, as is the slightly grainy texture of the photo (or is it my monitor?).

Regards.

How wonderful once again to see your contributions, for they are essays of beauty that show wonderful understanding.

Often I just take the photos, and if you and I were a team (in a way we are, aren't we?), I could take them without thinking (much) and leave the interpretation of the photos to you, and like as not in 95 per cent of the instances, without even speaking or otherwise communicating, your interpretation would be spot on.

As are your interpretations -- both of them -- this time.

For there is not one interpretation of a photo (even of mine) that is necessarily representative of the only interpretation.  

My photos often can withstand multiple interpretations, and one interpretation can be as genuine and 'spot on' as the other.  Here you hit both interpretations correctly.  

I often have  more than one feeling or interpretation as I take a photo or interpret (process) it, and somehow you have particular insight into my thought process (is that scary for you?)

By the way the word you were seeking, I think, is 'personification' but that's merely a nit and of no significance.  

I should have used 'free transform', I suppose in Photoshop CS5 to ensure that the centermost line was exactly perpendicular. or 'skew' just a bit, if the failure to set myself dead center to the line shows that much; it wasn't my intent to skew the line to left or right and in post processing I could have fixed that if I had seen it and felt it was noticeable.  (I was working on a laptop with a broken screen, as usual.)

I took two photos serially of this scene, and I just worked up its mate.  In the second, the paving stones, worked up with a different treatment in the black and white conversion, appeared quite different, as was the grass, rear, and even the man's pants, now seen to be brown when lightened before conversion then showed some more detail -- not distracting at all given his relative size, since the pants still show quite dark and do not change the overall affect of the photo.

Thanks for your appearance, and the extremely well-written critique.  It's the complete complement to my photography.

As it should be clear, I've missed your extremely well-thought-out and well-written critiques during your absence(s).

I hope that time and other pressing needs allow you to return here more than just occasionally; your contributions are entirely welcome here under my photos.

john

John (Crosley)