Don't shoot!

Roma housing estate in Michalovce, Slovakia.

Any comments etc, most welcome.

I love the expressions on these kids - as well as the great gritty printing. I feel like there is way too much space up top though - my first reaction is that i would have tried to go horizontal and drop down to get more of the kids in the frame, but undoubtedly leaving some of that great/interesting descriptive background. I also might have tried to move to the left to get less bright sky and more of that building. Still a great shot, but not how i would have done it :)

Hi Matt, I was trying to get shots of the housing but I couldn't loose the kids, so I just kept them in the bottom of the frame with the 28mm. The frame before this shows the building much better, and without the lens flare but I felt despite the crap neg I had to go with this one. The kid with the gun made the shot for me.

nice DOF, tells a story

K.Adams, it was shot in the midday sun, I thought of using Tmax100 but I stuck with XP2 because it's fool proof. It also allowed a possible massive DOF, shot around f9.5 Fast film can still be very useful even in very strong light.

You need the space up top. It gives us the context these kids live in, which tells us about the Roma and their place in eastern Europe. I didn't realize the kid in front was holding a gun until I read your comment, though. Perhaps it's more clear in the print?

Thanks Andrew, the idea is indeed to illustrate the problems faced by the Roma. I only noticed the gun when I started printing, I'd already decided the expressions etc made the shot. If I get round to printing it again (unfortunately I'm trying to knock these prints out at the mo) I will try and bring out the gun if I can.

Hi Gareth, with the conditions you were working under it's amazing that you managed a quality shot at all. Good one ... Tony