Amish Wonder

Excellent b/w. Emphasis on boy, yet showing belonging to his community.

Love the idea of this and your approach to it. I wish he hadn't been holding a bag of chips. I had to work a little to figure out what he was holding and didn't get much of a payoff when I did. The lighting on the boy is just great and I like the contrast with the background but would probably prefer the background to be a tad lighter. It's just a little too gone for me. And finally, I do think it would be a little better if his feet hadn't been cut off. Again, though, many things to like about this, especially the overall feeling and your being attuned to the scene.

I see  Dürer here.  The  composition and the light and shadows  is  very  dynamic  and  powerful, and,  beautiful, artistic too. I steering  on the  image, and  I have no idea  how to improve this  composition,  or the processing. It is  just perfect  like those  master  painters works.

The  biggest fault of this  image, it is  not  my.

Bravo Maestro, bravo!

A very fine image Lynne -

Well done!

David

Congratulations for this capture. The total contrast in this image is all. Well done!! Regards.

The Amish are always of great interest and this image with all the contrast and antiquated hat bright against the darkness stops me in my tracks.
I wonder why his feet are cropped off? So many interesting textures... a fun title would have been "A box of bananas"...
There are some compositional challenges... but it's nice overall! I'm also glad that the Amish where you live, are open to photos. In our part of PA, they shield their faces when they see a camera.
Thank you for sharing!

I am not sure what the child is looking at as there is insufficient brightness to make it out easily. Is it is a mural or are they live Amish? I find it impossible to tell. I assume the former as the title suggests the boy is experiencing wonder? If not then the background does have a wonderful 17th century look about it - if only I could see it. The tables also break up what could have been a more striking foreground/dark background effect that would have given the shot more impact.
I am rarely fond of views of people from the back - it speaks of non-involvement and distance so there is a lack of connection with the viewer. I think adding back some shadow detail would improve this shot a lot.

I, too, am frustrated by the darkness of the background exposure. The whole point of this image seems to be whatever is so engaging to the boy in the hat. I also wish his feet were not cut off, but that is less important than also being intrigued and engaged by whatever it is that has the boy's attention.

Since I work along side Amish farmers running steam tractors and other ancient machinery at thresherman shows in the summer, the pose of the boy is something I commonly see. The contrast between the boy and the dark background separates the subject, but the background (empty white table) does nothing for the photo. What is the boy wondering about? The figures and objects beyond the table are too low key.

If you go to her site and see the original image blown up you can just manage to detect the presence of six faces of people active within the frame that otherwise appears as almost black. The fact that these characters are not easily discernible works against this photo being successful in my mind. The subject seems lost. The intent to keep the background a mystery is not questionable I think, it is a good aim if that was the intention. However, opening up the shadows a bit more without disclosing everything would I believe increase the impact considerably without removing the enigma concerning the boy's interest. I hope that the author has considered that variable.

I am left quite surprised at the fact that several critiques made before the image was chosen by the elves were all highly impressed by the photo. Friends? Others? (acknowledging of course that a fully objective view is impossible). Considering that the comments here of the POW are not at all similar to the first half dozen, one wonders if the elves felt that the prior appreciations were good enough reason for pulling it out as this week's POW? In any case, the very differing views are most interesting in themselves and "stir the pot" in a constructive way.

OK, so I viewed this on my better-calibrated screen. The five figures in the background are much more visible. Yet, I still cannot tell what it is that is so captivating to the boy. I suspect they are baking some kind of confection, but it is not readily obvious. This is an interesting, well-composed study in light and shadow, but I am left wishing for a missing piece that would make the story it tells complete.

Sometimes I have to wonder. This is an interesting shot--made even more so by the fact that the people in the background have allowed their faces to be seen. From the angle of their gazes--they very well may have not been aware of this photo. In the past--here in New York State, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida--EVERY time they have seen me with a camera they turned away. Nor was it my intention to photograph them full on. In that I respect their culture unless given specific permissions. All that said...

I don't know what is wrong with anyone elses monitor--but I can see the people in the background just fine. Maybe a tweak or two to the profile is in order for some. Although darkened--I find those in that sphere of the frame conjuring an image very evocative of Walker Evans work. The title is immaterial--it could be called Straw Hat Hamburger for all that matters--we should all view images and let them bring us to a context and emotive meaning. The boy indeed is striking against the darker background. Yeah, too bad about the table. Lynne should have stomped into the scene and removed it before restaging the shot. Stuff is there, we have to deal with it.

Is the young man wondering about something? Perhaps. Looks like he has a prepackaged bag of snack food clutched in his hand--obviously dreck made by the English. He is kind of hiding it. Maybe guilt. Maybe nothing at all except looking at what everyone else is doing. YMMV.

Voting and critiques here on PN are odd. Google for any of the LONG TIME discussions on the same here and it becomes clear why. This is a good photo--I would be happy if I had taken it and had it in my inventory. Is it POW quality? Who knows. Is Nikon better than Canon? Does the moon have alien bases on the dark side? Who cares. Good image, and keep on clicking!

I can see the people at back and I like the subtle silhouette than makes you want to see what they are doing. What bothers me is the sharp outline on the boy and the halo around him, artifacts, caused by the strong sharpening.. I guess it was necessary or the people in shadow would be lost.
I have to agree with Fred, the modern bag of chips the boy is holding is out of place and there just seems something off about the scene as a whole. He's far to the side and while the hat is eye-catching, there is really nothing else going on in the scene.

The difficult to see 6 characters in the back are really the picture. Their gross underexposure and stances in fact create the enigma and one can see opportunities in this sort of very low key imaging that elevates the photo above one where all the emphasis is directed to the boy. The photo without boy and the irritating table (or at least the foreground one) is interesting and if ever revisited (or a similar such scene) by the author might profit from a slight increased exposure. Low key images with dark areas of unknown is one future motivation and approach I take away from this viewing and for which I am grateful.

I am fortunate enough to live near a large population of Amish people, my good friend Tom owned a farm in their area and so mingling with them was a common occurrence. Pretty cool....
I like the photo and what I has to offer, however, may I remind you that I am just a hack and should have never been allowed access to this site. That being said, the darkened background does not bother me, it leaves a sense of mystery, just enough light to intrigue me. (When I do these critiques I wish the image was in front of me, like the standard critique forum so I can refer to the image when writing. Now I have to do this from memory and being a child of the 60's I have very few brain cells at my disposal...where was I....see what I mean?) Any brighter and I feel it would distract from the main subject.
The boy, to me looks good, I like the fact that the tables are pointing towards him, especially the stabilizing bar for one of the legs pointing to the boy at an angle. Good leading lines, the basic in photography
I do not like the foots being cut off, to include them would finish it off nicely.

Post Script: I re- read what I wrote. When I meant there is nothing going on I wanted to express the idea that a photo can look simple while still expressing more. This is inline with what I was thinking at the time. You wonder what caught the boy's interest. Happy Holidays!

I hate to be that guy.. but I'm not really digging this. Cutting the boy off mid shoe is distracting, but not nearly as much as the poor use of layering in photoshop to make him brighter than he was. You have created a strange halo from using a soft brush that bled into the background.

With less crazy photoshop PP, and leaving some room just below his feet, would have made this a much better photo. My $.03