"One more press..."

I find that it will be very correct to share the momment of giving

berth with you. Quit Long time since I thought to share my experiance

with my fellow photographers. That due to the fact that giving bert

is so uniqe and exciting and very natural...So my decision was to

share it with you. and to try and incourge others to participat in

such an ocasion and still to be able to bring more version of other

photographs. Your comments and critique will be apprichiated.

 

Michael

This is a great image in my view. The birth of a child a wonderful thing, you have captured the moment very well. I love the interplay between the five hands we can see, all demonstrating quite different roles and emotions, with the same objective, to bring a new life into the world. Max Zappa

Maybe I am just not a "baby person", but it seems a bit clinical to me. (shrug).

It is clinical, but the hands make it ... I've seen dozens of birth photos and not one comes near this in composition or lighting.

great!

Michael

This is one of the "strongest" documentary photos I have ever seen. So much emotion in one picture. I cannot find a good enough rating for that. Please excuse my 7/7 (it is not enough)

Absolutely tremendous.

 

The hands are indeed phenomenal. To me, each set of hands tells a story - the woman's hand pushing, with her rings, the reassuring assitant's hands, especially the one gently placed on the belly, and the focused, working, bloodied physician's hands.

 

Congratulations!

 

I'm with Sam M M....Great shot.........

I give it an "8"...tremendous!

Amazing how this drama is played every single day yet not many have captured this image as well as you have! WOW! B & W sure did the trick. Hey, this is really a better than great shot. It makes me think of everything else that's going on in the background (away from view) and the emotions involved here. Thank you very much for sharing this fantastic image with us. Hats off to you, partner, and Mozel Tov on this image!

To all My fellow Photographers.

I appreciat very much your comments and criticism.

Nevertheless I would like to remark to those photographers ( even if they are only few) who dare not to share with us their photos , and yet give unfair score under false names.it is very clear that their remarks are irrelevant to the photographs and probably have other motives.

I belive thatit would be advisable for P.N Mmanagement to creatsome kind of mechanism that will enable most of the participants to enjoy a fair play. I would be grateful to hear your opinion about this idea. I do belive that other photographers share these feelings with me. Consequently, all of us would benefit and feel better about presenting our photographers.

Great documentary shot!

Unlike some posters here who appears to rate this purely for sentimental reasons I have to say from a purely a photography point of view its fairly average. A woman giving birth happens all the time around the world, although it may be special it is purely that a baby is born. I suppose an image of a baby being delivered is always an iconic one and not entirely constraint by how well the photos is taken.

About the image, I like the moment the baby's head pops out between the mother's leg and a male mid wife delivering the child which is perhaps increasingly less common in western society these day, it does not appear to be a complicated birth. I didnt like the nurse's hand getting in the way pressing between the mother and the baby, to me that connection of the birthing scene was most important and it was spoilt by the hand, I guess this maight be down to censorship on the part of the photographer?

Nice picture.

Hmmm. On your comment on ratings, I am not sure to understand the issue. You got only one "3-2" but way too many "7-7", which are probably not photo related.

So... Do you want PN management to remove all the 7s ? ;-)

It is possible that the placement of the assistant's hand is censorship, and so what, but it could as easily be she is holding down the leg so we can see the baby's head. That leg was very likely bent and I hardly think the photographer would direct the mother to pose, as her mind is on other things. I think, considering the excitement the photographer must have been feeling, that he managed to include a great deal of detail in the image. And as this isn't a studio shot with controlled lighting, he has done a pretty good job. Michael, congratulations on both counts.

You have photographed on of the most riveting moments in a human life, so now what. Please don't think that that alone is enough to carry a photo, because many photographers have done it before...and bettter.

 

Whether they had posted 1, 2, or 2,000 photos at the time of their rating, it doesn't change the fact that this photo has alot of room for improvement. The composition is too inclusive, too messy, and the light is too obviously that of the on-camera flash variety. Also, the quality is lacking. Highlights are blown out and everything looks like a over-interpolated thumbnail.

 

Photographing an event of this magnitude, as rare as it may be done, does not automatically make a photo work on an asthetic level. cheers.

Michael - This is a great shot. As others have said, this captures the essance of life. I also agree with the other comments on the hands. They really do make the shot.

 

As for your comments on the unfair critiques, this will always happen. It is unfortunate, but true. The mechanism in place is that everyone's comments are available tosee on their personal page. This enables us to see how fairly they have distributed theri comments. I am sorry that you or anyone else would feel like to wanted to leave this web site because of them.

 

I personally enjoy tremendously viewing other people's photos. I have learned more reading the perspectives in these comments in the last couple months, then in years of school. Even some of the unfair comments have taught me something.

 

Keep up the great work.

Kelly Loverud's comment on lighting and an overly busy composition seems to be the first negative comment that attempted to say something about the image rather than the setting. Obviously, for those of who have looked at the portfolio, Michael is among the better photographers here and knows his craft. Certainly, I can learn much from him.

 

I think the lighting criticism has merit, though the lighting didn't bother me as much as it might in other settings, since hospital lighting generally is somewhat harsh. The world isn't all soft dawn light, and I actually have a contrarian fondness for documentary images with more realistic lighting. But, yes, lighting is an area where this could be significantly improved and part of the reason I, at least, didn't go to a "7" in rating.

 

In terms of composition, I very much disagree. I find a purpose to almost every element in the composition, and this is what distinguishes this for me from other birthing photos I have seen. Yes, there is some bedding in the upper left hand that doesn't add anything, but other than that, I think the composition is astonishingly good for a picture taken in these conditions.

 

Now, can someone explain to me why some posters seem to have problems with this moment as being worthy of photographic attention?

OUCH! That's a big baby...

 

Amazing shot. This might be the first one I have ever seen. I'm pretty sure it is...

Many thanks to all my fellow photographers who have expressed their pinion about my photo one more push. The photo was indeed taken at the hospital without any additional lighting except for the flash in my camera. The staff at the hospital was aware of the shooting, as was the mother. There was no staging and I photographed as the birth proceeded (about 24 hours) someone commented that this is an ordinary procedure which takes place thousand of times each day. Nevertheless, I do not recall having seen photos of this nature before, except that of Pnina Even Tal. On the other hand I did not come across any nude photography, landscape, architecture and portraits that were in any way un-usual or original or unique in any sense.

 

In my opinion, in this photo there is something primary and original in the aesthetic manner in which it was presented. The photo was shot in its natural environment. It was technically well carried out in spite of the harsh circumstances. I agree that there is always room for improvement and certainly I could have added some touching up in Photoshop but I did not feel that it was necessary. From my point of view, the composition was good, the color management was well done and the idea was well expressed.

 

I, as a photographer, made great effort to be very sensitive and considerate in view of the very intimate situation and showed great respect to the mother who agreed to share with me these very emotional moments as far as the hands are concerned in the photo, I assume that this is something very subjective to each of us. Everyone relates in a different manner. Personally, I feel that the hands are a very important part of the story.

 

Every person has his own criteria of aesthetics and only the photographer himself can judge this and only he should set his own limits. Originality should be appraised for the pictures idea, the angle of shooting, and the color combination and of course the composition. Otherwise, many nudes, portraits and landscape photos would have vanished a long time ago. We always seek to tell a moving and exciting story and not only to pass on information.

 

Last but not least, I would like to refer to the ratings of some of our friends who do not take into account any of the points I related to and I get the feeling that their ultimate motives are other than photography. When most of the photographers rate picture at 5, 6.7 it seems very strange that a few unidentified others rate the same picture at l.2. Perhaps they are not familiar with the system of rating in photo net and therefore by mistake they misjudge.

 

This phenomena occurring over and over again is very disturbing especially because these people choose to remain anonymous but still have the privilege of under-rating other photographers. It would be a good idea if they could participate in the forum but refrain from judging.

 

I will be happy to assist in finding some solution to this problem which I am sure will be to the benefit of all concerned.

 

Let me get this straight; "most people" have rated your image with 5-7, but some "unidentified others" rated it a 1,2 and you want the moderators to remove those ratings?

I hope I live long enough on this site to see someone complain about too high a rating.

Michael, worrying about ratings is pure vanity, really that's all it is. Photography is not a contest, and that's what ratings reduce it to. The rating system is nothing but a blunt tool that does more damge than good.

I've got a solution for you: never look at the ratings...not even once. Seek out discussions, that is where the value of this site lies, no where else.

By the way Michael, you have an outstanding portfolio. There isn't an weak image anywhere, including this one. Which to me is all the more reason for you to ignore the whole silly concept.

 

Regards

... your shots are superb, the ratings are a waste of time. This is nicely composed and timed, though I can see what the person above means by "clinical" - absence of the mother's face, I think, though her hand is quite expressive as someone's observed, and the picture is about all those hands and the baby, mum's face would distract. Be nice to show this in the context of other shots before & after.

Exceptional work, very emotional and dynamical photo!

... maybe we should also consider that many hospital rooms are very small and with all the people rushing around very hard to move around in without getting in the way. As far as lighting is concerned, it's not like you have all the options you'd have during a portrait shoot. Considering all that, I think this is a very good photo, and like so many mantioned before me, the hands really enhance this photo. In my humble opinion, GREAT WORK.