light

Yes, Spiros, I agree... It's the journey... Yet a jouney needs to have a goal, so let's have a goal... :-) And something tells me that Andre would really like to have an answer to this question. So, Illumination: 2 . The boy: 1. These are the standings...(Thanks, Bill, you make it more interesting...) :-)

Who's next to vote ?... :-)

I'm still more in love with the image of the boy. Boy - 1 Illumination (girl) 2. Illumination is a better shot technically but to me it is simply a really good shot of a girl at work with beautiful light surrounding her. The image of the boy is more interesting to me. I still can't let go of this image I have of the light rising up to the boy's orchestration. I also admit I liked Tony's rendition and Bill H. took it to what I would envision would be the end result of the light actually rising. Andre, both photos are terrific for the innocence and the play of light. Important thing is, of course, which one do you love best. I can remember two times in my life when I did my first pan shot and my first zoom shot and broke the rules by hand holding. The professional lab I used was owned by a guy who had been in the business for 30 years and was extremely well schooled/talented and knowledgeable about photography. I would often show him images that excited me while I looked through my slides on their light table. The two "experiements" had me quite beside myself and I thought they were fantastic. He checked them out...and said...nice try - but keep working on it. I flat out did not agree with him and regardless of his opinion I submitted them to a Vermont tourist magazine for consideration. Both images were published. One of them got a full page. I also got paid - which is always nice. I also received phone calls from other photographers who raved about one of them in particular. Bottom line....as long as you are honest and hard on yourself as a photographer -- and you are lucky enough to shoot something that knocks your own socks off... Chances are - you've got something special that others will also appreciate and perhaps even pay you for.

Andre, I am no expert, but I would absolutely kill for an "accidental" shot like this! It's so beautiful, and mysterious, and compelling. I just love the position of the boy's hands, and the way it appears as if he's summoning the light from some arcane source. Serendipity is just a wonderful thing, innit? The background is just that, background, appropriately out of focus, adding to the total picture but not really detracting from the main subject. Thank you for sharing this fascinating photograph. - Pete

Bill, without the intention to turn Andre's pictures down, I'd vote for your revised version of 'light'. WJ

I simply love this unbelievable candid shot. It makes me try to feel the way the little boy was feeling in this moment and makes me think of my own childhood in the same age. It wouldnt become more precious for me, if this scene were staged by posing the boy optimally, teaching him how to make the best show under the perfect lighting.

Very interesting effect. I'm convinced that POW is not "the best photo" but the intriguing one that make people discuss and learn from it. As such, it's worthy it. Anyway, I think the "illumination" one (it's on the same folder by the same author) is better.

Andre--

 

Instead of biases "coloring" work, I should have said biases "overwhelm" a person's sensibilities when they are shooting kids. Almost always, result is sentimental beyond belief. Sometimes you get the extreme "dark side of childhood" by that woman whose name escapes me--the one who photographs her own kids in various states of undress and has been accused of kiddie porn. She was flavor of the month about 5 years ago or so. Also see Diane Arbus. Somehow I don't like those pix either.

 

As for the rest of your question, of course biases color work of all kinds. I do have a bias that arise largely from the behavior of parents and the sentiments of the culture toward motherhood. The bias affects my feelings about kids. It's been developed from the parents who think a stroller gives them the right to bang it in to anybody they want, repeatedly. It's been developed from the parents who leave their kids to run wild in stores to make noise. Kids have to make noise, I know, but do they have to make THAT much noise? It's been developed from the McCaughy septuplet brouhaha a few years ago--c'mon, women were not built to have their bellies filled with 15+ lbs of kids at once. It's been developed from the political climate--you can get a domestic spending bill through Congress only if you play the "our children" card. It's been developed from the glorification of single motherhood--"friends" is just the latest example.

 

Thus, I usually don't create opportunities for myself to shoot kids, though I have a few kid pictures I'm proud of. The kid was part of a show and they are sentimental. At the time, all I wanted is a very shallow DOF in an action shot.

 

So I do fall for the "oh, how cute!" like anybody else, even though I try to shoot the kids in the best realizable way.

 

Most people can work with most of their biases and make effective art despite them (or because of them). Biases about children and feelings about them are in a different league entirely, and almost nobody seems to be able work with them. We get sentimentality and anti-sentimentality. There can be good pictures within that context. The best may make a pregnancy and early childhood book. But most of the kid pix are snapshots in the truest sense of the term. They don't have the strength to make it off a parent's mantle.

 

I think your pic rises above the level of the snapshot. It has appeal beyond the family. It has good composition. If you corrected the technical problems (streaks and rhs flare), you'd have a worthy PoW. I wouldn't jump up and down over it, I wouldn't understand the 10/10 people, but the pic would be worthy of the name.

 

Best,

 

 

KEP

Re: Uses for kid pix. In addition to the mantle, children's books and books on pregnancy - some of the greatest kid photos I've seen are also in other popular and well paid venues ie: print ads, billboards, magazines, greeting cards and brochures.

Compositionally, this is a very big zilch. Bad use of space. Terrible placement.

Wow.

You need some kind of religious icon emerging from the light (Blessed Green Virgin?)

This is a shot taken by me two seconds later (I was that pushy guy with the loud voice, just behind you and Bill, Andre). Sorry fellas, I just had the right gear with me at the time.

Sensia 400 with Cokin 99E Ectoplasmic Filter.

Dennis - Ask and ye shall be heard. Leave it to Tony to stumble in at the decisive moment.

Either that kid is standing in front of a slide projector or he is performing a miracle. Great lighting. The little girl doesn't seem to be impressed but I am.

I should have asked to see a tiger jumping through a flaming hoop. That little girl is really hard to impress!

 

I like Tony's photo, but it seemed to be lacking something. Oh yeah, he was so loud (and pushy) I could not hear the heavenly choir. I had to track that kid down to have him perform the same miracle again (cost me a whole box of pop-tarts). That girl is his sister and she just sat there the whole time watching Barney videos.

Andre -

 

I hope you will forgive us for taking liberties with the photo. Even before you mentioned your impression of the messiah I was convinced that the elves had chosen this picture, perhaps unconsciously, because we are all fascinated by the idea of the possessed child. We both see him as being given the golden cloak of leadership and his gesture, adult beyond his years, shows that he was ready for it. Your take is of divine possession and that speaks well of your love for children - my take was initially darker and more worldly, the golden glow somewhat ominous. I envisioned statues of Mao or posters of Saddam with exactly this posture. Seen only as a child playing in the sunlight, it is fair to debate it's compositional difficulties and differences with "Illumination" and it may be found wanting; but I think it is that fleeting hint of something well beyond childhood, which you have managed to capture, that charges the photo and continues to hold our interest.

You guys are GREAT! I'm laughing so hard... Although I have respect and love for the original, I am totally enjoying your irreverant humour and play. You're soooo Bad. But this is fun. I hope Andre that you also are ok with it. In my mind it doesn't take anything away from your image... it is, in fact, evoking some really interesting creativity here.

:-) Congrats for the use of the Ectoplasmic filter ! I'm going to buy one as soon as I reach Heaven !...

Apparently they're available at all branches, Marc, north and south.

This photo is really about the interaction between the two main subjects, and how our personalities are shaped during our formative years. I have uncovered some additional documentation that links this photo to a top secret research program.

Are you sure it was a fish he was showing off?

Well if it's not, he's sure going to have a fairly interesting next few years....

It is obvious that Andre's pictures evoke such powerful nostalgia that some of the posters to this thread are beginning to revert to childhood before our eyes.

I love this exactly the way it is. I was immediately drawn to the boy due to the natural highlighting of the existing light. I did not notice the flare right off. So Burn it in on a print a bit. Anyway, This captures a moment and the "flaws" give it a sense of realism that would be lost with a perfect photo. The spacing of the two children is really just fine to me. I really like the way that the boy is clearly highlighted in a wonderful pose implying all sorts of feeling ( whatever you infer from it) and the rest is left darkened to reduce its importance but not eliminated altogether. To me, its good. Not polished perfect, but thats irrelevant when its this good. Andre, congratulations on POW, and you captured a moment wonderfully! D-

you guys are absolutely shameless...

;|

 

mary, clearly this is what you were talking about when you said endless number of interpretations???? no wonder then that "illumination" was glossed over for this one!!

 

i'll take POW roasts over snide bickering any day of the week and twice on sunday.

 

andre