Hot Pool and Pedestrians

Hot Pool and Pedestrians. Your ratings and critiques are invited

and most welcome. (If you rate harshly or very negatively, please

submit a helpful and constructive comment/Please share your superior

knowledge to help improve my photography). Thanks! Enjoy! John.

I just love the sense of scale on this one. Being from Montana (a little known fact), I am quite familiar with Yellowstone Park, albeit from the perspective of a little boy. And, this is just how I remember it, bigger and more amazing that anything anyone could think up in their little imaginations. Good stuff.

As to the 'sense of scale' you will recognize from the proportions of this photo that it is a 'crop', with a portion trimmed away because it did not reveal 'clouds of steam'.

 

It only reveals one-half or one-third of the perimeter of the hot pool -- Yellowstone's largest, and was taken from across the highway to get this unusual perspective (using a telephoto lens for compression). I had tried many different views including trying to bring the mountains behind with their felled trees from the great forest fire into the frame which made it look like a scene from a bombing or from hell, but somehow as I brought them all up for viewing (they were never printed) this one just stuck out.

 

Thanks for the comment (and the rating).

 

John

if you look close there is genie in your steam.

 

 

I was dreaming of finding a genie there. ;~)) John

Although this is posted in my Early B&W Folder, it's actually from 2004 [correcting error], it's just a continuation, I think, of classic style.

 

And, I think if you just converted many of my color photos to B&W, you would find they belonged in the B&W folder also (as, for instance, one -- the photo entitled Culture Clash--Parisian Style, elsewhere in this folder, a desaturated digital color photo 'shot from the hip' as I walked along, showing a white Parisian woman reacting to two black Parisian men greeting each other.

 

What most of the B&W photos have in common, however, is that they were shot wiith a 28, 50, or 135 mm lens, my entire store of lenses at the time, plus a 2 x tele-extender (used for the 'Columbia Rooftops' photo, for instance.

 

Those who think I now concentrate too much on telephoto portraits, should take a look at 'Balloon Man', probably my best photo ever, and my first telephoto portrait -- taken with a 135 mm telephoto lens.

 

(and for one critic who thinks I crop too tightly, that image was cropped in the viewfinder, exactly as shown to this day -- perfectly)

 

I'm working on 'presentations' in which I analyze the 'art' of making photographs, based on the over 300 photograps in my various folders as examples, and I'm learning some lessons myself; one is that I use juxtapositions very much.

 

Another is the number of devices I use to 'isolate' my subject, such as using 'out of focus' through selective depth of field, 'full frame backgrounds' (and interesting ones at that, whenever they can be found), 'high horizons', and any number of other devices -- I'm learning a lot about photography by viewing which of my own photos are successful and classifying them according to the 'devices' I've used in making them, and even counting the 'number of devices' I've used.

 

For instance, this photo used (1) an interesting background as well as a (2) juxtaposition, and in its own way, it has a touch of (3) humour, or at least it has a (4) philosophic or cutting edge to it, (man's insignificant size in the 'scale' of things) and no matter what, it (5) isolates the subjects (against a background of steam) and (6) through use of timing, I have indicated the subject's forward motion by catching the leftmost person in midstride (intentional and planned).

 

Whew.

 

It all seems so simple really when I aim the camera and lens.

 

J.

"it's actually from 2005"

Ouch, which time zone do you leave in, John?!?! :P

All has been said about the scale. I wonder whether a crop closer to the 35mm aspect ratio would have made this shot a bit more balanced. Nice, anyway.

I seem to have set my clock a little ahead, don't I? I never have lived in the 'past'. I'm changing my comment above to reflect reality. I'm glad to see you're watching my portfolio (like a hawk it appears). John

I often do 'leave' time zones -- some friends say I 'leave' them more than stay in them. How could you have known? I find it's often cheaper to stay in a foreign country than even stay at home. And the jet fare often is a negligible part of traveling -- and under appropriate circumstances, it is possible to travel enough that the fare is essentially 'free' -- I once wrote a book about how to make airfares 'free' if you can believe it.

 

John

beautiful composition

Thank you for the compliment. I like the balance of the sky and image of your attachment (I feel, however, that if you have Photoshop you might want to use the unsharp mask to define the edges of your subjects more -- as their lack of definition detracts from the wonderful image . . . I hope you don't mind the helpful thought)

 

 

John

The decision to crop from full frame was in part necessitated by the need to fill the frame with steam. If the couple is to be moved to the left, that means the frame to the right has to be brought in (or the height lessened) and the former means the photo will have less steam for drama and lessen the impact and the latter will lessen the photo overall in terms of scale. I also would have preferred to do as you have suggested -- it just was not possible and still preserve the photo's impact.

 

Only solution: Retake the photo.

 

John

This is my favorite photo in your collection. Probably because these are my favorite type of photos to take. Great work.

 

William

What a nice compliment.

 

This is an 'oldie' (and) 'goodie' -- not really so old at all, but at the rate I take photos, it's probably several hundred thousand captures old.

 

I do know this, I'd take this again in an instant, and to get this particular view, I had to engage in all sorts of contortions, as this view was NOT obvious to almost anyone at all -- it was extremely difficult to achieve -- just to get the sidewalk -- hot pool view at all.

 

Then there was the juxtaposition view -- the steam (in such volumes and blowing the correct way to obscure the background) and the couple on the foreground walkway -- it took some patience to get it just 'so', and even so, I had to 'crop' somewhat to achieve this photo.

 

But I would do it again, and again, and again.

 

(And as a color photo, it was a tossaway . . . go figure).

 

John (Crosley)

Well.  This  is  good,  very good.

 

Cheers;  Bela

This is a photo about 'scale', a word I didn't' truly know the meaning of, but I took it instinctively, and though this is a crop, it's only because my lens was not long enough.  If It had been longer, I would have taken the same photo, but uncropped.

I love it; one of the first really good photos taken for this service and in my new 'life' as a modern-day photographer.

It just required the proper vantage, the the wind to blow the steam cloud just the right way to obscure those burned Yellowstone trees on the ridge behind, as they'd been gutted by the HUGE fire that enveloped Yellowstone a few years back, and are growing back nature's way, as this is a US national park.

Thanks for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)

I like the placement of the two men, but I woul crop a bit at the left side.