Refreshing Pause on the Street

Thanks. This was an impromptu 'street opportunity' and it arose suddenly. I just take my camera and record. Others wanted me to 'crop' it to eliminate the 'street element' but I feel the background, right and the auto license plate, left are essential to preserving its non-studio feel.

 

Thanks for the nice remark.

 

And I also made a life-long friend of this young woman, with whom I spent the next nine days for a fabulous time (non-sexual).

 

John

Very Cool...Nice work, John!

This was just another flash in my all-too-shallow pan. I just 'see' something and 'take' it and then move on.

 

It's nice when something I see appeals to others so strongly as this one.

 

(Sometimes what I think I see turns out just to be a chimera . . . and the raters let me know that.)

 

;-)

 

John

I said in earlier comments that this women promised to be a 'lifelong friend', and found, since I have returned to her city several times in the interim (once without finding her phone number, and numbers are not listed in her city or even anywhere in her country), that this woman indeed promises to be that lifelong friend, or at least she's become a long-term friend.

 

This is Dasha.

 

She now appears, not only in two other photos taken during the nine days or so we spent 'hanging out' (non-sexual) together, which are posted in this folder, but also in another several hundred which I took of her, appealingly clad in bra in June.

 

It turned out she had an enormous chest; something that was present when this photo was taken but was well-concealed -- I had no idea of that until the day I departed her city and she wore a dress for the first time.

 

She's still enormously photogenic, and poses wonderfully, without prompting, and ever so naturally. (She's an acting student, and instinctively knows how to move for posing (how to hold herself, how to look, how and where to look, but had never posed (ever) before, as a 'studio' model, though the shooting was in an apartment, because it was in 'free time', but done professionally.

 

Knowing what I know now, I would always try to choose a female acting student as a model, if I knew nothing else about the prospective model than that she was an acting student who had been through a couple of years of study, over someone of equal beauty without such studies.

 

Although presently only one photo of Dasha is on Photo.net, there are several hundred more of her -- maybe even a thousand; she had turned 18 in the interim and within a month or so of this writing, she'll turn 19. (Time marches on). She's still a student in the same theater university, lusting after something more 'big time' in terms of studies. I hope she makes it.

 

It is my hope one day to say 'I knew Dasha way back when -- before she became famous'.

 

Oh, and she still stops traffic in a city where traffic-stopping women abound.

 

 

John (Crosley)

Hi John, took your advice after our little debate on your other image. Altough I'm inclined to agree with Jeff's earlier remarks on those missing feet, I'm absolutely not bothered with that license plate on the left. Besides I know all too well that split-second intuitive kind of photography myself. You may have a point in implying that I'm too aesthaethically concerned in my earlier review. But actually I think that's just great because this kind of debate really gives me something. Being the harshest critic of my own work it causes me time and again to rethink my own work. Reviewing and debating each others work in a constructive way is something that can't be done enough and is usually not done often enough. I for one enjoy all that feedback.

Back to your image, I think it's a great shot. Wouldn't have minded taking it myself. It's one of those lucky finds. But one that you'll only find when you are REALLY looking. Regards, Ton

All other comments aside (and not diminishing them), I had just met this young (17-year-old) girl in a Dnipropetrovsk, restaurant, and she sort of attached herself to me. It is clear in retrospect that she saw me and figured out a way to 'make an introduction' and walk out of the restaurant with me.

 

She was an acting student, and we spent two weeks together, just palling around, trading views (she was ambitious and intelligent as well as being beautiful) and it was a great time being shown 'her' city by a native.

 

She has modeled for me, and now has disappeared from my life; I understand she now has moved to Kyiv and is working in theatre there. She may be found in her own separate folder (wearing a bra which needs its own suspension system).

 

She was only ever a friend, and sometimes a strained one. She did finally attach herself to an 'aging' professor type who promised to make a fortune (I doubt if he ever did) and enlisted her help as an unpaid volunteer, in his quest to modernize Ukraine . . . and I understand that she soon after ate at the table of the Kyiv Vice Mayor, so she's not without ambition.

 

That's actually a good thing in an actress, but I'm sorry she fell out of touch; I'd like to have contact with her again, but her phone's disconnected.

 

As to the license plate, that's verisimilitude -- it was suggested to crop it out, but then this could have easily been shot in a studio, and I resisted (same for the right hand side of the frame).

 

The Coke bottle had been in my pants pocket, having just let McDonald's restaurant -- a main restaurant in that city of 1.2 million, I handed it to her WITHOUT instructions and stood off, while she downed it, unaware of the juxtaposition.

 

heh, heh, heh.

 

She also appears twice more a little later in this portfolio (as well as having her own folder . . . plus I have hundreds of unprocessed shots of her under studio lights (all fully clothed and after she was 18 and 19.)

 

Sometimes life brings people into your life and then they go away and that can be sad. I'd like to learn firsthand what life has had in store for her (one of my models brought word a few months ago of her move and new career . . . but who's to say if it has been a static time. She is exceptionally bright, and of very poor, but very nice and hardworking parents (I've met them, and momma at least has some culture, but they suffer from Russian (they're Russian) superstitutions and the Russians are very superstitious people.

 

John (Crosley)

John, what a great and intersting story that is. You know, I observe and deal with people for a living, if not a passion even. Just the other day I found a girl/woman here on PN who wanted very much to get into photographing street and/or people. I advised her, knowing from experience how difficult that can be, that you've got to talk to people and really get in touch with them. While for me it's much easier to do that in any surroundings you know as well as I do that for most people this is really hard. What I already suspected from going trough your portfolio that's something you seem to do with ease. Your story tells you really connect and I suspect get a lot out it as well. I've discovered a long time ago that after each and everyone there is a world of interesting and often untold story's to be found. You only have to be willing to find them.

Ton

called 'Naked City', outside the memory of most Americans. It's intro and exit monologues included the memorable phrases that related to the story lines: 'There are 8,000,0000 stories in the naked city. This is (has been) one of them.'

 

I never forgot that and how to personalize things.

 

You know, it works.

 

People remember stories, when they forget everything else.

 

I'll remember a 'story', even when I forget all the other details, and even the 'star's' vitals, including name and other data.

 

Of course, with this photo, it's easy to see why, but then she and I became personal friends from that day to this, assuming she's still a friend in her mind . . . since she has not been 'in touch'.

 

I hope that is remediated soon.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

 

 

 

You have a real good eye for catching some moments and documeting them with the camera. This is another one. Again, intruiging portfolio. Thanks for commenting on my photo.

This has a history.

 

I sat down in McDonald's in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine with my cameras.

 

This woman made eye contact.

 

She was 17; I was old enough to be grandfather.

 

We left together and spent two weeks together (as friends only and only during daytimes).

 

This photo was taken within the first hour, and she was unwittingly the subject of this juxtaposition -- she didn't know about the poster behind her or why I took her photo (or as a beautiful Ukrainian woman would say 'I'm beautiful' 'So, you take my photo' No falseness.)

 

She and I became friends for a long time; and later I photographed her as she grew older, but now she's gone to Kyiv and we're out of touch for a year; I heard she's dancing in theater or a nightclub. She is an actress and made a wonderful model when I hired her to model for me; the most natural model I ever had.

 

This is the first and only such photo; (later ones were posed or semi-posed) a total 'street' capture, and though she was not quite a stranger by that point by about 45 minutes -- it was NOT posed.

 

(you're welcome and thanks for commenting on this one, a favorite -- now if I could just locate her to say 'hello' since I'm frequently in Kyiv and we're friends.)

 

(phone is 'off'' and phone directories don't exist in Ukraine.)

 

This one touches my heart. We were very close friends/pals (only) -- I even met mom and pop and ate with them.

 

All from sitting down to a measley McDonald's burger one afternoon 8,000 miles from home. (We had great times, but also quarreled a little).

 

John (Crosley)

A 'photo of opportunity' : Do I sense some discrepancy between you first saying that you spent a long time waiting in front of the poster in a far off place for the ideal shot, the young woman happennng to 'stop off for a coke' ... and then having walked out of the restaurant and accompanied her, presumably witth the bottle in her hand?

 

 

 

In another comment above, you first say that there are two other photos of this girl on PN, which presumably makes three in total, then further down that this is the only one. I have a little trouble following your reasoning.

 

Anyway, nice shot, I like it.

 

Can I add that the 'superior knowledge' stuff' does sound a little patronising. may I suggest you change the phrase.

Your remarks are coherent, and you have read the above with laudatory powers of observation but with lack of total knowledge of the circumstances.

 

Let me explain further, as you have jumped to several faulty conclusions

 

Yes, I had indeed just met this young women, then age 17 literally minutes before -- within the last 45 minutes, no more.

 

I had sat down in McDonald's and she literally invited herself to be with me. We ate together and talked. It seemed natural.

 

We walked out together and spent most of the next two weeks together during daytime and after her classes. I was photographing actively.

 

I had bought a Coca Cola - I think the only Coke you can buy in a McDonald's is a Coca Cola Light -- the rest are fountain drinks served in a cardboard cup, but if you order a Coke Light, it comes in a bottle. Those drinks also are warm -- they had no ice and weren't cooled, which is why I didn't drink it all.

 

When we left, my Coke Light (Diet Coke in the US) was somewhat warm, and I stuck it in a pocket - I think in a back pants pocket).

 

We walked along, and while she was unaware of the circumstances, I had spotted this 'background'.

 

I handed her the Coke and told her in pidgin Russian/English that I had to walk ahead, and I'd return in a moment and told her if that she was free to have a drink. I did walk ahead.

 

She did drink the Coke.

 

She had several drinks, without my prompting and without even noticing that she was standing in front of a Coke poster.

 

I got a couple of shots of her, probably in 'C' drive ('Continuous servo which replaces 'motor drive'), quite rapidly, and walked back to her, then continued on my conversation and walk with her) She had been unaware of the subject of the photo, although she saw me take her photo. .

 

She was wonderful company, and we became wonderful friends (non sexual).

 

I didn't then have a girlfriend; she didn't have a boyfriend, and we enjoyed each other's company -- simple as that. We ate in restaurants together and simply walked together. There are several shots of her in my portfolio, including one taken a few days later and another taken on a boat - just look closely. One of those she posed for, the other she didn't.

 

She was incredibly photogenic.

 

Also, she was an acting student, and somehow she was extremely gifted as a model.

 

At some time on a far different trip to that same city of 1-1/2 million and when I had rented a flat there, she came to visit me as a paid model, but she was then 18 (or older) -- she's about 21 or even 22 now. She wore a brassiere in the photo session (no nudity), and I discovered that she had very large breasts.

 

There are about four photos of her in a folder also in my portfolio, taken late that afternoon for which she was paid.

 

Last I heard, she was in Kyiv, dancing professionally according to a model who said she knew Dasha.

 

She had at one time became an acolyte to some 'professor' whose goal it was to change Ukraine's economy. She had dined by then at the table of the vice mayor of Kyiv -- not bad for a one-time17-year-old student whose first encounter with a westerner was in McDonald's in an agricultural metropolitan area somewhere in the sticks 13 hours away from any other major city in that agricultural country.

 

I'd love to hear from her, but have lost touch with her, and her mobile phone number long ago was disconnected, as was her parents, whom I have met and eaten with.

 

The short answer is that 'this was a put-up job' on my part in that I handed her the Coke bottle and told her it was OK to drink on a very hot day (the sweater was something she always wore to conceal her large chest -- I found out much much later).

 

And I had paused when we were in front of that poster, which we happened to have walked past but without preplanning (I was pretty lost in that town as I was new there), saw the potential and that is why I gave her the Coke bottle. If I had seen the poster before, I could not have located it again, and even now I am not sure where it is -- it's possibly one of two places.

 

I figured 'why not see what happens -- Pretty girl, coke bottle in front of this poster -- maybe there's a photo in this. Let's see what happens.'

 

The rest just happened naturally, without stage direction.

 

She was quite surprised to see this photo, having been unaware of what she was standing in front of.

 

So, that's it.

 

Make of it what you will.

 

Oh, and as a model, a paid model, she took directions absolutely fabulously -- I had hired pro models from one of Ukraine's most elite agencies -- wonderful, beautiful women and at not high prices -- and they were worthy of fashion magazine covers, but they were mostly vacuous and had to be coaxed into poses because however, pretty, they were generally not excellent models -- just beautiful..

 

This young woman, Dasha, simply assumed a pose, waited to hear a shutter release, and if there was none, moved slightly, and waited again, stopped, until a shutter release or time for the photographer to reject the pose, then moved again, just slightly and slowly. She also could move 'backwards' in case you wanted her to repeat a movement you liked that she had done just previously -- a very gifted model, but certainly (i found later) no stick-thin fashion model).

 

I knew her for about two years before I was even aware she had a large chest, because that was not my interest.

 

Good, careful reading, by you, but some wrong conclusions. I hope this clarifies. And if it contradicts anything above, I'll correct the above.

 

I don't have to fudge facts - life's just too interesting and fun to 'make up' anything.

 

I hope this clarifies.

 

Glad you like the photo.

 

About the wording of my 'request for critique' - that's about four years old, and has been viewed by countless numbers of PN members and you're probably the first (or second) to remark on those words --- they'll stay.

 

Those words were carefully worked out and get the sort of engaged and helpful colloquy that has made my commentaries a frequent stopping off place for a great number of visitors -- and I hope interesting reading.

 

As to the number of posted photos of Dasha, I hope I've cleared that up. This was the first - and the only one when it was posted. Later, others joined it.

 

Still later, there were more.

 

I'm not going to re-read all the comments above -- you may rely on this particular comment for an accurate recount of the facts.

 

You have misread something (or it is written in a misleading manner, but I will clarify. We were only in front of this poster (and she was unaware of it) for a minute to three, and that's all. No more. I didn't wait in front of this poster for hours.

 

Perhaps you have this confused with another photo where I did such a wait (and I only did that once), and in that instance, I did write about it.

 

If you see words above in this comment that say I waited 'for hours' or even a 'long time', I will simply change them, as they do not reflect the truth.

 

Perhaps you're thinking of my photo of the two men in front of a jaguar in Honolulu, where i did an hours'-long stake-out?

 

Best wishes.

 

John (Crosley)

Woof, I think we may have drowned the fish in the pond here!

 

I did not at all mean to imply fudging the facts so much as the ideas. I enjoy the enthusiasm and read the whole page, but I find it rather disjointed and irrelevant in parts.

 

 

And yes, the photo is great fun.

 

At one time, it was the only photo of her.

 

The phrase which bothers you is found, word for word in every critique request of mine - thus under every one of my photos for which critique is requested, so be forewarned. It will stay there.

 

Kind of like 'legalese' --if you don't like it, just ignore it; it's not meant for more then the first-timers who don't know much about rating.

 

Those who have experience, know already about how to do that sort of thing, and don't need guidance.

 

And it's darn fun photo -- I'm glad you agree.

 

I take a lot of photos often unaware of which ones will show well, then 'wow!' one day I'll see one, or maybe post one and it'll get a great reaction. A friend of mine is in love with Dasha - her photos in her bra - he mentions those photos every time he sees me. He just can't get enough, but there are only four posted, and that's all he's gonna see, I think. (There's value in scarcity sometimes..)

 

If you haven't already and can stand those words you dislike (they can never be edited out), come on by -- there are nearly 1200 photos and another 60 on another service, which I won't name, and many of those are somewhat different -- though not all.

 

Happy New Year to you.

 

John (Crosley)

This image caught my attention, as soon as I saw it while browsing through your portfolio.

Even more so, when I read that you had to wait a while, before being able what I imagine was really in my mind. I would have thought that you shoot mostly from the waist. ( Since I don't know if the term even exist, I think I need to explain what I mean with that: Just imagine a gunslinger, drawing and shooting as fast as he can, when the need arises; or in photography, having your camera and eyes ready, for when the right situation comes along....and snap!)

That being said, I most tell you that I admire your patience and foresight.

The result is quite interesting, indeed.

Cheers,

 

B eautiful,stunning image!A very good work as you use to do!

Thank you so much.

 

I had only resumed taking photos for a few months, and in color, when I took this.

 

I never really 'lost' anything despite passage of a substantial period since I seriously did any shooting. This was part of what started it all.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Best wishes for the New Year.

 

John (Crosley)