"Passing Through 'The Toddling Town'"

Chicago is a business hub and its O'Hare Airport is one of the busiest in

the nation as seen yesterday, in a completely untouched capture from a

connector between two concourses, underneath the huge tarmac of one

the world's largest airlines. Your ratings, critiques, and observations are

most welcome. If you rate harshly, critically, or just wish to share a

thought, please post a thoughtful and helpful comment; please share

your photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John (Photo full size and essentially untouched from 'raw').

This was a 'stop along the way' from one concourse to another. I asked my escort to 'stop' for a moment of rest. He did, here, and in other places along this concourse as well.

I stopped here (details later) for just a total of four minutes on this whole concourse (maybe a half mile long) to take photos as he accompanied me.

I was with a smart, nice and hitherto unknown young man -- an airport employee escort -- and told him (since we got along very well) "I want to show you something about that you have never seen in a place you pass every day.'

I took a lot of very good photos in a similar vein, some very, very good in a very, very short time.

This is the best.

It also is pretty darn good on black and white (desaturate it and see!).

More about the circumstances later.

He was very appreciative, and helped me choose this shot to show you.

If you can believe, it there were so many good and almost great captures from four minutes we had to sort through them all to finally pick this as the best of the bunch.

It might also be titled 'The Four Minute Lesson' or 'The Four Minute Exercise'.

My best to you Alan, and thanks!

John (Crosley)

John, you've done it again!

I love this...the shapes, colors, and stop motion all work perfectly. The fact that you exposed for the background was an excellent choice. I would like to know what triggered that decision.

This would make an awesome luggage advertisement. lol

I like it in color better than B&W....

The background was so clear cut, I literally promised the young airport/airline escort I was with a 'really good' photo or even series of photos, and I delivered.

Sometimes, even when you take a good one, it pays a little to step back and let a little tribute be paid to those who designed this wonderful interchange underground between the two United Terminals at O'Hare Airport, Chicago.

Now, I had been through there maybe 100 times, including many, many times without my cameras and never once thought of trying to photograph it, but when I was wheeled through I told my guy 'stop' 'we have time' because I had missed one plane and had plenty of time for my next, and he was a great young man from Bulgaria . . . smart, interesting and interested.

I just about made him a pledge I'd take a great photo, of course knowing with that background even the silhouette of just one person walking by would look great.

This surpassed my greatest imagination, but I tried hard.

You should have seen me zooming, firing, zooming in and out more, -- aiming one way, then another, focusing near and far, all in the course of four minutes (EXIF data confirms that (this took place at two minutes and about 10 seconds).

There were others that would have been enough to remark 'well done' on, if this hadn't occurred, but for symmetry, this takes the cake, hunh? I was super-aware, and literally working my 'zoom lens and my 'C' drive like I was hunting for 'just the moment, AND I GOT IT!!!

You just have to give credit to the designers of this wonderful walkway, for I am just a photographer who practices the subject of my super-long Presentation: 'Photographers: Watch Your Background" which you can access through my portfolio - it's very long but has very good explanations which will show you how this particular photo taking technique evolved and got polished.

This is just one part of that technique but it is one of my best ever.

Thanks so much for the recognition.

John (Crosley)

You're absolutely right, a luggage advertisement, or 'stock photo'.

Allow me a legality.

Photo Copyright © 2010, John Crosley and/or Crosley Trust, All Rights Reserved. No copying without express permission in advance from copyright holder . . . .

I've been working on this technique since I started photography.

See my first post: 'Balloon Man' which integrates the background, then have a 'very long' look (if you have not) at my super long and unfinished (lack of adequate site software) Presentation 'Photographers: Watch Your Background'

This is one almost perfect example of a lesson taken directly from those I was trying to preach in that almost book-length and book-quality draft.

Some day it actually may be finished, and appear in print . . . who knows?

This easily could be on the cover -- or maybe the photo of the woman, cell phone in hand, in the art gallery, with the two figures beside her in two panels -- making it appear as though she's in one panel (with her cell phone while the other panels feature bizarre 'pairs').

Some of the better stuff is getting (1) easier and (2) more complex, which pleases me, Ken.

You and your critiques help coax the best out of me.

I was snowed in in Kyiv, no electricity in my flat for three days and two weeks of bad weather predicted and possible continual electrical problems, so I picked up the unused part of a US return trip and I'm looking out over LA this a.m. after passing through Chicago last night (see photo as proof), on my way from Kyiv.

Sometimes, I'll take a roundabout routing to have a chance to take photos rather than the most direct routing.

My young escort worked and worked to 'make the scheduled plane' on a tight connect, but we missed it, and I said 'what will be will be' to assuage him, then said 'I'll make it up, with a camera, even an unexpected delay can be the photographer's friend. I'll try to take a world class photo or two. Then as we passed by this, I said 'stop, this is my chance' and it was.

He helped me edit my captures.

Nice young man . . . . .

Eastern European determined to do well in the US and the US is wealthier for having him. . . . . with his great attitude (Dima is his name).

Thanks Dima for stopping.

Ken, thanks for helping coax the very best from me with your great comments-- good comments are very encouraging -- maybe much more than you know..

john

John (Crosley)

I must defer to the wonderful designers of this world class passageway that connects the two United Airlines concourses at Chicago's United Airlines Terminals.

I've passed through this under tarmac concourse hundreds (yes hundreds) of times in decade or a decade and a half, and never though to photograph anything and much of my experience predates my modern photography, so this is essentially my first try.

Like it?

I do a lot, and I'm grateful for you encouraging remark - such remarks go so much further in compelling me to keep taking my best photos than you could ever know.

In a way, such comments are like 'roaches' for if one gets a comment like yours, (like one roach in the kitchen) there are almost surely dozens more that go hidden,but they're there no matter what.

(horrible analogy, I'm sure, but somehow it struck me as being 'appropriate' despite the subject matter of the analogy -- who wants their remark to be compared to cockroaches in the kitchen? But the point is, one such wonderful comment may mean there are many others who did see and think such things but did not write them here -- maybe because of shyness,language problems or other reasons, but who might have wanted to.

It's the analogy of one person speaks for many, when one poster is so bold to put a remark that appears universally held, into print as you have done.

Thank you sooo much.

John (Crosley)

First -25 C in Kyiv.

Two: Three days nyet electrichisva in flat.

(several times the man from Zhak came to fix and lights went on briefly, then off again -- too many residents with radiators and not enough heat, so off electrichisva went again) . .. . and mobile phones, computers . . . svet . . . and everything OFF.

Three Kolodna. Everything cold. Not enough heat in -25 C to keep flat warm without heat from electric radiators too. Even with oven turned up 'full' day and night, (but oven did keep me from freezing to death and flat is quite large, so no danger of dying from no oxygen . . . thank God . . . . as I worried at night I would not wake up.

Four: Forecast weather to stay unusually cold like that for two weeks and thus no electrichisva maybe for two weeks and me a prisoner - and not enough warm clothes. In Dnipro, it never got so cold and veteran Kyiv residents say there also never so cold . . . or such sneg and lot on ground.

(snow and ice if you don't speak Russian English and trying to follow)

So, I had a second half of a plane ticket to Los Angeles and took it.

Got stuck yesterday for 40 minutes in light jacket in outdoor lift -25 C outside in lift taking my wheelchair to side of airplane (I travel by wheelchair . . . . even took this photo from a wheelchair . . . walking in airports with big camera bag (15 lenses) two computers and three or four camera with lenses is just too much for my disabled body, and I take a wheelchair ((I always can anyway).

So, it's next morning in LA, and warmer; where rains have stopped, finally.

Got a full day of stuff to do.

But first had to show this photo here (and another one I just posted, woman with eyes rolled and jaw dropped at kiss!!!!

Don't get too kolodna Svetlana.

And beware of skulska ice. (slippery ice)

Best wishes.

John (Crosley)

The man, center, has (absurdly almost) an open laptop . . . . though there are hundreds of feet both ahead of him and behind him to either terminal, and at either end, he must either take an elevator or escalator.

Perhaps it is his spouse, and he must stay so close because of his marriage to his laptop.

John (Crosley)

I consider these things in photography to be sacrosanct.

1. There be four sides to each photograph.

2. There be at least some light and possibly a 'subject'.

3. I try to contain the 'subject' within the constraints of the four sides of the photograph, but not always - the 'subject' can sometimes be 'inferred' from other things presented or shown, even if it is not actually depicted.

4. Whenever I can, I try to add my own personal touch(es) to whatever it is I do, even if those touches are small and hardly noticeable. I value originality. I try to do everything originally and by 'hand' and not 'rote'. (I do not always succeed.)

Beyond that, I have few constraints, and although I have an affinity for and strength in 'street' photographs, the last photograph that hit my photo editing software was a highly original nude. One member contends nudes are my 'best' work. You also will see landscapes, 'fine art', portraits, street portraits, abstracts from time to time and who knows what else?

If they made cameras with circular or other frame shapes, I might not feel constrained by the use of four sides to each capture.

Thank you so much for the compliment, it actually does mean a great deal to me -- possibly more than you could know.

It is pleasing people like you -- often total strangers whose names I am not familiar with -- and whom I often get to meet 'on the street' or elsewhere, that brings me such great pleasure . . . and causes me to thrive.

That is where photos such as this come from - not from some place of isolated thought and navel contemplation, but from the energy obtained from participating in the amazing variety and complexity of human interaction which I often seek to record.

John (Crosley)

From you, special thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

I sympathize with you and understand, because I feel all this cold here. Public Service for snow removal work very badly and all the streets turned into a skating rink.

Svetlana.

Even if the photo is not perfectly symmetric, symmetry is one of its strengths.

The second strength is the placement of the guy with the laptop.

The third is the orange tones fading into yellow of the background windows.

Yes, I think that this snow and cold this year - I had spent parts of previous winters in Dnepropetrovsk - is unprecedented in its severity, and when that happens, there is no real way to prepare for it.

One must just endure.

But the flat where I stay had no electrichisva, and that is intolerable, so off to Los Angeles (where cold became warm rain, and now sun).

My best to you and sympathy to you there in the deep freeze.

I'll be there soon again.

John (Crosley)

I was thinking of the symmetry of this photo . . . . and I am wondering if somehow its symmetry is not in the 'bulk of blacks or darks' as opposed to the placement of heads or baggage.

In any case, maybe being perfectly symmetrical with placement of heads and/or baggage (or feet) might have made this more easy to dismiss - made it look like it was computer generated?

Luca, thanks for your thoughtful analysis (once again). Your analyses always are appreciated.

Luca, sometimes the Photo Gods just look down and smile (and give a gentle assist when moving that zoom and pushing that shutter.).

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

'These two women are Caucasian' as we in America know that term. In Russia, Caucasian, means dark and swarthy, but in America it means 'white', and these women appear to be white.

But they are 'nearly black' because they are practically in silhouette.

I had an opportunity to make this a complete silhouette, but decided to do NO Photoshopping at all, and took that chance.

A friend and world noted photo expert told me once:

People often use Photoshop just because they can,not because they should.

It reinforced my view.

This represents my view - my totally 'raw' capture.

I usually do minimal Photoshop or image editing to my posts, so members are free to make helpful suggestions; I'd foreclose so many helpful suggestions if I made a lot of editing choices.

I'm pleased this interested you enough for a return trip.

John (Crosley)

John, may I also add my compliments for your photo above... I think it's a superb photo -- well balanced, and an interesting ensemble of fine colors, forms, lines, and perceived movement.

I also observe a clear symmetry in the 2 escalators handrails, which give a good balance to your photo imo.. Really well done! -- PS: I'm quite surprised (in reading in one of your above comments) that you never before have taken any photos in this airport concourse before...?

Maybe this will be the first of a great new series ;-) Best regards, Marjolein

No, black is fine, I just polished a 'fine point' since 'black' sometimes has a special meaning in the USA.

Nothing special about it for non-native Americans -- just a little spit and polish to the language to make things absolutely clear, and also to ensure that this is seen for what it is - a photo with absolutely NO manipulation or image editing at all except that done 'in camera' by the camera in its own native software processing (not in-camera image editing, as now is offered by some cameras).

In that regard, this is more on the order of a transparency (slide film) of times now longer ago for which there was no image editing or darkroom work other than manipulating chemicals or varying time/temperature (after perhap a test was run, a very cumbersome process most didn't know of, let alone actually do.)

john

John (Crosley)

I have never taken photos 'in this concourse'.

I did take one in this airport (maybe others I cannot recall).

There was a restaurant, and in the restaurant a statue of a trombonist (maybe it was a frequent flyer lounge), as part of a jazz trio statue, which represented part of Chicago's jazz heritage.

I found a patron hoisting a bottle of water that mirrored the trombonist, juxtaposed the two hoisted 'articles (bottle and trombone) as 'mirrors', and posted the photo.

It was poorly received, but I still like it very much.

No one else does, however, which shows the value of the critique and rating process.

It can drum some sense into stubborn photographers like me (sometimes) who fail to acknowledge that some of their work just is misunderstood or sometimes is really not appealing.

Marjolein, I hardly have enough words of expression to thank you for your compliments on this photo.

I took others from this place and nearby, all in minutes, some while 'on the run' (moving), and many were worthy of posting in their own regard.

I generally have a rule, though like all 'rules' it may have exceptions.

I only post one photo from any one shoot; not a bunch.

To do otherwise suggests a paucity of material.

I never have suffered from that.

In fact, in the eyes of one good and world famous critic, as of two years ago, he complained I had too much stuff and should stop shooting (really) and just concentrate on getting into galleries and first rate museums (with his able help and his famous black book of contacts, which he offered to help me with).

Unlike superb PN photographer TIm Holte who has explored his local museum and milked it for superb photo after superb photo, I just don't have Tim's amazing talents.

Tim was able to take a large variety of shots of the Milwaukee Art Museum (I think that's its correct name) and turn it into one of the most viewed portfolios on Photo.net ever.

I don't think I ever could match such a feat; I'm just not so talented.

But I have flashes of inspiration as well as a lot of perspiration, hauling heavy cameras around often worldwide (and even as here in a wheelchair, yes, this was taken from a wheelchair, and my 'escort' was a 'wheelchair pusher' -- a great guy).

Without his help just in stopping for two minutes, this photo never would have come into being, and those guys are taken to task for every deviation from what their boss sees as their sole mission (pushing wheelchairs and nothing else).

He deserves thanks, as much for this photo's existence, as anything.

I do not forget those who help me, (or at least I try not to, and even a wheelchair pusher may be noteworthy of praise in my book; I am ecumenical in my praise.)

I promised him I would show and deliver to him a 'great' photo, knowing with the background I had a superb chance.

That it would be this good surpasses my expectations.

Marjolein, thanks from the bottom of my heart.

I dedicate this photo to the guy who pushed my wheelchair and kindly stopped when and where I asked him to, for a minute or two, between the missed flight and the new flight.

(And to his boss if he/she reads this, in commemoration of my pusher's good will, I let him go early, even though I did really need his help longer, thus freeing him up prematurely to do more work for you, more quickly).

john

John (Crosley)