'Vienna Cafe Life: The Sudden Spring Cloudburst'

The sun is out, shirt sleeves are short, Spring is here, and suddenly

thunder, lightning and the skies open up. On a sidewalk terrace café a

waitress continues to serve bier to her patrons, while in the distance

driving rain scatters pedestrians, with one man huddled beneath a wind

driven umbrella, stepping off a curb to scurry across a quickly flooding

street. Your ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome, as well

as your remarks. If you rate harshly, very critically or just wish to make

a statement, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your photographic knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! John

1. A waitress serves

2. A man works his laptop.

3. A jogger jogs despite being soaked.

4. A short-sleeved woman stands under a shelter at the corner with a man.

5.  Two or three on the terrace await full biers (see them on the table).  Cloudburst or no, they will have a bier.

6.  People scurry on the street, even to the far right.

7.  Umbrellas have popped open for some, others have none.

(and this poor photographer, having anticipated none of this was lucky enough to be near the café awning when the downpour started.  Such good luck and to have a super-sharp, long tele zoom at the ready too! Life is good! At least if one is not soaked and one's equipment is not either (missed that by seconds).

Oh, and look at the trees and SEE the RAIN driving downward, it actually is driving, and is not just spots captured.  Here the driving rain is captured against the tree leaves in staccato lines thanks to a slower shutter speed (and a VR lens which allowed that.)

Life is good!

Even if just in momentary bursts, caught and immortalized here, forever!

john

John (Crosley)

The jogger, undeterred by the cloudburst.

With the umbrella man, hunched over, guarding against the wind and against getting wet at all, his legs in motion to keep his feet from getting splashed too.

Each person sees this rain differently, and that is the heart of what I think I have captured.

What do you see?

john

John (Crosley)

even without your first own comment your photo reminds me of these pictures in children's discovery books with crowded images and lots of small stories in each picture.

While in these painted pictures usually style or colours hold the piece together this is more challenging in a photograph. Yet, to me the waitress mirrored by the man near the left edge in a similar movement in the opposite direction, both rather dark silhouettes are key anchors in this case.

And, yes VR lenses are cool :-)

- Wolfgang

The waitress is the anchor, and the man -- well it's actually two men and a woman, nearer, creating a mass of darkness, which 'anchors' the left.

Without that, I wouldn't probably have chosen this photo, as I require certain things, including a 'center of attention' - e.g., an anchor here.

Also, without the umbrella man, right, I probably would have passed, especially for his feet and the 'S' curve of his body.

Thanks for an interesting and helpful comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Very well seen - You could not have planned all this action so well - even if you'd been the Director - so to speak..... framed and/or cropped perfectly (my opinion of course) absolute eye candy!

Sometimes they're with you.

Sometimes agin' you.

But it puts a finger on the scale to have a 70~200 mm f 2.8 Nikkor on a D700 ;~)) always with a pair of D300s also.

If you get my drift.

Just hanging around your neck, waiting to be raised to the eye, no lens cap; nothing to get in the way of immediate use (other than tangled straps).

john

John (Crosley)

John,

the issue of this photo is that, even if it documents a cloud burst, over half of it concerns something else.

The focus point(s) - the passer-bys who deal with, or disregard, the pouring rain - are very far away and receive less attention from the viewer than they would deserve.

All in all it's a good photo, even if I believe it is not necessary to single out all the specific details which make out its setting.

I would be curious to see its visual effect when really blown out large, at least 20 inches wide.

Of the last three posted, this is your best.

L.

Each photo is different and maybe it is difficult to compare them -- e.g. apples and oranges, but this is a more complex photo than my usual, with its many elements (as you noted) and not all devoted to one 'theme'.

Yes, it's a cloudburst -- a thunder burst actually.

 But more so, a look at the individual elements says it has a variety of stories, which makes it all the more interesting to me, and apparently to you also.

I concur:  this is a photo best exhibited in very large format, and someday I hope it will be (it may not be my best work, but some day in an exhibition, there may be room for it to occupy a large otherwise unclaimed wall.  Who knows?

(and I am pointed toward exhibiting and/or a very large book).

I now have my private book, in PDF format ready for edit, not 'locked' as it was before, so I personally can make edits . . . and now can search publishers and revise at will.

It may be that it could be revised . . . . .

Who knows -- it was meant for galleries and museums only, but not distributed -- too expensive.

I'm continuing to evaluate my work, and shoot, shoot, shoot even in bad economic times (or especially so).

When or if good economic times come, if I'm still alive, I'll be ready (or my estate and my wonderful assistant who is presently slated to get my entire work . . . . . unless my long lost 'bro' who saved my life shows up, in which case he gets half . . . . . .. all he has to do is 'show up' and say 'here I am'.

john

John (Crosley)

John, just saw this one - AND to all what was said already: We had a spring like that, until last week - rain shots, the only way...

Did you do it lately?

Ciao Axel

And YES a real cool shot - specially when viewed larger!

I agree, way large, maybe even a wall.

About ten days ago I was stopped bout 21 hours on a change of planes in Vienna with no hotel and wandered (crippled) here for that time with my cameras, and this is one of the very first shots.  Fortunately the rain came and went, but many wonderful shots came and stayed.

I've come back, but not through Vienna, and the Euro passed through 1.16 to the buck, but has rebounded slightly today.

However, I wouldn't want to be heavily invested for the short term in Euros. 

Vienna, however, on re-discovery by me is deservedly named one of the most livable cities in the world - I had only to revisit the city to find that out. 

I had dismissed it once as a car driver exploring (twice maybe) and another time as an airline passenger who didn't quite get to the best part, but this fourth time I found it stunning.  It helps to be very wealthy, such as the Prince of Lichtenstein who is reputed to live here instead of in his Grand  Duchy, next to the Rhine River between Switzerland and Austria, near Chur in Switzerland's ski Country.

For me this photo is rich because of its sheer diversity in people's reactions to the cloudburst from complete distraction to seemingly ignoring it.

Best to you Axel.

john

John (Crosley)

John, thank you for your reply.

>livable cities

I can confirm

You got a great shot here, as you said, the persons in different 'view to the/their situation'.

I would like to see you with your two big cameras - a picture of its own...

Ciao & see you around, Axel

Sometimes three.  But very unwieldy.

I prefer using a lens case and changing lenses with one more lens than three cameras, as a very large lens case will hold that third lens I need, and usually I don't need to change lenses that often, though I truly HATE changing lenses with the type of photography I do.

Generally two cameras and two lenses is enough for 'street' when I consider how much I can manage and the weight involved together with unwieldy neck straps that get twisted.

Still Nikon lens cases with their long straps do work rather well when strung from the neck, even if carrying two cameras, and especially if there is a long coat to hide the whole affair under in colder weather.

See ya 'round. 

I'm not hard to spot.

Locals will tell you if I've been nearby within an eon or two, as I'm pretty unforgettable with all that photoapparat (and not Leicas).

john

John (Crosley)