'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Taken at Summer Solstice, almost exactly, these two women are

somewhat typical of attractive women their age in Ukraine, as they walk

through Kyiv's Maidan (May - dan ) (Central Square) a park-like affair

that is the center of all Ukraine. Women in Ukraine have yet to show

the excess weight that women (as well as men) in the US or other

countries show that is associated with a large or fast-food diet/many

subsist on a diet of potatoes, and many in their teens to the beginning

of their '20s use their magnificent looks to troll for a mate to satisfy

grandma (babushka) who insists she (more often than not) have a

grandchild when daughter reaches age 21). Thirteen and 15 year olds

are often seen partying with men in late teens or early to mid '20s, and

often they get married when the most attractive of the young women are

16 or slightly older, especially in the regional cities, unless a young

woman plans on a university education. Your ratings and critiques are

invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please

submit a helpful and constructive comment; please share your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

Why am I not surprised?

;~)

john

John (Crosley)

Nicely done.

That's what I said.

As I sighed.

Being in Ukraine has non-monetary benefits.

These are four (two pair).

And not such a rare sight either!

Compare that to the USA, and I think Ukraine will win, hands down.

john

I learned the hard way not to be afraid of blurriness.

One of my most artistic photos is completely blurry.

It is a boat sandblaster caught with a slow shutter speed in a spray of orange and browns, in one sweep.  It is the second to the last page of a book I have prepared for galleries.

My mentor, when seeing it, said 'this is 'ART' for ART GALLERIES' not for photo galleries.

It is an entire blur from start to finish.  The shutter speed was too slow for sharpness, but the effect was fabulous; I saw it, liked it and had the guts to exhibit it.

Good choice, I find.

My most popular photo, much to my chagrin, is blurry.

It shows a man peeking down a woman's bikini top, a busty, bikini-clad woman looking on in seeming disapproval (all mannequins.)

It is blurry in part because taken at slow shutter speed my vibration reduction feature had inadvertently become turned off.

Yet it has over 200,000 views and daily it climbs by several hundred views.

In times past it climbed by several thousand views for months at a time, until I slapped a newer, bigger, more prominent copyright notice on it.

Another photo, two women on a Kyiv, Ukraine street, one poor, hunchback, old and frail and one young, tall, strong and wealthy, side by side, has the young woman in a partial blur, the old woman in sharpness.

It's stronger for it the contrast of sharpness and blur.  I once had a hard time realizing that.  I posted it anyway and long ago stopped making excuses.

These women's feet and upper bodies are in a partial blur.

The back of their shapely and thin legs are almost perfectly sharp.

Somehow the contrast seems to add, not subtract, from the photo.

I'm no longer afraid to post a blurry photo when I think it will be appropriate.

It takes guts on a site like Photo.net where people 'subtract' for things they think are 'defects' rather than considering and rating the 'whole'.

Like professionals I saw in a recent juried pro judging.

So many points off for this, so many points off for that.

To heck with that.

Sometimes a photo with lousy technical qualities can be a stunning photo.

As my mentor, Michel Karman, told me, it's all about the PHOTO.  It's not necessarily the artist, or the technique, but whether the PHOTO is a success or not, and especially not whether the photos follows rules.

Rules are fine, but sometimes they're made to be broken, in appropriate  instances.

I think in this instance the mystery and action indicated by the blurriness enhances the photo rather than detracts.

Your views?

john

John (Crosley)

I hope their faces are as nice, as their legs. By the way, I'm Ukrainian living in the US, but American burgers have no effect on me. LOL

You are lucky.

II see students from Shevchenko University who patronize the McDonald's near their university more frequently and they appear 'larger'.

In Moscow, not so long ago, where there are plenty of McDonald's and richer parents to pay for their kids to have fast food on a regular basis, obese kids are a problem.

Fast food seems to be at the heart; it's meant to be an every once in a while thing, not a daily diet.

I love California's In-N-Out Burgers, perhaps the world's best fast food burger ever, but without cheese, without their fatty sauce, but their fries are loaded with fat. If I eat them anyway I can practically feel my waistline expanding.

So, no matter how much I like them, it's probably Panda Express or Chinese food for me if I have to eat out.

In Ukraine, there are almost no choices of fast food places to eat out other than McDonald's, and few can afford it except for the children of the wealthy or the well employed, or those on fancy dates.

Nevertheless, they are packed, and UNTIL RECENTLY, the food was good, but recently it took a nosedive, it appears they adopted American cooking methods and now their food is horrible.  I'd stay away, unless they improve.  Too bad, they used to be actually hot, juicy and good.

They also argue about giving you ice for a cold drink on the hottest day in the '90s -- you have to argue with a manager to get more than a cube or two of ice.

A doctor of mine says that potatoes are actually almost an ideal food, with plenty of protein, carbs, vitamins, and so forth.  Really, one can do worse, he said, for a national food, which is what many Ukrainians now eat daily . . . though the store availability is expanding and in a giant supermarket (Ashan) everything is available and in large quantities in a size that dwarfs Costco or Sam's Club.

Even a French Hypermarche after which Ashan is modeled (and owned I think).

john

John (Crosley)

The story behind the photo makes an interesting read. And I wish Big Mac stays away from Ukraine forever ! As for the photograph, the framing is particularly interesting. Its good that you left out the faces. Creates an added mystery to it. The blur too is quite appropriate. Lends dynamism to the photo. Conveys the "hurry" amongst the young Ukrainite women (prodded by their babushkas as you have said ). Very good job.

My taste! Independent of the nice pair of legs allowing the viewer to imagine a story unfolding in the picture - night candids always take on that somewhat magical quality I often find lacking in normal daytime photography . The hard part is that people are moving and your window of opportunity passes quickly. You’ve seen it, you took it – and it’s excellent. At least for me…

If you read posts from up to five years ago you will find I've praised McDonald's in Ukraine for serving tasty, juicy burgers, something their USA counterparts and many in Europe couldn't seem to do.  They cooked 'em fresh.

Now all of a sudden, they serve 'em overcooked and dry.

I'd boycott, but I'm gonna talk to a manager, since it's the only (was the) only decent fast food around,  (another is McDonald's clone McFoxy, a clone that due to trademark infringement reasons would have an outlawed name in the USA due to its use of 'Mc' in its name.

These girls (young women) are doing what Ukrainian women do in big cities -they're striding to get somewhere, not just strolling around.  That means big, long steps, which accounts for their interesting and muscular stride.

Many Ukrainian women are very strong using high heels and their long legs to stride, often past men as they hustle down often broken or cracked pavement in high heels.  Kind of reminds one of the Fred Astair/Ginger Rogers comparison (she does all he does, but she does it backwards and on high heels!).

Well, Ukrainian women of this age do it so well.   Lately women have been also wearing slippers in Kyiv and other less formal shoes, but I bet in Dnepropetrovsk, they're wearing high heels at all nighttime gatherings -- Kyiv is more 'European' and less 'Slav' with the 'Slav' tradition of dressing up whenever going out and 'dressing to the nines.

Look at those shorts and how they fit perfectly - those are not some old pairs of shorts found in a drawer, but fashion shorts.

I never really did more than glance at the faces  which were attractive, as both pairs of legs, striding by at between 10 p.m. and midnight, really fast, and in unison was quite striking, so I pulled out a camera (pretty late actually) and tried to get a fix on the striding pairs and pulled off about four motor-drive 'C' shots before they disappeared.

I chose this because of the blur of the shoes and the upper body but the legs were shown off perfectly for contrast.  This is one time when I have learned my lesson about letting blurs have a place in photography.

There is a place for 'contrast' and one is to let a part be blurry if it sets off sharpness elsewhere, and that is the case here, I think.

I'm glad so many people like this.

Frankly, I posted this on a lark, because I just had posted some very good and some very serious stuff, and wanted something that just pleased my male spirit.

Wow!  What a response.  This one sure has  resonated.

Thanks, nabarun, and all other viewers, for a big surprise.

john

John (Crosley)

Well, I described above, HOW, I did this, and as a male, you surely know WHY, I did so, and also WHY I posted this is also explained.

You are right about night candids.  I do a lot of night shooting; people get looser at night, they drink sometimes, work is often over, socializing begins and inhibitions start to relax.  People often slow down, too.

But not here, these girls (young women) were going from here to there at quite  good clip.

Almost too fast for my 'fast' zoom tele, but it's 'fast' and 'S' focusing and I'm a quick focuser and zoomer, also, so I got (if you'll excuse the expression) the 'tail end' as they went by -- which seems here, the very best part.

I'm also not surprised a woman like yourself likes it, regardless of your 'orientation' as experience has shown me that women watch women as much or even more than men . . . . and often times appreciate women and their dress and appearance just as much or more.

In fact, for proms, dress up affairs and other things, women don't dress up for husbands and men, they dress up for other women and their approval and/or admiration.  Sometime just fearful of stirring up criticism, rather than seeking to be radiant, they fear being scorned.

Surprised men?

Don't be. 

 It's true.

Ask any truthful woman.

Thanks porte-bonheure.

I appreciate the endorsement.

john

John (Crosley)

:)

:~)),  ;~))

j

Then note that I captured and posted the same date.

It truly was a 'Midsummer Night's Dream'.

Right to the hour, almost.

john

John (Crosley)

Excellent capture; I love the feel to this one...hurried, mysterious, a sense of excitement or energy perhaps. Love the blur, the shoes, but my favorite part is how despite how hurried she seems to be walking, it is still casual with her hands in her pocket (not usually seen when one is walking fast). Really nicely done. Thank you for sharing. :)

This capture is now a trifle over 1 year old taken well after dark on the shortest night of summer in Kyiv, Ukraine with a telephoto lens set at f 2.8 with moving subjects and a pretty high ISO.

I note, based on your name, that you are female, and another female had a similar, but somewhat less specific analysis of why she was so moved by this photo -- Photo.net's outstanding artist El Porte-Bonheure, which is French for 'four leaf clover' a universal symbol (in the mid-latitude West) at least, for 'good luck' -- hence a 'good luck' charm might be a four leaf clover encased in clear plastic. ;~))

Or maybe El Porte Bonheure herself encased in plastic?

In any case, attempts at humor aside, this photo seems to have resonated with female members of the service, whose membership is far outnumbered by men.

Men look at the nudes, the women look at the bodies but also the fashions, and the 'look' and the 'mannerisms' as well as the fashion.

You specifically note they appear to be moving quickly, which is very true, as I was panning at a relatively high shutter speed (hence relatively fixed paving block joints), and their legs are blurred, 'just so' (or as one of the three little pigs would say 'Just Right')

And I think it takes a female to note for instance that one woman's hands are in her pocket, unusual, especially I think for 'hot pants' or 'short shorts' (though it may be because it was a little chilly and one (especially a thin person as these two attractive women are) are inclined to keep body parts close to the body to conserve heat when the outside temperature drops and they are scantily clad (as here).

I think you have shown an interesting and discerning eye and a great analysis especially from a feminine point in demonstrating to us your viewpoint of this photo.

My most appreciative regards; I think you have taught me something about the differences between the sexes, as well as given a good, well-explained analysis.

john

John (Crosley)