'Rushing''

Fortuitous color coordination is the hallmark of this photo of a

sunglass wearing man as he races past a wall mural in Venice (Los

Angeles County), California. Your ratings and critiques are invited

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

submit a helpful and constructive comment; thank you for sharing your

photographic knowledge. Enjoy! John.

John,

Every picture tells a story and it can be an obvious and clear story or obscure and hard to decipher. I believe this is an example of the latter.  I study it looking for meaning.  The background is colorful - very colorful - even gaudy.  The man is of African descent - a "colored" man.  His shirt has a bright yellow set of words and yellow is dominant on the wall. The word on his shirt might be "God" or it might be "GOP." His glasses pick up the colors of the wall in their reflections.  Your title sheds some light.  He is rushing past and the colors sort of appear as a rush of color.  What is the story of this picture?  It is not clear.

Regards,

Jerry Matchett

There may indeed be a story here, but not an intentional one.

I saw the background, saw the man rushing toward me with yellow in his lenses, and just fired away.

The colors of the wall were reflected in his glasses even from far away and this is about the third shot on 'C' drive for the best composition.

I would have like him to be a smaller figure, but in this it is a pure color dependent shot; one in which I took it driven solely by the colors -- the splashes of yellow especially.

I had about a half second to raise camera and begin firing after I saw him approaching with this wonderful background and fire I did.

It was solely for the colors.

Stories are optional; yours can be the best if you are good enough to make up a good one.  All are equal in this case.

I'm sometimes a very instinctive and reflexive shooter (this from a day and a half ago) and 9,500 miles away.

john

John (Crosley)

(oh the shirt may also say 'Gold's Gym' but I never could figure it out -- he disappeared too fast around a corner).

jc

On re-reading my comment above, I was less clear than I wanted to be.

I saw the man after I observed briefly the wall with its colors and with in daylight the yellow predominating; here in the slightly more saturated version, the blues seem to jump out a bit more, but with the blue in the sky in my visual scope the blues in the wall were less prominent, and the yellows here were strongest.

So, when the man approached, almost running -- at least at a very fast clip -- then I immediately noticed his glasses were yellow/gold. 

It may be they were gold blockers (;`)), or they were reflecting a more setting sun, or they were just reflecting the goldness of the wall, or a combination of all three, but the predominant feeling and observation of mine was 'yellow glasses -- yellow eyes' and 'this guy's rushing past a predominantly yellow wall -- so frame fast and while still framing, FIRE AWAY' which I did.

That's how this photo came about.

The word 'back story' has come into fashion, and I believe I'm a leader here in telling the 'back story' about how photos came into being.

However, whether or not a 'back story' is interesting or not depends in large part on whether or not the photo is interesting and/or mysterious enough to make people wonder 'wow, that's an interesting photo' and 'how did he achieve that?' or (where appropriate) "how did he recognize that situation in order to fire in time to capture that".

When I first arrived at Photo.net over six years ago, almost nobody explained their photos; there was an attitude of "I took my wonderful photo; it's a deep dark secret how I got there and got this wonderful result and to he** with the rest of you people about my secrets"

A certain percentage of participants (especially the Photoshop experts) still play that way . . . . as there is little discussion about photoshop 'tips and tricks' for those heavily manipulated shots though many here could use lessons and 'tips and tricks', step by step for the better shots, but don't get them.

I start earlier, since I hardly photoshop at all; I start with what I saw and how I happened to capture it where there seems to be interest, and many times there is much interest.

I fear not revealing my 'tips and tricks' because I know that my photography is highly individualistic and no matter how much I help someone else, their 'take' on a subject will be different than mine; I do not 'fear' imitators and instead encourage others to try my methods and save themselves some time. I even have tutored these methods (even to a fine arts graduate) with great success).

You might search for my photo 'Red Rushing' in my 'Color, Then to Now' folder, a photo that had a similar beginning and is one of my finer photos (though real highly rated) taken in the Paris Metro several years ago.

I hope this 'fleshes out' this photo's 'back story' though to tell you the truth, I don't particularly like that term and may never use it again.

john

John (Crosley)

When I first started posting on Photo.net, I posted a few color photos taken recently (right about the time I joined) and posted a host of black and white photo classics of mine -- I did not call them classics, but others since have rated them, critiqued them and essentially they are recognized as 'classics' (some but not all).

But the work I posted for nearly two years following was predominantly color, and my color presentations here got tens and tens of millions of 'views' under the old counting system under which thumbnail 'views' also counted (they don't now).

You can still see my color work in its entirety with some best under 'Color, Then to Now' which has an amazing number of views -- I still think more than my black and white work and almost in that one folder as large as my highest-rated black and white folder.

Viewers seem to prefer color to click on, if not for the highest 'art' as black and white now is once again 'in vogue' I hear tell (not my motivator).

A critic in responding to another about my color work noted 'strangely, your color work bears more resemblance to Cartier-Bresson's (black and white work) than your black and white (latest postings at that time I am sure).

In fact, he noted that with desaturation the color works mostly would be fine black and white work.

In another work, a photo of a man in a Bangkok Alley under a Coca-Cola poster, in brilliant red, scored high rates and views in color, but a member remarked it would do very well desaturated.

So, at his insistence, I posted it in black and white.

It scored way off the charts as a black and white.

From that time on, I have understood that color photos are one thing and black and white photos are another.

Often good composition is the thing they have in common, but in some cases the color photos are color dependent.

A famous critic who has curated my work has told me I'm a rare photographer of skill who can shoot both color and black and white -- something he said in his considerable experience (with work and friends at the highest world photographic level) he said few could master or even do workably.  He was quite in awe I could switch from one to another with ease.

Now, what I try to do is figure out for each photo if it will fit best in my 'Black and White, Then to Now' folder, which is my prize folder, as it's at the top of my portfolio, and the one I would like best to be known for.

Previously I had thought I did very well with color, and I still think I do, but so many of the color photos could do well as desaturates, I finally came to understand that they were just 'photos' with composition, and  for most the color was just another attribute.  Color can be helpful or harmful in a color photo, but in a few, the colors can harmonize -- the inability to make photos in which that occurred drove Cartier-Bresson to madness (see below). 

I can do it sometimes, as here.

For a few photos, such as this, there are color dependent photos - photos in which color is an integral part; to take away the color takes away the photo's strength - maybe even its essence.

Imagine this as a desaturation -- it would have good enough composition and still be minimally interesting, but the prime mover that attracted me (the colors in his glasses vs. the colors on the wall/mural) would be missing, and only 'patterns' would remain. 

That would be too skimpy to allow it to climb to the place of a 'good' or 'better' photo let alone a 'superb' one which I always strive for.

This, for its strengths and weaknesses' is primarily one of those rarities of mine -- a color dependent photo which is not meant to be desaturated.

I doubt if there ever will be a demand for it in any black and white collection of mine -- it just won't stand desaturation, no matter the amount of manipulation and still have anywhere near the strength it has in color (even though it still might be very appealing). In Black and White it would be a completely different photo.  Capiche?

(I think you might feel well - rewarded if you browse my color work AND my black and white work, then compare the two and see if some color would work well as black and white and mark a few color photos which are entirely color dependent )

Cartier-Bresson tried to destroy his color work -- he literally tried to tear it up. 

In one case he tried  to tear up color photos brought to him in a restaurant in Paris by the editor of French 'Photo' magazine, then went around the restaurant denouncing the editor (a hitherto long-time friend).

(H C-B was a bit 'mercurial', as the independently wealthy are allowed to be.)

Thanks Hans-Peter, for a well-observed critique. I find it was very helpful.

john

John (Crosley)

Very good capture and it tells a story indeed. I like the colours and dof and particulary the reflection from glasses.

What is interesting is that this photo was not posted to 'tell a story' or at least I had none in mind particularly when I took the photo - just a guy 'rushing' and motivated to take the photo by the most unusual color coincidence - that of the reflection and/or color of his glasses combined with the wall he was passing.

It was then or never, and I chose 'then', much to my thankfulness.

I think that is part of what makes good 'street' - taking advantage of the 'thens' of life, rather than contemplating one's navel, wondering 'what if I'd actually pushed the shutter release?'

I push the shutter release lots when there is no apparent photo, and if you reviewed my captures, you'd wonder 'why the hell'd he ever push the button for that photo.

As Andre Kertesz told a group of old time photo greats when he was cooped up hiding from the Nazis and exposing worthless roll after worthless roll to their disdain 'You'll never get a good photo from what you're taking under these circumstances' (paraphrased), Kertesz's response was, I'm a photographer, I have to stay in practice, and practice he did, adjusting his eye and his controls to subjects much of the day to the distraction of other famous and to-be-famous photographers with him at that time.

I just push the shutter a lot, knowing sometimes it's a 'hail Mary' and other times, like here, there's an almost absolute chance one of three or four will be pretty darn good.

And I was right here.

Other times I'm right too, and I have terabyte after terabyte of crappy captures to look at if I ever get more senile than I am.

;~))

Thanks for the compliment.

john

John (Crosley)