'Step After Step After . . . ."

This photo, 'Step After Step After . . . ' (you can fill in the blanks), can

be viewed solely as a photo with graphic and photographic elements

such as lines, tones, etc., or it can be taken symbolically or

allegorically and analyzed on that level -- or perhaps analyzed on both

levels. Your ratings, critiques, and remarks are invited and most

welcome. If you rate or critique or just wish to make a remark, please

submit a helpful and constructive critique or remark; thank you in

advance for sharing your photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Enjoy! John

Man who steps here is too dark as if there is an intensive light; but no shades.. So is it the man of another image? Of course it can be from another image.. nothing wrong here.. I think the light which covers everywhere; so resulting unclear lines and transition areas. Maybe you could get a better result by using a flash.. regards.. HK

This is the man, dark because he was dressed in black and for no other reason.  Light did not reflect from him. I don't do 'cut and paste' with figures. This is an original work.  Good critique based on what you saw, but photo shopping good photos is out for me. I just don't do it.

There's just too much interesting to take without taking time in a digital darkroom to 'invent' them.

If it's too dark, it's because there just wasn't enough information from this capture. That's what shooting 'street' is all about.

I gave you credit for a good critique not because you were correct but because you asked an important question.

'Street' is a no-no for flash, and shooting in Metro tunnels is 'iffy' legally --- I don't know the rule so shooting flash is doubly iffy. I just wouldn't do it anyway, no matter what.

Best wishes.

john

John (Crosley)

The idea or the philosophy behind the shot is excellent. It is obvious from the halo around the man in black that it is an effect of slow shutter and not a PS job. while the analogical content is at the same time obvious and open for interpretation, on a strictly photographic sense, i am disturbed by the clockwise tilt in the image.

There's really nothing for me to say except you have an excellent eye.

john

John (Crosley)

It's interesting that you mark this 'interesting perspective'.

Because it is a place you should know very well, being a Kyiv resident.

Does it look familiar?

You have probably walked this same tunnel, and it's portrayed in at least three more, possibly four more photos in this portfolio.

It is an entirely unique perspective, I'll admit, and I thank you for noticing.

There are only a few hours -- maybe minutes, a day when one can make  captures like this, before this is shuttered and inaccessible to the public.

I have a few more such photos from this session.

I think they'd make terrific 'stock photos' about 'generic man' faced with a 'long road ahead', or possibly a 'narrow, confined and constricted road ahead'.

That's how a portfolio gets built, photo by photo, and how such photos come into being.  Such photos, with the human subject not being identifiable, if offered for sale through a 'stock agency' may in fact be 'big sellers' if they attract art agents, advertisers, layout artists, etc.  No model release is required

When taking photos, sometimes it's good to look for 'generic' photos as well, with an eye toward possibly sometimes in the future supplementing your income with sales of 'stock photography'. 

Nearly everyone has taken 'stock photos' of Maydan, the Rada and Kyiv's numerous gold-domed churches, so the stock agencies probably have plenty of those, but just in case someone asks -- it would be 'found money (money you never otherwise see - and as a Kyiv resident who'd  be more likely to have such photos than you, or to be asked if she had such photos?

FIFA 2012 is coming up and there'll be demand for such things from all over the world; Kyiv will give many out for free, but some publications will want different views and some will be willing to pay for them, I think!

Of course, those tourist scenes and landscapes are different from these -- these are universal and could represent life situations in any urban area and are allegorical to much of life in a modern setting . . . . which potentially makes this (and the other similar photos) salable.

But you would not be wasting pixels to take your best shots of ordinary Kyiv tourist scenes as you pass by them in the next year . . . in case you decide to 'hook up' with a stock agency.  Your photography is very good to excellent and many 'artists' do 'stock photo' on the side, often under an 'assumed name'.

I once did 'stock photography' as a guy in my '20s, and although I had very few images for sale, the agency that had them sold a great number of the few they chose.  They knew what they could sell and boy they got good prices for them (they sold color only at a time when color was rare and expensive!  Now color is usual and commands no special price).

It always was special to open my mailbox (30 years ago after I'd mostly stopped taking photos) and find a check for $500 with a brief notation '1/2 page Spanish Encyclopedia, woman on barrio (Spanish neighborhood) steps.  = $500, = your 50% share.  (their share was also 50%)  They got 'top dollar for their library of images.  That business is dying somewhat but images still are in demand, and certain publications and advertisers do pay and pay good money for them.

And we are in an image driven world.  (Beware of those who want your images for free so they can use them to make money then offer to put your name with your image - they just want to take from you for free -- the publication of your name will be in very small print and nobody will care, and it will not help your fame or business for you in 99.99% of circumstances. 

Now if the Louvre of the Museum of Modern Art wants free prints from you, that's another matter entirely, because from then on you can say 'Svetlana Korolyova, whose work is in the collection of the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) . . . . .

If you get my point.

Never give it away otherwise to people who will use it to make money for themselves . . . . .

Untiil they start giving away free products to the public . . . . .

If Toyota calls and wants a free photo for their Internet site, ask them when they're going to give you a 'free car' since it takes time, money and effort to make photos as well as automobiles?

Same with any other seller who uses images and wants yours for free (I get asked occasionally, even by some VERY BIG companies to give them my images for 'free' in return for putting my name into print . . . . which I always turn down.

Be well, my Kyiv friend; I hope this information is helpful to you.

john

John (Crosley)

I am fascinated by this photo, though I can't quite pinpoint why. May be it is the ramrod stiff figure or its (I can't even call it a he, it is just a figure to me) gait.

I don't even know whether to call this a normal but unusual tunnel or a usual but abnormal tunnel. All I know is I stared at this picture far longer than is my wont.

This photo is both personal and anonymous.  It could be the life story of any one of us, yet it's really nobody.

It's an allegory for life.

Its taking (something like it of course as this was entirely unpredictable) was precisely why I went into this particular tunnel at that particular hour, just before it closed.  Other times it's choked with people, all moving in one direction and a few vendors to one side or the other.

I do my scouting as I go along, and I suspected this is what I'd find for a tunnel, and when this guy went along in the 'opposite' direction, it was a great find.  He was followed by a couple of more persons, which made also interesting shots with good interspersal between the three - also capable of being posted, but of course, I've shot my wad for now -- I post one photo and that's it when I have a potential series.

Best wishes to you in the mile high city area.

john

John (Crosley)

I won't try to analyze the photo in the terms that you have, or to try to examine the 'secrets' of its success for you. It's one of my favorites, although it was not a viewer or comment favorite (AT FIRST!).

However, now it's not being overlooked, which shows it has 'staying power' just as you noted.

I suggest that this photo which depicts mankind's situation symbolically - just place yourself somewhere along that continuum and it might be you or your parent or child -- is just a depiction in graphic form of LIFE.

Maybe that's why you kept staring at it longer than you anticipated.

You were trying to compare the photo with yours and others' lives?

In any case, if it held your attention (in a good way) that is the sign of a successful photo, and you have stated well that for you anyway it is a success.

I take that personally as a very high compliment.

john

John (Crosley)