'Igor, the Meticulous Locksmith'

This portrait of Igor, the locksmith is a 'street portrait' - I just walked in

off the street and asked if I could take his photo - and although at first

very hesitant hesitant, after a few attempts and he saw initial results, he

and I became friends. Your ratings, critiques, and observations are

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

submit a helpful and constructive comment; thank you in advance for

sharing your photographic knowledge. Enjoy! John

The wall of very bright light, right is similar to a 'lightbox' for photographers and is for comparing original with duplicate keys -- it is meant to be extremely 'hot' appearing' and no attempt has been made to 'tone it down' as that would make a false view of what that wall feature looks like.  That light, and another, smaller, left side, dominate the small shop.

john

John (Crosley)

This was taken with a $100 kit lens and was taken at ISO 2000 with a slightly less than prosumer camera, though a very good one for image quality.

For far less than $1000, one can put together a digital camera/lens combo that will take a photo of this quality, and take it with almost no compromises. 

john

John (Crosley)

I do not come so often to street but da-da, here I am. Tone range is as you know how I like and too the background. I like the sheet protector right bottom -you really need something there; and I like that I can see the time on the clock (if I could see) and DOF. You'll contend that the key rack etc. is important to the foto's environment but the downside for me is the light is a huge problem and the whole right side is so 'busy' that it detracts my attention from everything else. Crop off the right side and I see a better foto. I think Halsman would have cropped also. Now, except for the words above "as you know", "contend" and "really need", I think there is nothing in my comment that you can dispute (except that you might dispute that).

It's a somewhat different photo, however.

My photo is an environmental photo (street in a way) of a guy who's a locksmith.

Yours is a portrait, so far as I view it.

Yes, the light is an issue, but that goes with the territory.  My zoom was not great enough to get the photo you have cropped to, I think, and unlike some 'greats' I do not shoot to crop. I shoot already cropped and then crop only if absolutely necessary.

Yours is one possible variation, and I like it; it's just a different photo, although very worthy, and one which I would consider.

Thank you for going to the effort.

john

John (Crosley)

John,I like the result of this bw,excelent grey tones,details,a lot,well seen,Meir idea is intersting and well done too,compliments.

This is a different sort of photo for me, and one I was certain would appeal to Meir Samel, since Meir LOVES his tonalities, and this has that in spades.  If this one didn't appeal to Meir, I would have almost been devastated.  And I thank him for some things he has attempted to teach me in that regard; although I don't find the issue to be the be-all and end-all that it appears to be to him (or at least as he has attempted to explain to me as I have read it), using the entire tonal range can make for an impressive result.

On the other hand, Cartier-Bresson once referred to himself as 'the Master of Grays'.  Go figure.

When I saw the lighting here, and the man said 'no photos', I insisted on 'just one test shot' which I took and showed to him (several actually).  He saw them, demurred until I converted them, in camera, to black and wihte, then he was a willing subject.  I kept telling them how 'world class' they were, and frankly if they are not 'world class' they are pretty good.

I don't do more 'formal' portraiture often, and this is just a walk-by, walk-in; I just opened the door to this key shop (the interior of which I knew from times past, but not the proprietor), and said to him I'd like to take your photo.

There is one other photo, in color, from this shop, in my huge portfolio, and it was well received, but not nearly so good, although good in its own right.

I took a lot of photos, and each had the man mostly to the left, although some had both left and right lights showing, but generally I dislike centering the subject; it's too easy for the eye to dismiss unless it has special attributes (mit pradicat, as the Germans like to say about their wines with special attributes ;~))

But maybe this one is mit pradicat.

Radu, Meir is a feisty creature, but is also a wealth of knowledge when he chooses to share in a socially acceptable manner, and I do not turn away his critiques and suggestions out of hand; many I accept.

Thanks for your comment.

john

John (Crosley)

That "brutal" light is the beating heart of that manned engine room..! In a way, the nicely contrasting clock and immediately (!) the man's magnificant (!) greys (!) are compensating it..! The smith isn't absorbed but harmoniously kept alive by that light. He even is leaning toward it. That smaller light behind and on it's own would have been an "issue". John, it's a great informing and honest, well balanced streetshot, I like it very much. Fishing the pepper out of the soup totaly isn't an option here..! Good luck and warmth..! Grandpa Olaf. 

This is an interesting and realistic portrait!

I happen to agree with your analysis that 'fishing the pepper out of the soup' is not required here, or I would have done that myself.

However, the portrait that Meir made of this by cropping just shows how adaptable this portrait is and how sturdy in workmanship the central part of it is without the composition that I think is central to it.

I do love your expressive way; it is endearing, not that I've learned to understand you better.  And as to 'grandpa' -- you don't know my age, so we may not be so far apart.

There is nothing to denigrate Meir's crop except that it makes this a quite different and still very good photo.

It just isn't the same photo I took, maybe one taken by Halsman?  or Meir himself? 

But only part of a Crosley.

Thanks Ofaf, I needed a touch of your earthy wisdom.

john

John (Crosley)

I keep jumping around and/or switching genres.

One moment I post a nude and people accuse me of posting pornography, but click enough to drive that nude into the highest viewed of the past three months, much to my surprise.

I post street, they often get low scores, but often loads of viewers, and for them I have a certain following.

Then I switch this time to something that appears a little more serious, like this 'street' portrait, and if I posted only work like this, people would feel that's all I can do.

Frankly, I hope there is little in photography I cannot do, given an interest and time to do it plus adequate interest.

I offer this up as proof plus the other two postings of today.

Of the rest of my postings for the past six months.

That should be enough to convince most people of my versatility, and I do value that.

It's one thing to be highly skilled or a specialist in one area of photography, and that is wonderful if that's your area, but for me the true test is if you can take your equipment, know it well enough to take it and attack another field totally without preplanning and take a good to great photo in that field.

For me, that also is the secret to great productiveness and almost no downtime between interesting photos on a single CF or SD card.

;~))

No longer do I have to hunt for days or weeks as a young man between really good captures as I once did early in my career, before I abandoned it mostly for 35 or more years; now my gratification is frequent and my ability to 'see' much more 'acute', partly the result of a lifetime of 'seeing' having once had a photographic background.  I don't expect many who are new to photography to have such productivity without such a background.

[Matt Vardy of Canada may be a rare exception -- see his work -- he's a young man and a great photographer].

You also may be.

john

John (Crosley)

Excellent man-at-work portraiture - thoughts, and time, and light, and all that small details...

You pack a lot of detail into a line or two.  Wow!

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

Editing function disappeared before I could fix your name's spelling.

I apologize.

john

John (Crosley)