'The Beauty Parlor'

This woman sits in a beauty parlor while her permanent 'sets' and waits

under photos of 'examples' of successful and good-looking hair styles

on models. Your ratings, critiques and remarks are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically, or wish to make an

observation, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your photographic knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! John

This woman was most pleasant and cooperative. 

I requested an opportunity to take her photo, and she agreed with grace.

john

John (Crosley)

But I kind of notice some darkening on her outfit and a magenta leaning, needs to be desaturated at least!

PDE

You are right.

But this was completely desaturated in Silver Efex Pro -- what you see is an artifact, perhaps of some sort of transmission issue or saving error.  The apron affair was not that color in the first place (the wall was orange; apron was white.)

I'll work on it in a few hours and substitute.

Thanks for the heads up.

john

John (Crosley)

Far from an oversaturated sunset as one can get or another Photo.net cliche.

Thank you for kind words.

john

John (Crosley)

Substituted for absolute black and white.

I don't understand how the color snuck in as it was totally desaturated in the first place.

Viewers, if you have viewed this previously, or the Photo.net servers have not  completely refreshed yet, there may be some color until they do refresh and/or you refresh your cache.

I did it correctly (and I own up to mistakes) but somehow some color -- the wrong color) snuck into her apron, probably a processing, computer or transmission error.  I have fixed that by using Photoshop's black and white tool, but if it's been shown on your screen before, your browser will cache the image (with its color defect) until you refresh your browser.

john

John (Crosley)

Interesting contrast between this woman and samples of beauty on the wall :-)

Of course, that is the point of the whole photo.

I also took a portrait of the women, with no wall photos, and that looked very much more like a conventional portrait. I think I took three photos in less than a 90 seconds.  This is the first, and the one I had in mind when I walked in the shop, saw this woman, had my hair cut, then walked out and said to myself, 'why not just ask this woman if she would agree to be photographed?'

I asked pleasantly, and she was a most pleasant and kind woman, well known in her village.

She answered affirmatively, and I went ahead and took three different photos.

This is a documentary photo and has no 'ulterior motive' other than to make a comment on the nature of people -- we all want to look our best if we care enough to walk into a 'beauty shop (calon -- salon)'.

She certainly cared enough, and certainly also knew that with a very yellow/orange wall behind her, a pink cap, and her rosy face, that she would probably  be an interesting photo, and she was 'game' (a good sport).

I thank her for that, and for PN viewers and commenters for keeping remarks and comments in the spirit of good will in which this was taken.

And always to you, Svetlana, for your good natured and well made comments.

(Some day I may post the color version, probably on 'another service' most likely far into the future, as it is very colorful and most unusual for its amazing colorations - something one finds in places like Russia/Ukraine and the countries of the former Soviet Union where often colors are not put together by professionals -- and the architects and designers who are older were professionals 'in the Soviet manner' which is not to my particular liking . . . .  but that's my personal taste.

It may be what one loves especially if one grew up with it.

I do not particularly like the architecture and design of the Moscow Metro (and its lookalike, the Kyiv Metro) but in a way it's fascinating.  Look for instance at the giant frieze of Lenin at the end of Teatralna Metro, and it's interesting, even if it's not 'my particular choice for decoration'.  It's classic Soviet design/architecture.

Soviets had few cars (machines) yet they made some of the world's broadest streets (ulitsas) and boulevards (prospekts), even though only the most high in the Communist Party could use them.

Now almost everywhere it looks like good urban planning, as those broad boulevards and wide streets often are choked with the cars that Capitalism has brought. 

But the mass transit and compact cities that the Soviets built look even smarter, no matter how many lives were sacrificed to build those tunnels deep and the trains that run every two or three minutes.

They are models for good urban transit and planning.  Moscow and Kyiv have two of the world's most amazing Metro systems . . . and the most efficient for the populace.  Riding them is not particularly a luxury, but NO ONE defaces them.  Many cars have cloth seats, but no vandals slash them with knives as has happened in the USA and other nations, causing authorities to replace such seats with hard plastic.

In other words, Russians and Ukrainians do appreciate what they have, even the youths who might otherwise be outraged at life, as most youths are . . . .

Maybe you have some ideas why that is so, compared to the West, where there is so much, but sometimes so much disrespect toward material things (diminishing now, I think also in the West).

john

John (Crosley)

Many of my best photos use two elements to achieve success when others would pass the same scenes by.

1.  Strong, often interesting contrasts.

2.  Good design elements.

If you look at my portfolio, and try to identify the photos where those elements are strong, you probably will also identify some of my highest-regarded photos.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

You have "described" in this shot exactly what it feels like to try something new!  Love this shot John! ~j

I have been accused of 'drowning the fish' with my words.

Interestingly those words have come from members of very long standing; they sometimes read these comments too.

More than anything I write such descriptions to describe the 'what', 'when', and 'how' not only of the advent of a photograph, but sometimes of the personal obstacles one must face when one takes photographs of strangers.

Americans especially and many Europeans where 'right of privacy' is extremely highly regarded not only individually but possibly even in law, often are very, very chary of taking photos of others, sometimes with subjects' consent and sometimes without. 

But even if the photo is with consent -- a  photo may tend not to be the most flattering to the subject if the subject does not have a good sense of self-worth and self-humour.

When confronted with such individuals who are reluctant, and really quite often, if I have a 10 or 12 mm minimum focal length lens on my camera, I'll occasionally extend the camera to the end its strap, turn it upside down and take a photo of my face from a very wide angle (upside down of course on the camera) and show it to my reluctant potential subject.

It is intended to show I also have a sense of humor and sometimes then it convinces reluctant subjects to participate; sometimes not. 

I look pretty awful shot with an ultra wide angle lens a neck strap away, upside down and it's really not very pretty at all.  One might like it to  tsunami, Chernobyl or an invasion of clowns.

Really, not pretty at all, but it shows I have a good sense of myself and am not afraid also to be a subject of something that may portray me in less than perfect light (far less, fact be told)

So, I post these commentaries, to help 'draw out' the fledgling and non-journeyman 'street' photographers or those who wonder what it's like to give it a try . . . . and those who read these commentaries at least have the ammunition to give it a go without having to reinvent the wheel.

If you look through my nearly 14,000 comments by me and others under my photos, read them all, and digest it all, there's a graduate education in 'street photography' when viewed together with the photos that accompany them.

That's what you commented on, and that was my intent -- to have you relive part of what I experienced, so you can, (if you wish) give it a try, or at least know what it is I go through when I take a photo such as this.

I sometimes ask for permission especially with an ultra wide angle lens, and often not, especially when subjects are distant, involved otherwise, in a group, interacting with each other, in a crowd, or my attention would break up the scene I'm trying to depict. 

Far off scenes often require use of a telephoto or at least a 'normal' lens or a zoom set to 'normal' setting, though not always. 

One can take a clandestine photo while 'en passant' (in passing) just walking past someone, like this one for instance taken while walking across a street in Manhattan, and not even raising the camera to the eye. 

I think it looks like a Garry Winogrand shot, myself, especially because of the aggressive angle.

Take a look at the linked photo: 

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8030373  

[The Businessman:  Manhattan, NY] 

He never even knew or had an inkling he's been photographed, and was walking the opposite direction across a very broad avenue in Manhattan, so it would have been unwise to try to show him the photo,   especially with a hurried Manhattanite.

Moreover, since I never raised camera to eye (I seldom do that) no one else had such an inkling either.

The more things may seen the same, the more they're entirely different from photo to photo.

That's part of why 'street' can be so much fun -- it's so engaging, and like antique hunting, you never know what Rembrandt or Picasso will turn up with an Elvis on velvet painted over it.

;~))

The 'eye' is the most important thing in 'street' and the 'eye' is actually a part of the brain (the optic nerve is actually a physical part of the brain -- did you know that? Assuming my facts are straight of course.)

Thanks for letting me know of my small success in description.

john

John (Crosley)