'Cooling Brewskis'

Summer's heat smolders and almost crushes the spirit, so these

three young men took refuge next to misty fountain and had some

brewskis (beers in American vernacular). Your ratings, critiques and

observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very

critically, or wish to make a remark, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

I like the silhouettes agains the fountain. Well done.

Best regards

Eystein

I sent a bunch of photos as an e-mail attachment to someone with some pretty good credentials at spotting good ones.

He noted this one in particular, so although it was scheduled for posting anyway, I decided to post it right away (after a very long wait for workup).

I think he's right, as I've had my eye on this one for a long time, but didn't post it or even work it up as it involved a substantial crop, and mostly I dislike cropping my photos, but there's a time and place for everything, I guess.

And this is the time, I think.

;~))

Thanks for the kind remark.

john

John (Crosley)

This same fountain is featured in another of my photos, but this is not detail from that. This is a different photo, even though it is a detail (crop) from a larger photo. My telephoto lens was not long enough to isolate this action, but since detail was not an essential for this photo, substantial cropping (one-half the photo) was not a problem.

john

John (Crosley)

Love that ascending composition and harsh background - great post processing

Really beautiful work with impressive lighting, John!

With best regards,

Ruud.

nicely staged scene and an excellent B&W.....

I can hardly take much credit for the post processing, regrettably, as this waas either a black and white, or nothing.  There just was no color in the shot.  This could either be a saturated (with color) version, as the contrasts were so great there was really no color information in this capture other than black and white.  [exception:  color did show the brown of the transparent beer bottle.]

I wish I could take credit for 'great post processing' but really there was little involved at all.   Post processing this involved adjustments to contrast and brightness, but not even much, as this is pretty well the way it was recorded.  The only other choice was to desaturate or not, and also to crop (as this was one-half of a greater photo, but the rest was not good).

I'm so glad you (and others) like this.

john

John (Crosley)

The lighting drew me to this scene, not one day but several.

Of course this was a 'stake out', looking for the right moment.

I was far away and this was half a frame, then I just cropped, as the other half was not interesting, something I seldom do, but this side was just so interesting.

I especially note how the two rightmost bodies seem to integrate with their body positions -- something one seldom sees captured.

I'm glad this one resonated with you, Ruud.

john

John (Crosley)

Some people will call this a 'lucky shot'.

Few know that to make such a capture is to capture 'actors upon a stage'.

The first part is to recognize the stage -- here the scene, with the fountain and late afternoon lighting creating a wonderful effect with silhouetting.

The second part is to find the actors, but not in a way they'd recognize.

It involves waiting, sometimes for parts of days when the light is good, returning day after day at times, not always on a schedule, but returning again and again.

Finally, one day, after other good captures, and as part of a larger capture, these three were drinking and having a good time, and they arranged themselves just so.

For a fraction of a second.

Snap!

Without the 'snap', there'd have been nothing for posterity.

With the 'snap' of the shutter, there's something to remember this scene, possibly for a long time, maybe even beyond my generation (not really so very long, but I hope it will be plenty long).

That's not how all 'lucky shots' are made, but it's often how so many of them are made.  The photographer is out there staking out a scene that appears 'ripe' for something of a good capture or just for something else, has camera ready, perhaps to the eye and perhaps just ready to put rapidly to the eye, sees something and . . . .

Voila!.

There it is.

I'm glad you approve.

It seems raters do too, which pleases me immensely, especially since I substantially broke my 'seldom crop practice'. (not a rule, but a practice)

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

7

I marked your brief comment 'helpful'.

;~))

john

john (Crosley)

Interesting silhouettes!

I seem to be one of the few street photographers who regularly shoots silhouettes -- which surprises me.  After all silhouettes are just part of 'light and absence of light' and are a 'reversal' of what we often see, but it is not rocket science to recognize the images and view interesting relationships, I feel.

I thank you for recognizing this photo and letting me know your appreciation for it; I always appreciate your excellent work, and appreciate that you are taking certain suggestions I made and working on them, as those suggestions were meant to protect you.  That is special music to my heart and will help protect your most artistic valuable assets. I suggest further study along those lines so you are an expert, and maybe we can speak of it, OK?

With respect.

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you for your response and your constructive advices.

Svetlana.

I hold friendship in very high regard, and not just 'friendly people' but true friends.

For them almost anything is possible.

For even those with whom I am friendly and sometimes those who just inquire or who need help along certain lines, I am often quite willing to share, as I have some interesting, unusual, and sometimes highly specuialized and even technical knowledge, and don't want to hoard it for those who are deserving if they are polite about asking (or sometimes even if I understand their needs and they are sympathichne). ;~))

I think you understand.

john

John (Crosley)

I agree with you: B/W or nothing. An look what you got! A superb, classic photograph and a very powerful image. It is in the best tradition of photography. Nothing more to add. Sometimes you do not need to do anything with an images, except what you have so kindly doe: share it for everyone to learn and admire. Thank you for that.

DG

It's interesting.

I attended a gallery opening for the images of the late Virginia Maier, who died and whose images were sold at auction while she was in a nursing home.  They were bought primarily by two different men both of whom have had different exhibitions of her work.

One of the men wrote me thanks for words I wrote about the greatness of his exhibition published here on Photo.net and how to get to the exhibition and my favorable impression.  It was easy to do; Virginia Maier, who never showed her work during her lifetime, was one of the all-time street greats though she may never have had the courage to attempt to show her work and worked to death as a nanny in Chicago.

I sent the man by e-mail several thumbnail images - maybe 15 -- along with a reply to his thank-you e-mail, and he singled out this image as being especilly worthy.

It had not then been posted, so I did.  He had good taste.  This is a partal crop, but what a crop!

I'm glad it pleases you; it does so to me.  It seems almost organic in its flow or like the pieces of a puzzle that fit together.

What a treat that your comment allows me to see this one afresh.

Thank you for your kind comment.

john

John (Crosley)

Like this very week in Chicago. The very elements beating down on you - agonizing heat together with relief of cool spray & drink. GREAT summer shot!

Did you realize you have a fellow and somewhat famous Chicago photo collector to thank for this photo's being posted?

The late Viviian Maier, the famous 'nanny photographer' from America reared in France returned to the US and who lived, worked, and clandestinely immortalized on film Chicago primarily as a nanny, keeping her photos entirely to herself.

She strolled around on her days off, and maybe sometimes with her charges on excursions, as a dedicated Rolleiflex 'street photographer' capturing Chicago's (and some other citiis') essence(es) from the '50s through the 2000s, and died a few years ago after her photos were sold at an auction sale as she lay dying in a nursing home consequences from consequences of a head injury from a fall on ice.

Two men collected the majority of her negatives, undeveloped film, prints and even film (kino) collection with one buying far more than the other, and both have had competing shows of her work in galleries worldwide.  

There is a film in the works 'Finding Virginia Maier'.

One of the two men was John Maloof who bought the lion's share of negatives, about 100,000, eventually seeking out others who bought her negatives at auction plus numerous undeveloped film rolls which he has developed and scanned, and now has abandoned his real estate career as he promotes her work (which is worthy of same).

See story and photos from 'Mother Jones' Magazine:

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2011/04/vivian-maier-john-maloof

Additionally from the auction there was another prominent acquirer, Jeffery Goldstein, a Chicago 'institution', who obtained about 15,000 negatives and is believed to hold the second largest collection of her work.  

I saw work from the Goldstein collection of photos at a Los Angeles gallery exhibition, but they were not marked 'Goldstein' collection, so I did not then know who Goldstein was, though I went to the gallery on a quest to see Maier's work up close.  

Her work was that seminal.  

The only other photographer I cared so much about was Cartier-Bresson.

I wrote a nice compliment in the gallery guestbook.  

Later I got an e-mail which I did not connect at first, from Goldstein, and supposed him an admirer from this service, but no matter, I freely show my work, so I send this kind gentleman,  Goldstein, about 20 or more thumbnails of my work in reply.

He wrote back that he especially liked this one of the boys in front of the fountain of the group of photos I sent him.  In the meantime I had uncovered his role in Maier's newfound, posthumous fame.

I now understand that although I had been looking at this photo for six years without posting, it was time.

 So I posted it.

 You can thank Vivian Maier and Jeffery Goldstein, each in a roundabout way, for your being able to view this photo, taken in the summer heat of Ukraine, but which has reminded you of scorching heat of Maier's transplanted hometown, Chicago.

Please see also this linked article.

 http://www.americanphotomag.com/photo-gallery/2011/10/vivian-maier-invisible-woman

 Best wishes, and thanks for tolerating my somewhat roundabout story.

john

John (Crosley)

Nice composition and silhouettes.