'Love's Bloom in Metro Crowd'

Love can grow in unlikely ground; like the rocky and inclement soil of a

crowded Metro bench like here as seen at rush hour in Kyiv, Ukraine.

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 love how the other people frame the couple and how the person on the left is holding flowers. Good street photography, especially in a confined space like the Metro, is hard but this one is terrific, John. 

Happy New Year!

This not only is not as good without the hands framing it, but it is not nearly as good in black and white -- look at the glorious colors behind the couple and even in the flowers, somewhat more foreground --even in the woman's scarf and their skin.

There are few 'street' photos which are much better in color, but this is one. 

Some 'street' photos are best shown exclusively color, but this is not one, although it is much stronger so, and others are best shown solely black and white perhaps because of mixed color sources, a bad choice of colors in the frame -- say a distracting advertisement in day-glo colors that cannot be cropped out, or a piece of a subject's clothing that is of dubious color that detracts and draws unwanted attention, or other reasons, so in those cases the only choice is to desaturate.

Even strongly mixed lighting sources with different color temperatures can require desaturating if they cannot be corrected.

Desaturating also works well just to show the essence of a photo, and would work here rather well, and the photo would be passable, but color works here better.

Color 'street is the one thing that Cartier-Bresson could not master, and in the latter part of his life he made a conscious and conspicuous effort to try to destroy his color work -- it wasn't up to his standards -- he was embarrassed by his color efforts compared to his black and white work.

There really are few 'street' photos in color that meet his standards, and he just could not plan for or foresee them.

I take 'em and 'see' the color aspects generally later though not always.

I have a few 'color' street photos that are outstanding which I saw right away that I would put up against Cartier-Bresson's work, color or blakck and white.

Color and black and white thus 'work' for this photo, but color is vastly preferred here.

Don't you agree?

Happy New Year to you also, Mark.

John (Crosley)

Notice the angle of view.

Either I was crawling on the floor, or I was shooting from my lap.

Think how hard it is with a 35 mm to get a shot like this framed so well at the precise 'perfect' moment.  A Rollei would be a perfect camera for a shot like this, but not a DSLR.

However, there's a trick, and it doesn't involve using a 'swing screen' of the D5000 which doesn't swing in the right direction, doesn't focus properly for candids, and has 'shutter lag' anyway.

It involves taking a shot or two, reviewing clandestinely the shots, then with 'body memory' replacing the camera in exactly the same spot, with siome adjustments for reframing to get it exactly correctly in case the first shot or shots were not 'on the money'.

That's how I was able to catch this couple,  by putting my first finger joint (not finger tip), on the shutter release), place a hand over that middle finger and then press down on the middle finger joint with the other hand to release the shutter so it was not obvious I was taking photos.

No one was the wiser.

This is a slightly telephoto shot, too, as the couple was some distance 'down' the Metro coach and across, so aiming was all the more difficult, but this one worked, and well.

When I saw it later, I smiled broadly and still smile when I see it.

This is not a shot replicable by anyone else, I think, shooting today, that I am aware of.

It took considerable practice to learn this technique, too, and it's mainly good on a very crowded Metro train, and then only in certain special circumstances, as scenes like this are very few and far between.

The lighting here is almost unheard of --a welcome bonus!

john

John (Crosley)

Interesting scene from the life!

This is somewhat of an exception to my claim that in general 'street photography' of sort I take is not 'pretty photography' in the 'aesthetically pretty' sense, as opposed to 'aesthetically pleasing' and 'interesting' sense.

I like the colors and their intensity as well as that the colors are concentrated at and around the couple, which mostly is alien to my experience in street and Metro shooting.  

That is a rare happenstance that I welcomed and didn't try to edit out; this photo would suffer if converted to black and white (converted to monochrome).

Also, this camera was in my lap, I was viewing the couple without camera to my eye(s), I caught just the moment, which  depended on preframing the scene and the elaborate construct I described above for arranging my hands and placing my camera, then depressing the shutter clandestinely. 

Thankfully it was successful, as it's quite a chore to master, and that was a 'first' for me that day, an improvisation just for the occasion that I now try from time to time, but only occasionally as shooting 'blindly' as this is called for rarely.

Thank you for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)

I enjoyed your explanation of the genesis of this shot which captures the moment beautifully. I emply similar methods of "indirection" in my candids. Here in Japan everyone automatically poses and flashes the "V" (peace) sign when they spot a camera so if you're going to catch the unposed shot, you have to be a little sneaky. People have an preconception of what "taking a picture" is supposed to look like. The photographer holds up the camera, looks through the viewfinder, snaps, looks up and makes eye contact. If you deviate from this routine, you're not "taking a picture" in most people's eyes. The photographer, Paul Strand, used to use a dummy lens on the front of his camera with the real lens on the side so that he could capture people unawares. Now that's some major league sleight of hand.

Your comment really is 'major league' and not only critiques the photo and the comments I made (which makes me feel great because it took some thought to properly explain in so few words exactly and precisely what and how I did what I did), but your comment also adds some historical perspective -- Paul Strand was one of the very famous early 'candid' photographers, as well as a master of other genres in a career that spanned six decades.

He was a contemporary of Hine (a teacher), then met Steichen and Stieglitz, and was one of the founders of photography as an 'art'.

He died in 1976, just eight years after I began taking photos, so he's among those to whom I owe homage, and this certainly is in his tradition.

Your experience with the Japanese squares with mine.

I was in Honolulu under the famous Banyan Tree, a landmark at the Honolulu waterfront -- a huge, old, spreading tree in a public waterfront park, that is historical and wonderful.

Japanese tourists stood there in 1994, the year I took up photography seriously again, and stared woodenly into one, then another expensive film camera (it was all film then, the digital changeover not having yet come), and I was appalled that these laughing, smiling, joyous people, had suddenly turned so somber for their photos and decided to 'fix that' and show them some photos of themselves caught candidly on their own cameras.

I gestured to one of the photographers that I'd take a few photos of the ENTIRE group including the photographer and then proceeded to take some photos that showed some LIFE in them using their borrowed cameras.  I made jokes (physical jokes), made them smile and obviously pressed the shutter.

I made many of them VERY MAD at me.

I was greeted with disdain and very sour looks and from a few who tried a little English, the shouted phrase at me: 'No Memories! No Memories!'

It seems that for these Japanese tourists vacationing in Honolulu during their Golden Week, vacation holiday, when Japan empties into the rest of the world, and everybody goes on Spring holiday, one of the 'proofs' that they really did go somewhere was the obligatory photo full of serious looking people in a group gathered around a recognized landmark or perhaps a sign with a famous name on it ('Yellowstone National Park, South Entrance' I once recall having seen a group gathered around).

That apparently is serious business, and for those otherwise joyous, smiling people, no smiling, laughter, or spontaneous expressions were allowed -- only the funereal need be allowed to appear in those 'memory' photos.

I suppose they were meant to be taken back to the office and/or factory and to social events to be trotted out to try to 'trump' social rivals who went other places and had their own 'memory' photos.

'My Honolulu Banyan Tree photo trumps your Bangkok Floating Flower Market' I can hear some company man say over whiskey and smoking cigarettes after a 14-hour day at the job. 

Or maybe vice versa.

There is no category on Photo.net for 'Japanese memory photos' -- a place to display proof that you and your group were in attendance at a landmark somewhere i in the world, and frankly there are probably not more than a handful of Japanese Photo.net members, and I think the connection is clear.

Photography of this sort, including my photos which I found on Korean site Daum.com where they've been purloined for many years, seem well appreciated by rival Koreans who were subjugated by the Japanese for many years from before the Second World War, made slaves during that war, and only now are experiencing a culture that the Japanese (according to BBC) are beginning to appreciate.

Koreans can not get jobs serving Japanese customers in Japan so they assume Japanese names so not to be held back, I have learned, but in Korea, my photos (of this sort) I am told are held in high regard, though Japanes and things Japanese (except cameras and cars) are not.

In Japan, I think Koreans still are held in low regard, but with a growing exception.

There's a 'rock group' exception that may grow and spread to other parts of the Japnese culture.

Japanese girls i nrock groups often wear school uniforms and sing saccharine rock songs; Korean girls in rock groups dress like edgy young adults and sing with adult angst of adult and more complex love themes -- and that's beginning to get the attention -- envy even -- of the former Japanese who have until even now seen themselves as culturally superior to the Japanese.

It's only a matter of time, I postulate, when those same envious young Japanese start partaking of this type of candid photography, (at least for some), following the example of the Koreans who seem really to appreciate world class photography (excluding myself from the reference.)

You're there in Japan and know the culture, however much an 'outsider' you are as a non-Japanese, however, so you tell me, if that guesswork put together from news stories, articles, plus radio stories, then listening to music videos and recordings is true to life or not . . . .would you?

Is my speculation all wet, or is it possibly on the money?

I'm very curious.

The Japanese are NOT noted for taking imaginative photos despite having ownership and ready access to the world's best photo equipment, nor are they noted even for 'appreciating' what we regard as good photography -- that is photography as 'art' not kitsch, or mainly for  'memories'.

That's food for thought, and I'm interested in your thoughts as someone who is 'there', some day when you have a chance, here or by e-mail if the spirit moves you. 

(My e-mail is on my bio page, as well as the internal PN e-mail, which I dislike, as it may not be private.)

Best wishes from an appreciative and thoughtful John.

john

John (Crosley)

 

I've lived in Osaka, Japan as an expatriate for nearly 25 years now and being that it is impossible for a "gaijin" (foreignor) to ever completely assimilate into Japanese culture it has necessarily dictated that I become more of an observor which is not such a bad thing if you any aspirations as a photgrapher. This has repercusions not only in how I view Japanese society but also how I view my own. I see America as a far different place now than I did 30 something years ago when I lived in San Francisco. I'd be willing to bet that your experience is much the same since you seem to spend so much time in Russia and the Ukraine.

 

Your observations on Japanese society are largely right on the money. I sometimes think the more we let our society dictate our views of the world, the more of a straight jacket it becomes, the more we become programmed and unfree. I lived in Hawaii for 6 years before I came to Japan and remember the phenomena of the Japanese tour group very well, following the flag bearing guide like the children traipsing after the Pied Piper of Hamlin. I've come to the same conclusion about the Japanese and how they view travel. The photograph serves more as documentation; it means "I've been there and here's the proof". I swear my students never sem to delete a single picture and I've got to endure: 1) Me in front of the Eiffel Tower; 2) My husband in front of the Eiffel Tower; 3) Me and my husband in front of the Eiffel Tower 4) Our tour guide in front of the Eiffel Tower; My husband and I and the tour guide in front of the Eiffel Tower and so on and on and on. You know, all my students know that my hobby is photography and that I take it seriously. Thue they're always interested in showing me their photos, the whole shooting match (there never seem to be any out-takes), but they show no interest in seeing mine. It's very strange.

 

I agree with you about the state of photography in Japan. The funny thing is that the years following the war saw the emergence of several excellent street photographers in Japan . I've seen lots of pictures from those days and they were free and full of life. I have a small book of photos by Seiryo Inoue called "Irresistable Steps" that really captures the spirit of the time. In Japan (as elsewhere) the old "deshi" (apprentice) system has collapsed. The traditional arts in Japan are slowly dying because few young people want to spend the time understanding and mastering the craft. We're much more interested in instant success and slavishly following the latest how-to, step by step book. Photographers here take loads of beautiful pictures of Mt Fuji, or cherry blossoms, of smiling children and ocean sunsets but there is little that is inventive or offers a truly individual point of view. Few wish to really stand out, most are more content with a warm bath and simply being a member in good standing of the group - the great, wishy-washy throng.

 

I don't mean to single out Japan but this is where I live and the society which I have really viewed and experienced the most. As an American, I was immersed in the culture when I lived there 30-odd years ago and wasn't quite the observor that I am today. One of the few advantages of getting older is that you develop a sense of history - both societal and personal - and the perspective that goes along with it. Were I living in America today I might well come to the same range of conclusions about American society as I do about Japan's.

 

There's a lot more that I could say but if I start matching observations with you I'll never be able to tear myself away from the keyboard. With the amount you write, I have to guess you're a hell of a speedy touch typist. Best Regards, Jack

You are right.

I am a stunningly fast typist.

In sixth grade where I and 29 other students from Eugene, Oregon were segregated as being 'future leaders' and given 'special education' as part of a University of Oregon and Eugene School Board long-lasting experiment with the gifted, 15 boys and 15 girls were segregated from our ordinary schools and bused, driven (or in my case I ran, literally) to a new and different school to be given supplemental education in a special class taught by an expert educator. 

The top IQ in that class was over 200 as I recall, and I won't tell you the minimum, as frankly it was a bunch of hooey, but many graduates went on to Harvard, Cornell,  Columbia, Reed, and other highest caliber schools. 

One of my friends from there becamre a drug dealer and almost went to state prison; if cops found me and talked to me, he would have gone, but he dropped me as a friend so they wouldnt' and I haven't talked to him since; his father was head of the U of O psychology department.

(He got probation)

I didn't partake, and barely knew of what he was doing or its significance, unti later in life.

I existed there in rarified sixth grade solely to 'show off' my male prowess at age 11-12 to pointy-busted student treacher Kay Rader who came from the local high school to teach us from her beautiful, fuzzy, pointy angora sweater, the basics of touch typing on old Smith Corona manual typewriters.

I went home every night and copied the Reader's Digest, becoming an expert in current affairs (albeit unknowingly from a very right-wing standpoint) and a fabulous touch typist, practicing on my L.C. Smith & Sons huge manual.

I flew along near 80 words per minute, and when electrrcs came, faster, and when keyboarding with computers came, I never slowed down. 

In fact I typed my state bar exam and started typing my final answers each session 20 to 30 minutes before each other examinee in the room even had read the entire questions.

I didn't read the questions fully either; I just composed at the keyboard --a skill I developed at Associated Press where I sometimes wrote stories in final form right on the teletype wire, when necessary, sometimes full speed 66 wpm.

You answer is wonderful and gratifying, because it shows I really was extrapolating well.  I always wonder when I extend my thoughts and do such extrapolation whether I jump into a mess or not; as what seems reasonable from afar may be entirely unreasonable because of the unforeseeable.

I would give my eye teeth to spend one-half year in Japan  as a street photographer doing nothing but taking photos if my style of the Japanese.

I'd stick out like a sore thumb as white, bit and round-eyed, but I have a surfeit of feints, and I might just get away with it.

I've been to Narita (and Haneida) about 50 times, but only through and only stayed there a day or so a couple of times; I was always transiting, and now my travel funds are dried up.

(I had airline passes courtesy of a close one, and paid a penny a mile for jet travel, and often flew first class but then was not photographing -- a huge waste for me as photographer but that was before I took up photography again, but every year I flew hundreds of thousands of miles in the 1990s, mostly for free, and for what I did pay, I got so many  'frequent flyer miles' back through special knowledge of the rules, that I almost made a profit. 

I was almost unstoppable in my travel. 

That's part of where my incredible world experience comes from; I've 'been there and done that' so many times.

My right hand and arm now are paralyzed somewhat,and in extraordinary pain, but somehow it doesn't affect my ability to touch type on a keyboard (a manual would be impossible).

I'd give my eye teeth to be free and footloose in Japan with a camera right now . . . . . and frankly if I had the bucks to get to and stay in that very expensive society, I'd probably do it in an instant; nothing keeps me in the US (my home on the West Coast or in Ukraine which I visit extensively).

I'd do so immediately.

Imagine, your adoptive culture, as seen through my eyes and my images.

I wonder how it would look?

Probably you'd recognize the amalgam as both mine and your adoptive culture's.

I wish. . . . .

I like Japan . . . . everyting works pretty good and it's be just another cameraa even if held by an old round-eyed guy?

What would the Japanese say thaat could bother me that I haven't encountered before?

I'd like to sell the results in neighboring Korea, where they'd probably appreciate such work;~))

Sorry to find your reply so late., or I would have responded earlier. 

I hope you don't mind my remembered youthful zeal for student teacher Kay R. and her angora sweater fulll of incentive and her smiling face full of approval when I turned in reams of typewritten copies 'The Readers Digest' as my 'homework' when she hadn't even assigned any.

I was ambitious even at age 12.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

(You are invited any time to contact me; I like the way you think and write; my e-mail's on my bio page.)