new -- color & b&w 'The Citizens'

'The Citizens' are residents of Ukraine captured recently. 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! (or at least be edified) john

'Why Us?' these men mutually asked me when I told them I wanted a chance to photograph them as they moved about, just casually, without posing them.

Hard question?

Not at all.

I told them, they are rugged, handsome, experienced men, and even if they weren't, they're individuals, and whether they're wealthy or poor, highly educated or laborers, (even unemployed) they're entitled to their dignity, and for each photo I take, it's a chance with good subjects to attempt to make a great photo that might capture that dignity.

This is my latest offering in my now nearly half century long quest at trying to capture souls which includes a huge break in the middle, with only a few photos taken during that time.

They also asked with much curiosity 'Why do you take photos/what motivates you?'

My answer:  'Because I love to.   Maybe I can even immortalize someone like you two as subjects of one of my photos, however small the chance.'

We partnered for the mutual opportunity to make a potentially great photo (no matter how small the chance).

john

John (Crosley)

John, this is very nice.  The man looks confident and proud.  Good choice of black and white.  6 from me K.C.

I believe that as an able photographer, I can in most cases take a good photo of almost anyone and make them look distinguished or at least very presentable and present this as evidence -- just two guys, 'hanging around', when I stopped them and photographed them.

They rewarded me with their time and cooperation, and I the same with my skills.

Thanks for the high compliments Katie.  This is one of my recent best portraits. (In my view.)

Like Seinfeld, it means 'nothing'.  'Seinfeld' the hit television comedy series featured a whole episode in which it presented its hit premise as being a show based 'about nothing, that's right -- nothing'.

Well, this also is 'about nothing' except what one walks past every day and seldom looks at like I do when I'm carrying a camera, and then my eyes get opened. Here they opened especially wide when I saw the tonalities with the side lighting in my capture and began working on them a bit.

Best to you, and thanks again for the compliment.

john

John (Crosley)

I think for reproduction values at least, it's one of my very best.

It doesn't seem to have caught on though.  Oh well.  Sometimes more time sorts things out.

No matter what, I am very proud of it.

Thanks for the recognition.

john

John (Crosley)

excellent composition!

Thank you for the compliment.

I think those who regularly comment on my photos will notice something is quite different about this photo.

I wonder if they can put their  individual or collective finger(s) on why, if they see what I mean.

Thanks again.

john

John (Crosley)

John

I can see why you are particularly proud of this image. The man in the foreground appears very comfortable with the situation, and you appear to have prepared the moment with good social skills.

As Katie comments the image presents a man "confident and proud". I guess it's that momentary confidence in you as an image taker and proud that you have chosen to capture and ultimately display his character to potentially hundreds of strangers.

Nice detail where it matters (the main character), with good eye contact.

Yes I think I would be quietly confident with this ....

Regards

Doug

Confidence, yes, but that's not the full key.

The real key to the success of this photo is the tonalities.

Kyiv, where this was taken at the main train station, is almost all fall, winter, and spring, covered by clouds, just like Seattle, and in fact it shares a latitude with Bellingham, WA, just north of Seattle and south of the Canadian border (same as Paris, I seem to recall.)

So, because it's clouded in most of the time, and northward, days are short in winter, and daylight for shooting seems even shorter because of thick cloud cover.

Available hours for shooting are best in the afternoon when people who sleep in come out, and those who have urgent morning business have more time to relax, shop, and the bazaars become fully set up, as they're aimed to people who start on their homeward journeys, which often last until 8:00 p.m. or later.

The problem is the sunlight starts disappearing in midwinter at about 3:00 and there isn't much of that, so most daylight shooting, which because of subject predilection, should be in the afternoon as that's when most subjects 'open up more', must be at high ISOs and apertures 'opened up'.

This is in the middle of the day, on a cloudy day in late winter, things warming up a little, and people were opening up with days getting longer as the Vernal Equinox approaches.  In summer twilight will last to 10:00 p.m. or so, later in St. Petersburg which has an afterglow past midnight.

There is an overhead structure here, so the lighting here is sidelighting -- my most prefereable lighting.

Directional lighting such as sidelighting, is far more dramatic and allows one to 'work with' a capture, and more sunlight from middle of the day shooting (but under diffuse cloud cover), allows me to capture a full range of tonalities without resorting to highest ISO.

As Spring approaches, you'll see more such tonalities in my daylight captures, I think, and that's the secret to this capture -- not so much the confidence, which I think I can get most times, but the lighting, which is really superb, and which I didn't start playing with in the field or in post processing by using 'fill' or 'shadow highlight filter'.  I placed just a little emphasis on this gentleman's eyes to see their catches to let us know there's a real person in there.

It's a long story, but I think it tells the main reason this one 'works'.

Thanks, Doug, for commenting.

john

John (Crosley)

I like the portraits of people in the city, their eyes and the characters! This is very interesting!

Your comment is to me very fulfilling and satisfactory.

You walk past these same people on a daily basis and even have for yourself a chance to stop them and photograph them in your own style, so when I get congratulatory word from you about my results for these, I am very intrigued and pleased. 

Thank you.

Happy International Day of Women!

john

John (Crosley)