"'Urban Cowboy' -- LA--Venice Beach Style"

Hi, John. I like your picture. Great character with his pose and white sunglasses. Regards, Tomasz.

Individualism reigns in the United States. Whereas in Japan it is said 'the

nail that sticks up gets pounded down,' in Los Angeles where the US

entertainment industry is headquartered, the opposite sometimes is true --

that nail may possibly draw attention that will gain fame and millions. Your

ratings, critiques and observations 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

Really, you beat my request for critique, thanks.  (It doesn't show now, but your comment was there before my request posted!)

Also, this is NOT a pose; he was walking down the street -- I had a moderate telephoto and shot away.

I framed very carefully, however, and got off several frames, and I felt the balance was as close to perfect as achievable with a photo with such disparate elements - hat, curved; sunglasses, curved; nose ring, curved; shoulders, sloped and curved; neck and necklace, hanging and implied curvature; hair ringlet, curved, hat, curved in many places -- in many different ways.

It was the balancing of all these 'curvatures' that was my task, plus the handling of the tonalities and the texture (see the hat weave for instance) without any blowouts under intense light and with his dark skin and hair.  

Raw shooting (NEF) helped greatly in that regard.

This one was work, but well worth it, because the basics were there; it had 'BALANCE'.  I've been looking at it for a while, and for me it just 'works'.

Thanks for the FAST and congratulatory comment.

john

John (Crosley)

I made slight changes to skin tones then substituted images; please clear your browser cache to see difference if you have viewed this image before, as the difference is noticeable (and for the better I hope).  This may be the first time I have done this during a rating period.

john

John (Crosley)

Very original style! This man lives in his world of ideas about personality!

As much as Americans seem in lockstep with each other as a culture, by contrast with Ukraine, America is a land of individualism.

Men such as this, especially in the Los Angeles area where there is a proliferation of individualism and a magnet to individuals from the rest of the country, proliferate in the Los Angeles area where they are not only tolerated, but sometimes celebrated, particularly in the Venice Beach area, noted for such characters.

Many of my photos are helpful in understand the communality of men (women) and the contrasts between cultures.

Thanks for the enlightened comment.

john

John (Crosley)