'Sweet Morpheus'

Metro trains come and go on average in each direction every three

minutes. Crowds gather and wait, a trains comes, empties, new

passengers climb on board, the train leaves, the process repeats, all

in each direction -- each three minutes for one direction and three

minutes for the other. All that while 'Sweet Morpheus' continues to

overtake this large man as he slumbers apparently unperturbed. Your

ratings, critiques and observations are invited and most welcome. If

you rate harshly or very critically, please please submit a helpful

and constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! john

It criess out to be an abstract simetrical photo but you were slightly to much to your left to achive this and the different patterns on the wall don't help you so a crop to just include the pillars would help but you would still be off centre ... sorry :-)

This is not intended as an 'abstract symmetrical photo' (correcting spelling).

It is what it is, with some symmetry and obviously has no aspirations to what you suppose it to aspire to; it cannot by the very nature of its surroundings.

I was not misplaced in where I stood; that was carefully scoped out, the bench is just not exactly half way between the pillars; you should have measured, which is possible using a ruler, assuming the lens distortion has been corrected (it has).

This is just another 'ad hoc' photo with some symmetry and some assymetry.

Notice the hanging hand, far side of the bench, touching the floor, which I didn't work on to brighten; I wanted it to be mostly hidden and obscure, to provide a reward to those who look real hard.  Did you see it?

You've done what some critics do, which I consider ill conceived and if done intentionally, then a little dishonest -- you've ascribed an intention to my shooting (or someone/anyone's work) that isn't there and can't be there by its nature, then posit that because it doesn't measure up to your wrong standard therefore it falls short, then commiserate over how it has fallen short of what you have supposed it was meant to be.

Because of the wall advertising the missplaced bench, this never could be what you wrongly ascribe it to be, a photo with abstract symmetrical pretensions.  It uses symmetry, but it knows the limits of that symmetry and is to be enjoyed without placing burdens on the photo it wasn't meant to bear.

Well you have placed the wrong motive and intention on the photo; there is no way with the background and the uncentered bench it could be an abstract symmetrical photo, especially with a man on the bench, arm and hang dragging.

Of course there are substantial elements of symmetry, and those are to be nurtured and I hope appreciated, but this has no such pretense as you ascribe to it, and therefore it cannot fail as you have wrongful supposed, so the underpinning of your critique must fail. 

Sorry.

Also your crop suggestion also is stillborn on account of your failure to notice that the bench to pillar distances are not equal -- cropping as you suggest will cure nothing and leave no symmetry, just a near symmetry.

If you didn't like the photo for some other reason or just didn't like it at all; that's your prerogative, but you first should analyze it (and my motives) correctly and be very careful when ascribing motives to me or any photo of mine; I can be very much more complex than you might imagine and harder to fathom than might appear to those who apply simplistic analyses.

But try again, now that you know the parameters of critiquing one my photos; they're not all so hard, and some require no measuring, and nothing more than a 'gut feeling' of whether it's appealing or not, or whether it's elements are 'on' or 'off the mark' e.g., as in whether tonalities are properly distributed, contrast is 'on' or 'off, etc. and if the composition is agreeable or not.

Maybe this was a misleading photo to critique for a first try, and you should try again on another, and critique the photo, not second guess my aspirations for the photo, as that can get you in very hot water unless somehow you know my thinking intimately.

Critiquing is your prerogative; helpful critiques are welcome here; even stabs at trying to improve my captures are mostly greatly welcomed here, but I do not particularly like it when people ascribe motives and intentions to my shooting which are simply wrong, which is why I have responded as I have.

Thus guided, welcome back in the future.

john

John (Crosley)

It's an interesting moment because usually in subway stations are not allowed to sleep.

This is unusual.

In fact, one never sees such things, let alone with the man seeming so 'relaxed' that his hand flops over one side and is almost folded against the floor.

I wonder if he has narcolepsy -- a disease that causes one to sleep suddenly?

Kyiv seems very intolerant of people being drunk in public - -it's fairly rare to even see drunks in Kyiv proper, compared to some suburbs where they drink in front of their houses/homes quite openly sometimes all day lone, querrously sometimes, too.

Thanks for a helpful comment.

john

John (Crosley)