'Man and Stairs'

Abstraction or elements of abstraction may be all around us; the alert

photographer can single them out with the help sometimes of a

telephoto lens and a high ISO for lower light.. Here a man climbs

steps from an underground Metro or subway (pedestrian subway) in

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

great photo!well done!

Thank you so much.

I was copying photos from disks archives to hard drive and up popped this one in Photoshop beggging, it seemed 'process me!' so I did, though I took it long ago and never looked at it since.

My files are full of photos of equal quality I never looked at in search of 'the one good one I knew would do well in the queue', and the rest are long forgotten.

I review old downloads from time to time, but this one popped up umbidden, almost 'like magic', and voila.

Thanks for the endorsement.

john

John (Crosley)

No suggestions for improvement here. A true work of art.

This photo is simplicity itself, except for all the wonderful detail in the stone, with the colors (here a color version) and the shading and striations.

I wondered when it popped up on my screen thinking it was taken in Paris but I recognized (and remembered) where I had taken it in Ukraine, during a brief visit there while spenduing time elsewhere in that country.  For that, I have amazing recall when aided by a photo or a series.  I even remember, now, framing this long-forgotten photo and thinking 'is this the one?'

Maybe it is; maybe not, but it's wonderful fun to comb through my older work, becayuse for all the garbage shots, or the many taken 'just for exercising my focus and trigger finger, there are some gems.

Thanks for the vote in favor of this one Paul.

john

John (Crosley)

Sober and beautiful. Graphically eye-catching and well composed. There's room for imagination: who is this man? What does his bag contain?

Well worth a 6!

Regards,

Alain

Simple but excellent composition, great background, just wonder why it's not b&w?

...impressive image and very well composed...

A very nicely composed beautiful shot, John!

With best regards,

Ruud.

Thanks for the wonderful compliment.

Yes, the world is full of strangers,and like the now-ancient television series said of New York "there are eight million stories in the 'Naked City'".  Kyiv officially has about 2-3 million but unofficially has much more plus suburbs and each resident or commuter and visitor has a story.  This man is representative.  

That either is a newspaper in his left hand (see his colored hand) or it's wrapping for flowers the petals etc., which we don't see.

That's our job -- to determine what is going on and part of what is engaging about this photo, I think.   For the worth of some good photography is to engage the viewer and keep or rivet his attention and at least in some cases cause the photo and the viewer to interact in part of the viewer's discovery and anysis process.

It's an exquisitely simple photo, and at the same time, somewhat complex. Its graphics are simple, yet the detail in the stonework keeps it from being oversimplified.

And its interaction with our imagination -- 'what is this guy doing, where is he going, what is his mission? etc.' -- cause us to pause.

But we wouldn't pause or even consider this photo if it weren't for pretty good design delements.  The design is what causes the viewer to stop and look and that's its foundation.  

Just simple design anchors this photo while the detail keeps the viewer tethered.

Thanks for a helpful contribution.

john

John (Crosley)

Thanks for a simple yet elegant contribution.

Frankly, this is essentially monochromatic -- almost black and white -- but with bare touches of color.

I worked it up as black and white, but the touches of color added strengh to it. 

It may show up in my Black and White, Then to Now folder, (by whatever it's current name -- my most prominent and the folder of which I'm most proud) with the color there, as two or three photos in that folder really are color photos with no color removed and just seem black and white. That's my little known secret about that folder!

There'a a few seeming monochromatic photos there that in reality are panchromatic, but just 'seem' monochromatic.  Just look for the color of his hands and the traces of color in the stonework, otherwise this is a pure black and white capture.

I just post what seems best, and these days, I'm often working up captures in color AND black and white if they have good design and the colors don't defeat the photo, because for my black and white workups, I often find myself going back and working them up in color.  

Why not do both at once?

After all, it's good design that is the foundation for so many of them; (not all, but so many).

And black and white emphases good design but sometimes color adds a little oomph though some photos can be completely color dependent (I have a few that work wonderfully in color only and fail completely as black and white photos).

Right on comment; good question. I hope I answered satisfactorily.

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you for flattering words about my capture.

A pro pos the color/black and white issue noted in my response next above, I note that a prominent exposition quality printer whose works hang in all the top museums of the world (for top photographers and graphic artists) when printing black and white from digital media uss a Lightjet (and another digital printer) and notes that the firm prints from black and white that is full Red, Green, Blue, color (RGB) instead of grayscale, and that the printer synthesizes a black and shades of gray from the various blends of color rather than, say, the Epson printer using a panoply of black cartridges for its ink jet printing (high end Epson printers only of course).

His firm uses Epson printers too, but the ink causes the print prices to be prohibitive over his already astoundingly high prices for ordinary Lightjet printing and the Epson ink prices squeezes out all the profit from the enterprise.  Sad. Sad. Sad because Epson does do a wonderful job in black and white.

I do like a black and white print from a RGB file -- there always is a touch of tonal color, and I find that pleasing, so long as there's not a strong color cast.

Best to you.

john

John (Crosley)

I know I've got a good one when I get such a warm and kind compliment as you gave me here.

Thanks and kindest regards.

john

John (Crosley)

Interesting urban abstraction!

Thank you.  I aim to be interesting in my posts.

john

John (Crosley)

If you check the facts I think that you will find that the ratio cost per square foot of lightjet/inkjet  is about 10/1; and longevity of archival Injet prints "exceeds that of photographic paper".