'Tattoo Guy: A Street Portrait'

Tattoos over every inch (centimeter) of skin over his whole body, and

exhaling dual puffs of smoke literally define 'tattoo guy', a resident

and fixture of Buenos Aires, Argentina. 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

Ah! The reincarnate of Queequeg from the 1956 movie Moby Dick!!

Great portrait. The smoke coming from his nose really puts the photo over the top!! Nice work!

Perfectly presented character. We can see not only what's outside, but also what's inside - a lot of smoke, almost a volcanic activity! Fire crews should be around. 

To think that this sat in my 'archives' for a very, very long time.

Just think what things I'm sitting on, long unseen -- maybe never seen, never reviewed.

Garry Winogrand set the tone.  (look it up if you don't know the story, see his bio on Wikipedia for instance.)

When I die, I hope someone with some photo smarts gets a good look at my archives -- they may find good stuff they like that I just passed over and never even thought to show.

john

John (Crosley)

An all-time great comment.  What possibly could I add?

john

John (Crosley)

Terrifically written -- that makes two great comments in a row.

Nothing more for me to say.  I'm outclassed today by my commenters.

john

John (Crosley)

Dear John,

This is a wonderful image...great capture of a fabulous moment. Nice!

Tim

Wow! Nice work here!

http://s05.flagcounter.com/count/ZWq/bg=FFFFFF/txt=000000/border=CCCCCC/columns=4/maxflags=12/viewers=0/labels=0/ http://2.s05.flagcounter.com/count/ZWq/bg=FFFFFF/txt=000000/border=CCCCCC/columns=4/maxflags=12/viewers=0/labels=0/

Thanks for the encouragement; I need it.

If a guy smokes and exhales vigorously, encourage yourself to wait until he does it again, and it not enough to be aware of it for the next time so he is encouraged to do so even more vigorously.

I can't remember how I handled this situation, but it sure did work out, didn't it?

Anything's fair in 'directions' of such in a 'street portrait' setting as opposed to just a 'street' photo that purports to be 'candid'.

Thanks again.

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you for taking the time to let me know your favorable view.

john

John (Crosley)

WOW

I actually don't even think this needs any words, just wow. 

Great work- as always

Interesting character and a beautiful portrait!

I saw on this for a good long time, never quite finding the right time to post it.

I guess I should have been a little quicker, hunh?

Thanks for the compliment.

john

John (Crosley)

Those who wear tattoos and glorify them are 'cut from a different bolt of cloth' to use a Western idiomatic expression, I think.

This guy has his own folder, and long ago I posted 'street' photos of him, but overlooked posting this one; I'm sorry I did given the great response this one has been given.

Thanks for letting me know your kind estimation.

Best wishes.

john

John (Crosley)

Very cool portrait. It just got the aspects to make it a great street shot all together in my opinion. The rough look the attitude, the smoke, you name it. Very  crisp and sharp also.

Well done!

/Martin.

This particular photo, worked up, sat ever so long in my 'worked up' and 'might be shown someday' folder in a long ago file that I uploaded a year ago to the 'cloud' server where I store a few things, and when I have some time I browse through the thousands of those photos.

Other times I just browse through hundreds of thousands of other photos looking for gems that never got worked up and seldom am disappointed.

What I discarded or disregarded yesterday or years ago probably could not compete in my mind with what I had as a 'better' photo, or just escaped my view when I came across a capture I was looking for then moved on to the next disk download in the case of the unreviewed photos.

This got reviewed and worked up, but I have more Photoshop (image editing) skills now, so I worked it up a little better to make it better, and the sharpness is emphasized now as well as the smoke, though it hardly took much.  I'm still a Photoshop minimalist.

What a wonderful comment; I'm glad you approve.

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

I 'sat' on this a long time (not 'saw') correcting.

(for clarity).  The editing window closed long ago; my apologies if my response was indecipherable.

john

John (Crosley)

No worries, I figuerd it was a typo :-) Must be so much fun to find such treasures in your archives!

I might take 2 or 20 to 50 shots of one occasion and only choose one then pass on and that one through myopic judgment clouded by the emotion of shooting might not be the best or it might be a color photo that I desaturate (or vice versa).

I might choose one that's not the very best for posting, or just pass over some very good ones for posting because 'one is enough' because to post more indicates a paucity of material, and no one ever accused me of that, so off I go to the next shooting (and more likely I've long gone past that anyway by the time I get to the original post) and often for several years ago I haven't looked at the folders twice since original download.

So, once again there are treasures to be found; not so many as in my early years when I had less sense of what was 'good' but still more and my shooting is more 'sophisticated' and 'varied' in a way, and at times I could shoot one, two, three, four, five, and more good shots, any one of which might be posted (then go two hundred or more shots and not one will satisfy me . . . . . that's the way it works.

Thanks for the observation . . . . . this is a chancy endeavor . . . . . where one's rewards often are both immediate and if one is really choosy and wants to have one's dark green editor's eyeshades on, completely devoid of the emotionality of shooting, then one might be well advised to wait a while until the capture almost looks 'foreign' and of 'no value' except immediate visual impact 'ON ITS OWN" and that the true test.

Ask the ghost of Garry Winogrand. 

He knew.

Thanks for getting back to me.

john

John (Crosley)

and exquisite photograph.

Perfect in every detail.

Congrats !

BTW: Should I detail ? Just ask for it :)

I made a folder of this guy with his shirt off in pedestrian traffic and never thought to post this.

What a mistake now viewing this in retrospect.  Also it shows wonderfully in black and white.

Thank you for sharing your welcome assessment; I can sometimes be so myopic about the worth and strength of my own captures and need occasionally to be hit over the head and told 'that's good' -- 'what's wrong with you for not posting that a long time ago', and as a result, I am constantly going over old captures or 'old workups' that never got posted, or got posted in say, black and white, but not in color and finding gems.

In fact, I think I could sustain an entire and large membership just on good, old stuff I find in my archives that I've passed over, and my review process continues.

However it competes with present day shooting.  I'm like Cartier-Bresson in a way; no photos on walls, he shot for the love of shooting then mostly lost interest, but I dote on my photos and continually re-evaluate them not having doting feedback he got from the start.

Your feedback is very valuable to me, but I don't need details -- what you wrote says it all. 

Thanks so much.

john

John (Crosley)

:)

Thank you !

My thanks to you,

To think this has been hanging around a long time; this guy even has his own folder, but until now I hadn't thought to post this.

I meant to consider it at some time, but when I saw it recently I said to myself 'how could you pass this one over?' and promptly posted it.

It just jumped out from my archived photos at me.

Thanks again.

john

John (Crosley