'Nursing Rounds'

Nurses in America once wore caps distinctive to their nursing school

and distinctive caps once long were a distinction of nurses

worldwide, but while they have been abandoned in the United States

and many Western countries, but not so everywhere, as shown in

this depiction from a country from the former Eastern bloc (former

Soviet Union). 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

A kind of image I always dream - a well defined perspective to dazzling window light emphasized by dark contrasts and some disturbing story. Maybe it's not straightened but it's not the point here.

Really good, John. The nurse just exiting the ward adds the needed dynamic element to the picture. Very nice distribution of tones within the composition. Good work as always.

A superb exposure at f 3.5 (as per the exif data) using the ambient light in the corridor from the window at the far end and the open door, the frame of which is lending support to the nurse. She seems to be in conversation with someone in the room - perhaps a patient. Nurses in India, too, wear distinctive caps. And in India, at some hospitals these beds would be occupied...

This "black atmosphere", as in an Hitchcock's film, is very well restored. I like it very much, even if I find the right part of the photo a little bit too dark.

John, I think this is a brilliant documentary shot; beds in in the corridor, cracked flagstone floor and the busy nurse. The light from the window is perfect for the subject.

Dear John,

There is not much to add to what has been said above except another congratulations on this fine photo! Well done!

Tim

It's another one of John's different photos -- I just take what I see.

 

This time I was overwhelmed by the contrasts between the far window, the darkish corroder but with the reflected light off the stone floor and then the counterpoint -- the brightness through the open patient door with the nurse standing in it.

 

In a sense, it forms the beginning of a 'V' composition, if you can see that, and runs counter to many of my photos which are photographed at right angles - it's hard to 'put me in a box'. 

FYI, this looks good in color too -- perhaps better, and I'll probably post the color version on 'another, unnamed service' at some later time as I often do with those photos which do well in both color and black and white.

 

I prefer to post black and white on this service for its classic qualities, however.

 

Thanks for the compliment and commentary.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

At varying times there were up to three nurses kibitzing at the door, going in and out, etc., but none made a good composition or one that 'held together' as I judged it.

 

When the two (or three) others had left, this lone nurse (or nurse's attendant) stood by the door to talk to the patient, leaning on the door sill, and that was the moment -- a completely natural, absolutely unposed moment, and that was the moment I was looking for that tied everything together. 

 

With her gaze into the room, her face hidden, the story this photo told remained a mystery, but not too much of one, because we KNOW she's talking to a patient, and we KNOW the patient is not in too much distress, because she's hanging out at the doorway, not rushing in to take care of the patient.

 

It's a gentle moment -- we can see that.   And for that it's a human moment, which viewers may not have discerned, but the body language of the nurse tells all - she's relaxed and she's kibitizing -- she may be doing her job, but she's also at ease with the patient, and probably setting the patient at ease too.

 

Is that reading too much into a photo?  Perhaps, but then again, perhaps not.  For those who have experience, I think this photo tells a substantial story for what is not actually 'SEEN' but can be intuited just by (for instance) the nurse's body language and her positioning at the door.

 

I hope that is what makes this a successful photo; it's why I posted it compared to the 'confusion' of the others I took which told 'nothing' worth telling.

 

Best to you and thanks for the compliment.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

Thanks for your comment and for the international perspective as well as your fine analysis.  Yes, she's hanging out at the door, conversing with the patient, and (as noted above) obviously the patient is not in any serious distress or she's be rushing to do something, or at least not be as relaxed looking.

 

This is one of John's photos that doesn't beat you over the head with its point -- a 'change of pace' if you will.  I'm capable of far more than I post -- you should see the vast collection of photos I do NOT post.

 

Thanks for your analysis and compliment.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

I'll have to bone up on my Hitchcock --- the reference does not ring a bell with me.

 

Nevertheless the statement does, so I'll take that as a compliment and a good critique.

 

I'm sorry the right hand side is too dark for you - I kept it that way (naturally dark) in order to accentuate the 'V' of the light down the hallway and 'turning' at the doorway's brilliance.  The dark wall prevents our eye from wandering, but if you look carefully, detail's there.  Artist's choice?

 

I guess we can differ on the blackness.  I am glad this one pleases you despite the lacuna.

 

Thanks for posting your ideas and for the compliment.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

This is one of those photos that with Nikon Matrix Metering almost takes itself at least with regard to exposure.

 

Also, with the great range of Exposure Values, one can fiddle a lot with exposure adjustments, and the photo essentially comes out looking very much the same, unless one 'lightens the hallway' so one can not see that it's supposed to be dark, which of course defeats both the mood and the shot.

 

Thanks for weighing in and helpfully so.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

As time goes on, and you see that opinions vary and you get lots of experience, you'll develop tastes and opinions of your own and want to share them.

 

I accept your congratulations and thank you so very much.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

I have long preferred 'sidelighting' which is a form of 'directional lighting' or better stated usually 'unidirectional lighting' and in that sense also diffused unidirectional lighting.

 

Here, however, the lighting from the end of the hallway is not 'sidelighting' per se because we're not standing 'sideways' to it - it's hitting us 'head on' and it's 'blown out'.  I could have fixed the blowouts, but it would have rendered the hallway properly exposed instead of leaving it in shadows, and I wanted the window blown out anyway.

 

In any case, it's unidirectional lighting, and it lights the hallway with that unidirectional lighting I so much like, with its interesting shadows that outline and highlight figures and subjects.

 

The woman nurse, right, IS side lighted -- her light comes from the patient's room window and she thus is lighted differently, though she also gets some light from the far hall window and is in effect doubly lighted.

 

And because the nurse is lighted unidirectionally, we see the brightness of her face (not really her face, but you get the idea) and the front of her head, but the darkness of her rear, which is one of the reasons I like side lighting (unidirectional lighting) so much - because it outlines.

 

You don't have to see detail so much when the figure is outlined so.  You just have to make sure that the figure, or so much of it as you want to hint at, is silhouetted, wholly or partly.

 

It helped greatly to have a bright, shiny, polished stone floor carry the light through the building from the far window, tying all this together.  Without that, there wouldn't have been much of a photo.

 

john

John (Crosley)

Beautiful light.

Thank you Barbara.  It is why this photo was taken!

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

A powerful image indeed. Timeless, as it could be from any ward during any of the wars fought around this Planet. The atmosphere and quietness is enhanced by the bright light entering this seemingly cold corridor. The figure by the doorstep only enhances the dedication of this profession. In any case, your image evokes many "sensations" and is worthy of any great documentary BW book or textbook.

DG

Yours is a powerful tribute to this photograph.

 

Rather than comment further as I often do, I think I'll just ask others to read it, and thank you personally for taking the time and effort to make this most complimentary post.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Your name is precious to you, and you deserved to have it spelled correctly.  The editing window is closed, or I would have done it within my reply comment.

 

My apologies for the misspelling.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Like a glimpse back in time that evokes memory's of reluctant hospital visits as a child

The nursing hat and uniform go hand in hand with the bed filled corridor and lack of any electronic gadgetry to reinforce the aforementioned impressions. 

The light is cold in this sterile atmosphere.

What I do like about the image is it's ability to make me "feel" it.

Compliments! 

 

Alf 

Again, rather than 'explain' anything or otherwise reply, I can just say to you 'that's why I take such photos'. 

 

I have the good fortune in life (or the guts and fortitude( to take my camera such places and to be such places where there are such photos to be taken AND to carry with me when I take them, memories such as yours to guide me.

 

Thanks for the wonderful accolade.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

why not?

Your version is a Meir Samel and it is a nice Meir Samel version.

 

Mine is a John Crosley version and it is what I like.

 

That's the plain and simple of it.

 

I might, according to suggestion above, dodge the foreground hallway bed in just a tad, but really not much at all, as I like and do not want to disturb the two major lines I see -- the line of light down the corridor and the line from the bottom of the doorway to the top and their intersection into a 'V' shape.

 

That is the composition I see; you see otherwise and are entitled to that, but it's not what I see or wish, but I appreciate the honesty of your version.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Just saw Meir's sterilized version. Have to comment... Hospitals don't always have well lit corridors. There are indications that this is not an elite facility - the beds in the corridors, the patchy ill-fitted tiles on the floor.

John is correct. His version/vision and my version.

 

Sterilized? How so? Sterilized -is to take away? I returned it to the original as the camera recorded it.