december - reality is just a description Outside the Toy Store

Thanks

Seems to me that the women seated in front of the store are demonstrating the meaning of yin/yang!  In all likelihood, neither of them intentionally sat opposite the other.  Yet, each person is using her left hand to enjoy a snack.

 

I had to censor some initial thoughts so now what is the appeal for me if I had to invoke thought interruptus?

 

I guess I have to go quietly with a 'great slice of life' image with that beautiful sepia toning giving it a dated look.

 

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Studied this capture last night and decided to come back to it before commenting. Its quite a puzzle.

Beyond the great toning and composition, I love the way you've used the highlights to draw the eye into the background.

There are a number of curious elements in the image. The mother initially appears to have to many legs, the hanging sign on the left is a borderline optical illusion, the left handed girls umbrella initially looks like a chair leg, and, while the girls are clearly eating, the title implies a toy store which is hard to resolve from the out of focus store interior.

Great Capture!

I love a great puzzle.

The after-school treat the two girls appear to be enjoying as well as the baby bottle are triggers for the natural tendency to perceive certain foods as a toy.

The juxtaposition of the infant in relation to the two school girls speaks to the difference between fundamental need and desire.

When considered as a whole, this is a very sweet (pun intended) image and insightful quiet moment of enjoyment.

Expanding on it, the "Toy Store" could be any location where this occurs.

Hi. What I see on this picture are two worlds, a fancy-free world of the girls and one step, yet miles away, a world of enormous responsibility,of motherhood…Very good capture.   

I like Vladimir's interpretation.  The carefree twosome versus the burdened mother with a child almost too heavy to cart around.  But the center-most woman and the mother seem very intent on their little worlds, whereas the woman on the right seems aware that there's more beyond the immediate.

It's interesting to read the different interpretations of this picture. I live in Nakazakicho, a quiet urban neighborhood that until recently had managed to preserve its postwar-Osaka character, scale and sense of community. It was one of the few areas of the city that escaped the bombs of WW2 and so there are buildings here that go back more than 100 years. Because of its proximity to a rapidly expanding downtown area that seems to be building more malls, high-end stores, and expensive high rise residential towers than this city needs or could ever use, it is being nibbled away bit by bit by an army of developers under the banner of progress and economic renewal.

 

Even though there still exists a sense of scale and proportion in Nakazakicho, it's only a matter of time before the economic tides claim it for their own. We don't seem to understand that what's lost is lost for good. No Disneyland, however detailed and lovingly crafted, will ever give us back that which we have bulldozed so carelessly in our rush to profit. We never pause to realize the social cost of such rampant progress, how it isolates us from our environment and each other. There's not much more that I can do but continue to document this slowly vanishing neighborhood with its coffee houses, cafes and few remaining mom and pop stores. My world is passing away as I myself will someday. I guess that's just the way it is. This picture is a detail from a larger scene which I have uploaded here.

I actually like the entire photo better than the crop.  The bike and man sitting angled in seems to create a more visually cohesive scene.  I like how you honed in on the aspects that sustained your message.  But the larger one gives a more complex story.

Yeah, as a documentary photo, the larger one serves the purpose better, I think. I was concerned about the interior of the store which looked like a black hole until I raised the brightness which of course led to increased noise. It doesn't look too bad though.

It's amazing what we can get away with in terms of noise with these more modern digital cameras.  

 

Jack, I don't know which I like better.  They are remarkably different, given that they are from the same digital file.

 

--Lannie

I like the image but the larger is a great street scene, a masterpiece as a classic. Stunning composition too.

Jack! I do too prefer the larger image better. It is a wonderful image:)

Regards,

Mário