"'They Will Never Let Go' -- The Stuff of Nightmares"

This street woman has shrouded herself for the night extremely early

one winter evening while others eat their dinners, right in front of a

movie poster that promises a sort of possible evil vigilance, a

foreboding promise and if she were aware, one that might spawn

nightmares. Your ratings, critiques and observations for this 1/10th

sec. telephoto, Los Angeles photo are invited and most welcome. if

you rate harshly, very critically, or wish to make an observation,

please submit a helpful and constructive comment. Please share

your photographic knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! john

So cinematic the scene I had to "step back" to see how masterfully composed and tonal values managed.  Excellent work, John.

Color and/or black and white, this is the sort of scene I find if I just drive around that tens of thousands just drive by and almost never notice or they avert their gaze (possibly they are inured to it, or they have just numbed themselves).

Your 'cinematic' reference helps explain to me its merits in a way I hadn't thought about.  Thank you for that; the cinema poster may have been a clue.  I had to tone it down considerably to make it presentable.

This is a 1/10th of a second capture at 72 mm through a dirty car windshield on a crop sensor camera, if you can believe that, yet it appears pin sharp.  Imagine that.  Hand held of course, with stunning vibration reduction (and braced on a car's steering wheel.)

Thanks for a warm reception, a kind evaluation and taking the time to examine and critique my photo.

john

John (Crosley)

Taken at 1/10th of a second, with telephoto lens stopped down to f8  while stopped in LA traffic through a car's dirty front windshield during a period of 'stop-and-go' auto movement.

Advice:  Have a preset camera ready at all times, and such a capture is possible even while caught in traffic.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

P.S.  This capture is just as good or better in color -- I'm beginning more and more to reserve this folder to black and white, which accounts for the B&W posting. 

jc

...a beautiful shot with very good story...

Great lighting, very good work.

There are three things I try for in a good street shot.

1.  An interesting photo.

2.  Good composition.

3.  Integrating them into something that has some 'art' and that includes 'beauty' especially, because when the other two meld, the result often is 'beauty' however odd or unusual that may seem.

thanks for a kind comment.

Happy New Year!

john

John (Crosley)

I had to tone down harsh lighting to make this viewable, as the light on the poster was way too strong, and so I'll take partial credit for the lighting compliment.

This is one of those photos that happen when you keep cameras on the pile in the passenger seat at elbow height, preset and ready to be shot at a moment's notice.

It's only when I looked at the EXIF info that I realized that it was shot telephoto at 1/10th of a second, but it came out perfectly, regardless of whether it was braced (it was not really as I recall).  I'm a very steady holder, despite advancing age, and always was.  I'm surprised that has held true as I've aged.

Best to you, and thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

Great documentary of a sad urban reality! The movie billboard it's in contrast whith this human condition and it's title it's coherent with the homeless. status. Well done! (7) ciao, Sergio

'

John ... this is really wonderful !! I'd like to know better the English language just to express what this image conveys to me. A master-piece !! A big 7 for you and my congrats ... 

My maxim and practice is to carry a camera or two everywhere, that means really everywhere and even to have one or two next to me while driving, preset.

This is one instance where it paid off, even if the shutter speed was 1/10th of a second.

I guess the only thing to say is I'm a steady holder, V.R. helped, and it's the dinner hour and dinner is eaten early in this part of the US, compared to say, Europe.  The winter sun had barely set.

If I became entangled emotionally in every such scene I saw, I'd be ready for some severe treatment -- such scenes tear you apart, yet tens of thousands of drivers pass her daily (nightly) I think and just go tsk, tsk, tsk, then drive on. 

At least I take the photo, a first step toward raising awareness so she is not forgotten.

Best to you this New Year; thank you for telling me your thoughts and reaction.  It made very nice reading.

john

John (Crosley)

You say you're almost at a loss for words, yet giving this photo the highest score possible says it all.  I'm overwhelmed.

Best to you this New Year, may it bring you happiness, prosperity and wonderful photos.

john

John (Crosley)

When I get just one exclamation point from you, I know I've scored.

To get many means a 'home run'.

Thanks for letting me know your evaluation.

Best wishes for the New Year!

john

John (Crosley)

Her shroud and positioning of the cart convey to me a defensiveness and determination to fight off any approaching evils that may come her way. "They" may never let go, but neither will she!

As always, wonderfully seen and captured.

Amy

Well observed and said.

You have added something to the discussion!

Thanks for the high compliment.

Best for the New Year!

john

John (Crosley)

(Oh, and I think this may be the extension of tony Beverly Blvd past La Brea of some such, near the plush Hancock Park area of L.A., a predominantly orthodox Jewish area of all places, though the neighborhood delineation may be some ways behind.  Neighborhoods meld in LA, unlike in New York City, where a street may demark the plush neighborhood from the slum.)

john

John (Crosley)

(and I'm uncertain of the exact streets, but you get the idea, - facing Eastbound for Angelinos who wish to follow along.)

jc

As a street photographer ,it attracted me in so many ways ,composition,mood,subject ,story , and society ,I could praise all of them except society ,it speaks for itself pages ,no matter if it is edited or not ,but I myself would edit it (enhancing lights and shadows) as I do with most of my images .

Fine work .

Especially coming from a fellow street photographer, you have given me almost ultimate praise for this capture.

It is my highest rated photo in almost a year or possibly more, and I think you have observed that black and white street is not favored by raters on this service at all at present, plus ratings now are much lower than ten years ago for such work.

But, because it is rated by members so highly, I take your guidance regarding 'enhancement' under advisement, and remember on one of my very early photos when I got advice (Nixon Photo, Nixon and Pat, his wife, walking down S.F.'s Market St. surrounded by a throng), about the capture, which was full of action -- someone advised 'burn in this', and 'do this to that', etc.'

Another member reminded me that it simply was a great capture and said these memorable words, quoted from a rock star:  'Don't mess with the ju-ju'.

I haven't and won't on that photo, and I think I'll take the same advice on this photo.

I already 'toned down' almost blown out areas of the photo advertisement portrait on the bus shelter wall, as it was overpowering, and that's all I'm going to do.  The rest I'm not going to enhance. 

Some things, like this shrouded woman, the viewer should have to struggle a little to see detail, and be rewarded by even seeing the weave in the fabric of her shroud/blanket -- this photo at 1/10th sec through a dirty car windshield is so sharp and steadily held (aided by V.R.).

If this were an ordinary photo, not so highly rated and certainly as we agree one of my recent best, I'd be searching for any help at all to increase view worthiness, but in this case, there's a chance that I already got the perfect balance and that any 'enhancements' might actually detract rather than help, especially with my rudimentary Photoshop skills.

I thank you for what is almost the ultimate compliment; it matters very much to me that at this stage in life I'm shooting some of my very best stuff because when I first started out at age 21 I also shot some of my very best stuff, and I hate to be seen as retrogressing.

Look at some of my early black and white work starting at age 21 to see - some of it is wonderful, now I see looking back, and I never showed it to anyone but no more than five people over the course of 35 years as it sat in a box until I joined Photo.net in 1994 and proceeded to get millions of views, then started taking photos in earnest again.)

Some of my photos on return lacked the 'magic' I had when I started, but I've been working my way back and occasionally, periodically, and regularly I get some really good captures, a few stunning ones, and this is one of the really good ones from recently when my shooting has been very strong, following and during recovery from a severe illness. 

Don't be a stranger, Saad.

And thanks big time.  (Bolshoi spacibo)

You made my day (not in the 'Dirty Harry' sense, either).

john

John (Crosley)

Selective area adjustment - assuming my monitor matches yours.

Good drama. I'd bring Zones III-IV up a bit to bring back some hint of texture (III) and texture (IV)  That is to say that darkening was a little over cooked -assuming my monitor matches yours. "Well seen".

Meir,

I am not sure out monitors match, and your criticism on zones III and IV is very welcome.

I thought this capture over and figured it was best to keep the viewer struggling to view the darkest tones, though the information was there, since it caused the rearmost dark tones of the woman's shroud to blend (almost) with the very dark background, but just not quite.

Throughout one can see (just barely) the weave of her shroud, as this was a fairly small aperture, because I wanted foreground (her) and background (the sign) to be in focus, so her shroud has its weave discernible, and thanks to V.R. and some steady holding at 1/10th sec.

But making it clear is different from making the shroud easily visible and not making the viewer work a little to see it -- nothing says one should be able to 'take in an entire capture' with just an initial look.

It does not always hurt to cause enough interest to cause the viewer to hunt a little to see (if the capture is a rare one that is so interesting) and hunt for detail in parts that might be a little obscured.

This admittedly is a fine line.  Your exposition, for instance, might be best for the ordinary captures and the drive-by viewers and perhaps less interesting stories and subjects, but for this special capture, I reasoned that the darkness should prevail.

After all, this is a 'dark' subject (as well as she being 'dark' as a subject).  Extreme poverty, fueled in part one suspects by mental illness of the paranoid schizophrenic variety is a very 'dark' subject, and keeping the rear-most part of her shroud almost undifferentiated from its dark background tends to lead the eye to the highlighted poster that carries the foreboding message.

In any case, that is my thinking.

Yours is a more technical analysis, and you are not to be faulted for that; mine is a more 'artistic' as well as technical analysis, and in this case it's 'artist's choice' I think, and for some reason I think I hit it just right, this time.

Other times, your criticism has been so 'right on' you have taught me lessons which I have acknowledged.  This time, it's a matter of well-informed opinion, I think, between you and me, and being the photographer and armed with your prior help, I will stand by what I posted. 

Whether our monitors are the same or different, I think you get the gist of what I am writing . . . . and although my version's shroud is lighter than what you seem to have reproduced in your version of 'my capture' before 'your work', the point I make still seem to be the same.

I'll stick by my version, but thank you for a very loving touch and tribute to this capture, and thank you very much for your continuing contribution to my work on tonalities . . . . for which I have thanked you very much now quite frequently.

Such criticisms are always welcome here, whether or not your version is accepted or not . . . . . as thinking as thought and healthy critique about substantive matters is well regarded here.

Thank you Meir, I look forward to other and further such well thought out critiques.

john

John (Crosley)

I know and sympathize that you have vision problems, and suggest the following.

I view this photo on what is known as a laptop TFT (thin film) screen presently though I have others.

When it's tilted one way, the shroud is almost totally black and seems obscured  and part of the black bus weather shelter behind her.

When the screen is tilted another way or seen from a little higher up (downward looking a little#, the totality of the figures become more 'grey' #gray# and then the figures become more readily seen graphically.

When viewed straight on, the view is as I described it, and from lower view, the blacks tend to merge as you have depicted it, left, in your illustration.

It's not just how a screen is 'tuned' or a monitor is calibrated, but what type of monitor and for almost all flat panel monitors, from what angle it's viewed at.   Some are more tolerant of being viewed from many angles, and others are far less tolerant, which is one reason that expert photoshoppers for so long hung onto tv type monitors instead of flat panel monitors.

The highest end monitors don't have such problems so much,but they can easily run $1,000 for a decent size monitor, and small ones are seldom seen except on Apple products.

I don't know what you're viewing on, so I can't comment.

No matter what, I'm flattered by the attention and the well thought out help, given in obvious good faith. Thank you so much.

john

John #Crosley#

I was eating a very light dinner in a roadside restaurant, one that I had eaten in and used their Internet at about one week or more ago.

A woman waitress, older, came up to me, and said to me, 'that photo, the woman and the bus stop, it has had tremendous effect on me; it has never left my mind since I saw it last time I saw you when you showed it to me, and I thought you should know that.'

She described the photo and how unsettling the photo had been to her, and I thanked this woman, a stranger (really) to me, as I had not remembered her or showing her the photo, but then I show lots of photos to complete strangers sometimes as I post them and sometimes as I work on them or consider posting them.

I had shown this photo to her for sure, and it had dug deep into her psyche, she wanted me to know.

I thanked her for telling me, and also thanked her for the 'Great Compliment' of telling me that I had taken a moving photo.

After all, it's not every day that a stranger I've met only one time will come forward to say a photo they've only seen once has lived with them and affected their lives so it's literally imprinted on their psyche and memory, as this woman had.

Life's interesting, and the consequences of taking just one good photo or well received photo can be immeasurable AND UNKNOWN.

It's something that's the potential legacy of every photographer who has ever taken and displayed to a large audience a good to excellent photograph -- that is to say, a 'memorable' one.

I wouldn't trade her comment for a slew of 7 ratings.

It means that much to me.

Coming as it did from outside the Photo.net fishbowl.

I look for opinions from people from all walks, even those who don't speak my language (or I don't speak theirs) and you'd be surprised how a good photo can be in breaking down communications barriers.

john

John (Crosley)

Wow!

What an endorsement and compliment.

Thank you so much.

Now if only my other posts were so well received . . . .

;~))

john

John (Crosley)