new -- color & b&w 'Improvisation'

It's Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and this woman, waiting for a

bus outside a French-owned Hyper-Marché (hint: bigger than a Wal-

Mart Super Center) in Kyiv, Ukraine, waits in a drenching

thundershower and improvises to keep dry with her new purchase.

Your ratings, critiques and observations are invited and most

welcome. If you rate or critique harshly 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

Excellent shot, John, one of those moments that all of us recognize immediately. The expressions, both the woman with the basket and the one behind her, make this picture both dynamic and specific.

I was a ways away when I spotted this; she was looking the other way and didn't see me approaching -- looked the opposite direction (to her right) and voila.  I shot with an ultra wide, not having time even to zoom out, and cropped to the same aspect ratio with my 24 MP camera and voila.

 

I cherish this shot; for me it's what 'street' is all about.  You go out and sortta like Forest Gump said 'You never know what you're gonna get'.  I wish I could take a few terabytes of such shots . . . . . but you gotta see them, get the camera in to position, not be seen, the subjects have to keep their positions during this process, no matter how ultra fast, then if you're lucky, you've got a shot to show.  It's like golf; there are lots of misses and shots that 'might have been' if one had been quicker, invisible, the camera more silent, and so forth. 

 

Thanks again for letting me know your thoughts.  Best wishes.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Yeah, street shooting is a lot like big game hunting. You gotta be quick because there are no second chances. It has a certain element of unpredictability, even danger sometimes. I guess that's what I like about it.

It's no co-incidence that perhaps the greatest 'street' shooter of them all (they didn't coin the term 'street shooter until sometime just before he died about the time I joined Photo.net in the early-middle 2000s I think), Henri Cartier-Bresson, really was a big game hunter in Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Africa, where he almost died from a tropical disease, and also saw Muncasi's photo of African youths plunging into a lake that transformed his view of photography -- even though to his death he called photography 'instant drawing'.

 

He loved the spontaneity of hunting -- no going back, the experience of living life, which he did to the fullest, and on transforming to a full time photographer, the idea he could indulge his wishes to create with a lifestyle all his own that indulged his inability I think, to sit still long enough to create what he I think felt was 'serious art' in a studio or elsewhere, while at the same time defining (I think and so do others) the medium of candid/documentary photography.  That's a term he never used, and I never heard before I came to Photo.net, after 35 years of being in, on, or around photography and photographers -- even living with them and among them.

 

I think he felt a stepchild of the arts because he felt photography was a 'craft' and not 'serious art' because it was so spontaneous, and so felt almost to the end of his life when he got a new appreciation for his life's work because of the adulation his work received.

 

I aspire to be my own guy; I'm a very poor HCB imitator.

 

;~)) 

 

He scared he off when he told me at age 23 how hard it was to make a living for him then at photography, in a brief conversation (very brief) that sent me packing, and not knowing who the heck this guy HCB was, I did recognize his greatness from the work he was displaying at a prominent San Francisco museum on a world tour.

 

But he had the guts to kill big game; I never did.

 

I just shoot my cameras and try for 'big game; - a facial expression or two, a juxtaposition or two, a winning composition -- that will do me fine.

 

Thanks for the reply.

john

 

John (Crosley)

Fabulous capture. I like the sidelong glances, they bring real vitality to the shot

Sometimes it's those more subtle things like 'sidelong glances' that can elevate a photo; I felt that this one was one (raters so far are more mixed, but unlike you and some others, most of them don't have ten years on this service and know the value of capturing something so elusive as 'twin sidelong glances' I think).

 

In any case, it stands high in my estimation and higher yet because of your evaluation guided by your experience. Thank you so much for letting me know your estimation -- it's very heartening.

 

You know, like me, that a tub to ward off the rain is so-so, but coupled with those glances it's somehow 'more nuanced and complex,' right?

 

Best to you.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

" you gotta see them, get the camera in to position, not be seen, the subjects have to keep their positions during this process, no matter how ultra fast, then if you're lucky, you've got a shot to show. It's like golf; there are lots of misses and shots that 'might have been' if one had been quicker, invisible, the camera more silent, and so forth."

Some of you all make it look so easy. It comforts me to know that you go through the same challenges I do, you just stick with it. There's hope yet.

John, this is a really nice one. I would love to read the thought bubble of the woman to the far left.

Amy

Every once in a while, I get a critic who says I 'drown the fish' with too much explanation.

 

My response is threefold.

 

1.  I write for those who are interested in reading, often newbies and those who are very interested in the Process of how these photos come about, whether they are newbies or have tons of experience.

 

2.  If they don't want to read these remarks, they don't have to.

 

3.  The incoming comments, e-mails and other feedback runs ten to one in favor of comments like yours -- positive feedback that says my goal in attempting to share my experiences and knowledge attains its purpose.

 

After all Photo.net is a sharing site, and your remark epitomizes the ideal response for my intended audience.  Some of that audience does not know at all how to take such photos, is intimidated by the thought, but some want to learn how, or at least want to learn if they're cut out for the task or just experience vicariously through words the process of how to create such photographs.

 

Others are more experienced but 'street' photography is an isolating task, filled with frustration, goals attempted but often never achieved, almost always kept private and never discussed because no one else sees what you saw you MIGHT HAVE captured in the viewfinder but missed due to one or more of the reasons cited above, and seeing through the viewfinder is a solitary experience.

 

I'm glad for your comment -- it makes this whole process of commenting and sharing experiences worth while.

 

Sometimes small things, such as the two sideways glances can make or break a photo; one wonders (as you rightly do) what IS that woman thinking, and that's the essence of a good photograph -- it  causes one to engage the eye and the mind, and forces in a welcome way one's eye to linger and to forget somewhat immediate surroundings and transport briefly to the scene of the photograph and wonder -- why?  or how?  

 

So, in two ways, you've told me the whole process of (1) explaining and (2) the taking itself, has been worthwhile for which I am grateful.

 

Thank you so much.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

Hi John. Very interesting capture. Technically perfect. All the expressions here are fantastic and the title you've chosen is the cherry on the cake ... No one like you to capture these everyday scenes... Kind regards

The captions of course are interchangeable, but just strike me, sometimes at the scene, even before taking the photo, and sometimes I take the photo to fit a caption.

 

Other times, I caption long after, and on two services, the same photo may have two different captions, or even in color and black and white on the same service, but since I wrote captions as part of a job for AP for a year, I have experience in making them interesting, plus 2,000 of them for this service alone.

 

I almost die to see a scene like this and record it before it deteriorates into nothingness, so I rush when I can, and since I had a very wide angle lens and was very far away, I had to rush over to capture the scene; luckily the woman did not spy me or my camera until afterward.

 

Yours is a wonderful, glowing praise -- far more than I could ever have commissioned if I here commissioning comments, and of course it's chips fall where they may, so thank you for the kind words -- they make my day plus the others above who commented similarly.

 

I accept disparaging remarks as well; a comment needn't be glowing if it is helpfully critiquing, so keep that in mind.

 

I purposely don't comment much or rate on others' works to keep those who rate and comment on my works pure - but believe me I watch those others' works. and I know who the excellent photographers are who leave comments -- so go look in a mirror --- I know you're in there, Ricardo as an accomplished photo artist, even if you don't see comments from me.

 

;~)

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

I specialize in NOT taking photos of celebrities.

 

It is my goal to transform small, offbeat or oddball and fleeting moments like this brief moment and memorialize them in an interesting way that reflects on the human condition AND puts my stamp as a photo artist on them.

 

Thank you experienced commenters/photo.net veterans for your kind comments on this 'little' photo, almost of a moment of nothingness, which I have plucked out of 'thin air' and transformed into a memorable moment.

 

The theory that a moment doesn't really happen unless it is saved, preserved and seen may apply to this moment, and furthermore, it's the act of 'seeing it' in an 'artistic manner' as opposed, say, to surveillance footage or the Google Street camera's all-seeing eye.

 

The photographer must choose the subject and the moment, and if not in place, must GET INTO PLACE and choose the moment to memorialize.

 

Some may call that a 'craft', but for my money it's an 'art'.

 

Just as making fine art from glass in Venice or Seattle may require craftsmanship but ultimately it's artistry.

 

As the famous French artist queried Henri Cartier-Bresson 'Why did you press the shutter then?' to which Cartier-Bresson replied:  'Why did you put a daub of yellow there on your canvas?'  Touche.

 

I am heartened that members of such long standing are commenting on this 'very small moment' and 'very small photograph' memorializing a 'minute moment of life' which I found a little poignant and humorous.

 

Thank you commenters. (and future commenters, even if you are more recent members).

 

john 

 

John (Crosley)

 

Interesting street story!

It's interesting that long after I joined this service it took a world expert to tell me that many of such photos as this 'told stories', which you can tell me right away.  I'm just so stupid about simple things sometimes.

 

Thank you, my wonderful photographer colleague.

 

Keep safe.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

great photo

Thank you.

 

An unqualified 'great photo' from you is a very scarce compliment.

 

I remember an earlier photo that seems to have caught your eye, a Mexican woman and her brood in a fast food restaurant.

 

The woman hardly noticed me if at all; her daughter, hanging around, seemed to disregard me; the very young boy seemed outright hostile to me.

 

Your remark:  'You caught a moment' was memorable because it was unqualified, and seemed to indicate it was pleasing to you -- you are a very difficult and discerning critic.

 

Best to you, Meir.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)