'Jump!'

The caption says it all for this carnival photo. Your ratings, critiques and

observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically,

or simply 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 couple of weeks every year in a relatively clean, somewhat more modern and relatively rapidly expanding suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, a group of Chechens or other ethnics from Russia set up their very small (fewer then ten rides) traveling carnival next to an immaculate (and empty) sports field - so empty there is a large fine even for stepping on the near-virgin turf.

While mosquitoes bite uncovered arms, legs, necks and faces in the late afternoon and early evening's late Spring and early summer growing heat, children try to ignore the bites and board the spare rides and seem to take the tawdry atmosphere in stride as they and parents concentrate on the same few rides that make the trek from who knows where year after year -- often screaming lungs out with delight, just as they do daily on the numerous local playgrounds.  

That's also a Ukrainian tradition -- delighted playground squeals all summer long.

Unofficially but everybody and the government agrees, 'Summer' in Ukraine begins long before the official 'scientific' summer, and starts no later than the first of June or even earlier and that start  agrees and coincides with the weather's change to hot and thundershowery, and the turning off central heat nationwide, unlike other areas of the Northern Hemisphere such as the US and Canads's Great Plains and Rocky Mountains and Canada's Shield, where snow can occur at any late Spring time, while Ukraine begins reliably to swelter.

This girl may have just eaten cotton candy, sold here, just as in Russian carnivals, same in German ones, and of course throughout the United State's innumerable itinerant and state and county fair carnivals.    

No circus or sideshow here, however, which is a shame as they are the perennial foundation of many great photographer's careers -- think animals, unusual performers, and wonderful,well-known photographers such as Mary Ellen Mark and others I'm sure you can name easily.

Best carnival I ever went to?  In rural Germany in Diemelstadt/Rhoden, north central Germany where a sausage salesman in a booth sold Wurst by the caseload.

Working alone with a microphone and very noisy loudspeaker that could be heard a huge distance his patter brought housewives in close and when the first housewfe bought she bought she thought three huge sausages, he gave her six, and so it went.  If a person bought six, they might walk away with eight, ten, or even twelve large wurst, all at incredibly low prices.  I've never ever seen such enthusiastic buyers in my life!  Or such a wonderful salesman.

A wurst salesman was the best salesman I've ever seen.

I think in a few hours he moved an entire truckload of wurst (very large German sausage) single handedly, and a day later, repeated the task and probably was known throughout Germany for his skills.

In Ukraine, except at bazaars where prices are usually higher than stores, most store prices generally are almost in lockstep, so 'bargains' are usually rather limited and 'bulk buying of food for discounts is almost unheard of so three kilos of meat is the price of one kilo tiimes three, with no discount for buying more, in almost every circumstance.

Nevertheless, especially in Kyiv, there are several store larger than Wal-Mart supercenters, from a French Farm and known as 'hypermarche' or hypermarkets which on the outskirts of every city and town in Freance.

These stores feature increasingly great selections and goods that can't be bought elsewhere often -- and for years sometimes at busy times is mobbed by eager Ukrainians who come in throngs sometimes by special free packed huge modern busloads from all over just to shop at these HUGE stores.

Ukrainian taste for Western shopping for the last several years at such stores, helps explain why in Kyiv and Lvov at least, Ukrainians have been willing to fight a war over increasing allegiance to the EU and the West (yesterday they allied with the EU formally, culminating the struggle that started the Russian upset with Ukraine.

In great part, a 'trip the store' helps explain a major event in geopolitics.

(And yes, there's real 'Western-mannered' real service in such huge French owned stores -- no trace of 'the customer is always wrong' remnants from Soviet times which remain here and there throughout parts of Ukraine and Russia (from experience, although that's disappearing).

john

John (Crosley)

 © 2014, John Crosley/Crosley Trust, all rights reserved, No reproduction or other use without express prior written permission from copyright holder, reserving all rights to PN through terms of service.  jc

john

This is the fifth post of this error-ridden post copied from Notepad.

Each time I post, I try to fix errors on Photo.net but they are rejected as 'spam' all erroneously.

Here is the original, error-ridden post, for the record.  Please read it for content, not grammar or spelling.

john

Once again, anti-spam software from PN has blocked my numerous editing changes and corrections needed to make this post above read properly.

It did so wrongfully, as it did ths post too, mistaking this original post for 'spam' making me write it two times before it would accept it.

This is a major pain in the ass and a deterrent to me, a member approaching 18,,000 comments, over half of them by me, and seen by some as a feature of PN.

I make changes or posts, but anti-spam software blocks it wronly, mistaking it for spam.

It's stupid.

It wastes my time.

Worse, one hand is partially paralyzed and I make key strikes with that hand's fingers that are now always 100% dead on, meaning there has to be correctios, which may insert software that PN's 'filter' mistakes as HTML from copying -- all a mistake of course.

If you are frustrated by mistakes such as misspellings or inability to follow one of the thoughts in my posts because of poor wording, wrong word insertion or other problem, remember, I know how to write properly and can fix any errors, but I often am blocked (1) in the original post and (2) when I try to correct a post, then (3) the editing window time runs out, and I am left having posted something that reflects on my as a fool.

It's more than uncomfortable; it's embarrassing.

I've made more than half the nearly 18,000 comments now under my photos, but if this keeps up, my numerous readers will have dto do without and I'll have to start my own web site.

I'd hate to do that and quit Photo.net

I like it here, but this is frustrating.

I make changes but software blocks changes.

It often blocks original posts so that when it acepts a post it may be written two to five times, and when a post is lenfthy as mine often are, confusion can creeep in on the fifth draft.

I can fix that, but if the fix it blocked, then my post becomes unreadable and is no contribution at all.

I know I have many readers; they write me or contribute to the posts.

For the post above, I made three attenmpts and on the third attempt I had to draft first on Notepad, and then it took the post, but Notepad has no spellcheck and experience with spellcheck shows that if I use it sometimes that will rsult in the anti-spam software kicking in and blocking either the post of the corrections.'

I'm damnned if I do, and I'm damnedif I don't as I try to get quality thoughts to readers.

I may (as I did above), make and post some few, sparese, edits to try to beat the time window clock.

Then I return to make more, and they're rejecte by anti-spam software wrongfully and/or the time has run out for editing.

it's frustrating and wastes my time and good humor.

Cara, please help me fix this for PN's many readers of these comments.

And for me, a ten-year member.

I never post HTML code. I never copy anything. The anti-spam software is trouble becuaws it fails to do what it's supposed to do and causes this major problem.

if it causes it for me, I'm sure it causes it for others, even if they don't complain.

I'm composing this for the third time, this time without spellcheck and on Notepad, something in ten years I never ws forced beefore to do.

I've changed to the Google Browser, and it has spellcheck. Is that the problem.

It if is, please fix YOUR software. I'm sticking with Google even if I have to quit this service.

The anti-spam software is defective; it doesn't accompish its intended purposew without blocking 'not coied' posts.

In other words, it may block spam but it also blocks legitimate posts and legitimate corrections indiscriinately.

It needs to be fixed or eliminated.

I have almost never complained about anything on PN in my ten years here; mark this almost a first

I'm a contributor and helper, not a hot head or a person who tries to cause trouble or test people's patience.

Please help me, and fix this problem.

Help my readers too, first and foremost, before I lose them all.

Thank you.

john

John (Crosley)

 You see this down here below?  

This below is useless crap, and five times on PN I've tried to delete it, but each attempt at deletion is met by a message my deletion attempt is spam, so you can just disregard it (if this message will be accepted).  jc

Oftenm even composing on a supposedly neutral medium such as notepad, copying then posting will bring the same result -- blockage by antii-spam software.

I'm at wits end, as it mainly affects longer posts and I'm rather 'fat fingered' meaning I don't always hit all the keys dead on first time and make lots of deletions and corrections as I compose, which I think the system somehow 'finds out about' and confuses for 'copying and wrongly thinks any possible marks from my fat-fingered errors being corrected that is embedded in code is 'spam' when in fact it is not.

Everything I post is custom.

Bar none.

Apologies if anything I post, seems not to read clearly or you come across a misspelling or grammatical error; I recognize they exist and could fix them if I had a longer editing period. Worse, I am partially paralyzed in a major hand, but the fight for the time of the open editing window to be extended has been fought and lost.

I guess unless and until the anti-Spam software is fixed, if I keep posting, this is the way things will be.

My sincere apologies if this is inconvenient to you as a reader. I am also inconvenienced as an author, since any error, my fault or not, makes me look bad, uneducated and careless.

The problem has become much worse lately.

Please indulge such errors, and don't hold them against me; I know better and could post better if my error fixes were not blocked erroneously by anti-spam software, as are many of my original posts.

John (Crosley)

Are you kidding me ? how did you manage to get that shot ? Simply amazing...

There were a lot of 'non-WOW' shots that preceded and succeeded this shot, but I had the basic idea that this setup could yield a wonderful shot, and I was right.

That's my view of course, but obviously one shared apparently by you -- I'll put this easily in my top 100 color shots of my career, and climbing -- and the competition for such a spot is pretty strong.

I live to take such photos.

And as to the 'how' there was a lot of 'bobbing and weaving' with an ultrahigh shutter speed, a special preset focus point fired whenever she entered the focus range, a wide depth of field on a very wide angle camera (but not set to its widest angle) and just some good luck - but of course, 'good luck follows the well prepared, and I was well prepared' as usual, feeling with almost certainty this situation was capable of producing a near world class photo.

Thanks for the recognition.

john

John (Crosley)

now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.

Above typed edited, corrected, and saved in  plain text format *.txt

Then highlighted copied and pasted here as a critique.