mimice-BW-DSC_0192

A vintage work perfectly presented!

Vignetting appears in the corners, it happened once to me when I had an UV filter and a polarizer on the lens!

Best regards

PDE

A great natural and effective image. Love the lighting and B&W treatment. Best regards Ken.

Many thanks on your visit and an affirmative comments - I appreciate it... just a day on the beach...

All the best!!! 

"Did you bring the pole?"  "No, I thought you did!"  ... :-) Mike

Heh, heh...Thanks!

All the best!!!

Splendid image with a great use of B/W!

Grazie tanto!

A fun shot with, to my own taste, a strong conversion to black and white. Nicely composed and nice sense of relationship of umbrella to the rest of the subject and to the environment as a whole. For me, the miss is the person in the water, awkwardly blocked by the edge of the umbrella. Even though the theme is hidden faces, that face just seems off to be partially cut off like that.

Agree with Fred about the man in the water. Easily cloned out of course with today's technology. But it doesn't detract much from the main impetus of the photo, and I wouldn't have even noticed him if I wasn't examining this closely as a POW.

Technicals seem fine, though for this type of photo, where the humor is the focus, I don't think they are particularly important as long as the main subject stands out. Not sure if anything is added by it being B and W, though perhaps it provides for more emphasis on the humor aspect.

Bill, for your consideration, check out THIS PHOTO by Elliott Erwitt, someone who often uses humor though this particular Erwitt photo is not as humorous as it is clever and full of story and romance. Regardless, though, its focus is not technique in the way Weston's fine art prints are so much about craft and technique (in addition to all the other significant things, of course). So, to that extent, I understand and agree with what you're saying. Yet, I think it's important to notice that there are so many ways in which the technique bolsters the narrative and adds to it. I think that's often the way technique is used, not so much to call attention to itself as glorious or sparkling or brilliant but to serve the photo. And, even when technique is not the focus or the point, it's a vital aspect of a lot of photos, even ones where we don't think about it. Look at the Erwitt photo in terms of composition, the effect of lighting on the story, the way the focus shift helps tell the story and bring out the subject and almost spell out romance. Technique is by far not the first thing one notices about Erwitt's photo and it's not a focus of the photo, but it plays a very significant role.

I chose the Erwitt photo because its backdrop is also the sea. Note the difference in the sense of depth created (in the POTW, it almost feels as if the umbrella is touching the mountains in the background), the difference in the dynamics of the lighting between the Erwitt and the POTW, the almost metallic quality of the skin tone of the legs of the people in the POTW compared to the skin of the woman's face in the Erwitt. While we all may not overtly or consciously notice thse things, I'd submit that it all has an effect on our viewing of the photos. I'm not saying the POTW should look more like the Erwitt. It has less depth to it and the largeness of the umbrella may to a certain extent be wanting that sort of flatter treatment. But what I am saying is that technique is playing a very important role in both.

Thanks for the comparison photo Fred. I agree with your assertions, so can't find argument to discuss, but I do wonder if the POW photographer was even considering DOF and such, or if he just simply came across this scene and shot with whatever settings he had on. I know I've come across humorous scenes and am typically much more concerned about capturing the scene than what my technique is. In fact, I've recently taken to shooting in program mode often and letting the camera figure it out - plus, it's easy to slip into Av and Tv modes as needed. The Erwitt photo looks like there was definitely some thought to technique as well as subject matter, and I agree the latter is enhanced by the former.

This photo is strongly dependent on whether you find the umbrella masking the faces and bodies amusing, or interesting. For whatever reason I don't much, although I can see that I might if the photo was different, so unfortunately this shot does little for me. I agree with the others: the man in the water really detracts from the effect. I am not a great believer in cloning things out, but in this case I would do it.