'Dark Orbs'

When Henri Cartier-Bresson proclaimed that the moment a photo should be

taken was when everything aligned 'just so' in my view he wasn't kidding, as

this photo of a bike club member against an interesting background seems to

illustrate. Your ratings, critiques and observations are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically, 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

John,

I like this image for its simplicity of forms and shades and tightness of composition. I notice the harmony between the circular symbol on the man's shirt and the circular shapes on the wall. His rounded head against the bright background seems to have merged among the black rounded patterns. Finally, it is somewhat surprising to see the big macho guy that he is, paying attention to abstract wall art. You may have brought out the human character in him.

You take a quarter to a half million photos, emphasize interesting backgrounds, stop at the most unusual backgrounds, learn composition and what appeals to viewers really well, aim your lens at the appealing background and hope.

Nine years later, reviewing captures you missed looking for surefire winners, you look more carefully at a GREAT download with 20 to 30 viewworthy captures and at the end, you see this among the captures that could be cropped, crop it 'just so,' then voila, you're an 'instant atist'.

Nine years, and voila, genius.

As my photoshop skills get better, and I get more experience, I see more and more, and more on top of all that, and the more I re-see what made me take lots of photos I later wondered 'why did I take that' -- and realize I was not crazy when I took them but just on review had taken them before my time to review them and realize their worth.

But I take and always have taken tons of stinkers too.  This was one exceptional download, however, just amazing, and shooting the ghetto, is as hard as hard can be to get great stuff -- until as I have now realized it was just my own prejudice -- the good stuff was always there ,but I had my own personal feelings that said 'the ghetto can be interesting' but for it to be really good' it's gotta be great and not connected with the ghetto.

I now realize I was just wrong, and it only took 9-11 years to come to that realization.

I'm rewarded with some really interested stuff, however, and it's blown me away after all this time 'aging'.

Thanks for the astute comment.

Which was right on point.

john

John (Crosley)

Yes,  this  image  has a content and story to tell  and  in the same time, it  is  powerful image. Everything is  working  well on this  image, Congratulation  for your work and shame  on the  PN community to not  noticing a great  photograph. Colorful  over saturated  sunrise and sunset,  or  naked  girlfriend yes, but  good  photography, no. 

Cheers.

One of my quibbles with Bresson's work is that it often seems almost too perfectly timed and the geometries of his compositions often leave me cold. This photo does not leave me cold and there's delight to be found here, but I actually would quarrel with the particular moment and the placement of the man. I think a more random placement against the wonderful background might have offered more life to the moment. It comes across as overly deliberate to me, whether or not it was made that way.

It's a rarity in from 1/4 to 1 million images to find even a crop from an image in which everything in 'action' works so well, but I plan for such events, but shame on me when I fail to recognize them for almost a decade.

Thank you for a very kind review; this photo is at the top of my list of unexpected 'finds', and the result of reviewing thousands of unreviewed photos (e.g., photos that were passed over without 'serious' review, and of which I'm finding hundreds and may be thousands of really good (GOOD to even occasionally GREAT) photos).  

There's a place for oversaturated sunsets, but the trick is finding a photo like this that will find its own level . . . . which you state you believe (as I agree) is a high place indeed.

Thanks, Bela.  

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you for the compliment (backhanded even a little -- 'doesn't leave you cold').

In fact, if this seems a little too contrived that's nature's fault and the fault of my motor drive, as this fellow was racing by lickety split.  I caught him at the left and right of the frame and right here, JUST RIGHT as the bear would say.

This was not 'composed' on purpose on ground glass, but instead, I played the odds that something good would develop, and if it's 'too perfect' or just too good in composition for your tastes, I might have cropped it differently, included many more black spots, left or right, thrown the balance off, and completely ruined this photo and made you write then (I think), whyever did you post this absolute piece of nonsense.

There's no winning for losing.

In any case, it's a photo, I'm proud of, and this same background yielded another really good photo -- see if you can find it.  

Good, often unusual backgrounds are to be cherished.

;~))

I always enjoy your contributions Fred.

john

John (Crosley)

One thing I was going to add even before I noticed your response is that I don't generally feel that your photos are too perfectly timed or deliberate. So, what has left me cold about the exhibitions I've seen of Bresson's work would not be at play in browsing through your portfolio. And, as a matter of fact, it would be a very different experience seeing this photo in an exhibition of your work vs. looking at it strictly as a solo photo, as it appears here. The "perfectness" of the timing and placement probably wouldn't bother me as much given that you wouldn't be repeating that approach to street work in a lot of your photos, which tend to be well composed but nevertheless spontaneous and less deliberate. I think Bresson repeats it too much and it's pervasive and somewhat enervating in his work for me. Thinking about this confirms my belief that a body of work is often much more important than any individual photo in understanding the expression of a photographer or any artist.

Nature is never completely responsible for even our unintended results. I firmly believe a buildup of our own experience, history, and aesthetic eye will often lead to results that seem to us unintended. There is certainly more and less deliberation to our various photos but we are a part of even the most non-deliberate of our photos. If nothing else, when we go through the photos we've taken and decide which ones to work with and which ones to show, we are owning them and putting a stamp of approval on them. That makes it much more than nature's doing. At the end, whether deliberate or not, whether an accident of nature or not, the photo is what it is and tells what it tells.

I enjoyed tremendously reading your addendum to your critique.

I personally thank you for expressing yourself so thoroughly and sotto voce making any comparison to my work and my ideel, Henri Cartier-Bresson. Whether YOU like him or not or his work or not, and whether you find his body of work a bit too refined and perfect, it's what I strive for and can never reach.

He's the man who told me (without seeing my work) to go other ways and keep photography as a hobby or an avocation, telling me that there was no paid future in photography, as even he could not get work then (1969), not far from where you reside in fact.

In any case, I've always done it 'my way' intentionally or unintentionally' or a blend of the two.  I just keep finding more and more stuff as I mine my old work and now understand my older shooting better, which is a very grateful feeling.

Best to you, and thanks. 

john

John (Crosley)

Well said, Jack.

Nice turn of phrase; couldn't have written it better myself.

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

I did what I usually don't, but his speed required it.

I shot large, let it sit for nine years and then after passing it by with a sigh for several months, returned to it and on inspiration CROPPED it, something I seldom do to the extreme, and this is a severe crop -- in fact the crop here is as much a work of art as anything.

If I had been able to see and shoot just this and nothing more or less, I'd be a contenduh for the Pulitzer.  I usually hate shooting large and cropping but this result is worth the effort and the inspiration, and indeed it is inspiration.

john

John (Crosley)

Al theorizing, historic anecdotes are indeed valuable. However, in a world where there are literally billions of images floating around us, when one such image captures the attention of someone the way this one does, so powerfully, decisively and concretely all else comes in second. This image nonetheless, is just a perfect example of the permanence of classic photographic concepts of very high caliber and quality. Thus, definitely a "grabber".

DG

But Thanks.

I lost track of this for several years because it had the familiar _DSC without any file number designation in front of it, but had worked it up before with another in another day, another setting, then when I located the geographic area and the approximate date, zeroed in on the time and date and continued research of my downloads, and lo and behold, the other one was very good and I"m still working to make it better (it's also a classic), but this one is a brand new discovery, though several years old.

I am thrilled by your assessment; as you note, daily we are assaulted by attempts at 'classics' that never quite make it; my hard drives need a good going over that may take years and I guarantee there are as good or better, and I"m taking photos every day, in numerous genres, even from frame to frame.

It keeps me younger and fresh.

Thanks so much.

john

John (Crosley)

Dark Orbs , 

:--)

It's a great compliment to me you've been so busy commenting on my photos; thank you so much my friend.

john

John (Crosley)

A more careful look at his jacket reveals he is a member of a 'low rider' automobile club, not a motorcycle club.

My error, for which I apologize.

john

John (Crosley)