manhattan, june, 2016 Untitled

Great expression, wonderfully caught, and here I do like the black and white. Don't get mad, but in this I would have preferred a greater depth of field because that face in the background has the potential to be such a nice foil and a fortuitous secondary character but it's a little too much of a blur for it to work effectively. The dof gives it a little too much distance and stops the interaction. While a greater dof might take away a bit from his expression as solo subject, I think it would add to the photo and effectively support his expression which might, in fact, elevate it.

I think I understand your point.  Certainly you were right on target about the DOF.  I was using a zoom set at 16mm with settings of ISO 800, 1/160 sec., and f3.5.  When I shot this photo, I never gave any thought at all to the possibility of a secondary character, since I felt that this man's posture - leaning a bit forward, looking at the ground, and smiling - was enough to carry the image.  In fact, I felt afterwards that his smile was the result of his seeing me shoot the photo.