A Bite and a Smoke -- New French Style

Two Frenchmen stop everything for a smoke and a bite, but signs of a

faster paced culture are beginning to show in the French who

traditionally languish over their meals. Roissy, France -- Charles

de Gaulle Airport serving Paris. Your ratings and comments are most

welcome. (Please honor me with a constructive comment if you rate

this harshly or negatively/please share your superior knowledge to

help me improve my photography). Thanks and Enjoy. John

I really like this one,well cought moment,W

Again you're playing with the lines of the human body, with people sitting at the bar and you got another winner.

I would have liked to see this one stop darker: maybe the man in the foregroung would have been silhouetted (and thus enhanced the contrast with the other one) and you would have gained also some more detail on the man in the background.

This is a film image, and the information is not on the print. However, it's probably on the negative. At some future time I'll probably have a very custom print made of the negative, to take out the highlights of the jacket of the man, right, and also examine the negative carefully to see if the negative has the information that would allow the circle around the sign, upper left, to be completed. Thanks for your good suggestion. Sometimes you "know" when you've taken a winner, forget about it, and then when you see a batch of film developed get excited to see an image like this one all over again. John

John, great depth this picture creates. On one hand you see a clear view of a man eating and in the foreground a bit more then a shadow/silhouette of a man smoking. It;'s a bit like a mirrorimage. Cropping could be in mho a bit tighter and the brioche doree text could in my mind be totall erased but then again that would be going further then editing. So my last word is GREAT.

Excellent shot, John! A little theatrical, as if part of a play called "For a smoke and a bite", of course. The man on the fg is still part of the public (no light on him) and he's going through his replicas for the last time before stepping on the scene, where the other character is on full action.:-)You know these modern plays where the public is also taking part in the show. And it's the light alone to decide who's the actor and who's the public. The visual impact is terrific. Regards. Blago

commentary and art coincide. I treasure your comment because it's so out of the ordinary and original. It involves a new way of looking at this photograph that I never, ever would have thought of. That's the special treasure of thoughtful critiques, and why I value my comments and critiques so highly -- I think I have some of the best critiques on all of PN these days -- (maybe equal to those in your portfolio). You and the Picture This crew and all others are always welcome in my portfolio and folders. I always seem to learn something, even about images I've been looking at for 35 years. (I guess I'm a little too intuitive, even though I've been a photo editor in the past, and I'm supposed to be articulate, at least about things like composition.) John

I have many images from this restaurant area underneath Charles De Gaulle Airport that are worthy of posting, including one other that is posted, has received nearly identical ratings and views, and entirely stands on its own (vertical, different subject, quite a different theme).

 

But there is a difference between me and many other photographers, at least in theme.

 

I think I know when to stop.

 

For instance, in my well-received single folder photo, 'Drift Fishing the Kalama' I have enough wonderful photos to make an entire folder just of those images, and it was an almost Herculean task just to choose one image from 45 to 60 wonderful images, from wide angle to telephoto--all sorts of views and various expressions on the fishermen's faces and differing views of that 'liquid mercury' that the water looked like in that image.

 

But in the end, I posted just one photo. Period.

 

I get tired of folders or portfolios where one photographer takes just one type of image and that's it. Take it or leave it. View one time and you've seen it all. Forever. Good photographs -- maybe even world class, but after one viewing, that's all she wrote.

 

I like to think that anyone viewing my work can discover new things from time to time and a trip to my images will be like a trip to the backroads, with each sidetrip or each lingering drive bringing a new visual treat or some new 'understanding' of what it is that I do, as eclectic as it all is.

 

Maybe I'm just full of myself.

 

Maybe not.

 

John

Great :)

Biliana

I love this --i love this!!!! I can't say why. Just it is so 'in the moment' for me.

Cheers,

Lee 7/7

(I think street photography should have its own rating system-- this would be much higher then, for the content and imapact value)

I read now of French people who love their family meals but now confess to having a McDonald's on the run . . . American influence has invaded Parisian gastronomy. This is next to McDonald's in the underground level of Paris's Charles De Gaulle aeroport, actually situated at nearby Roissy, France.

 

So, what started out as just a 'photo opportunity' (without its obvious political connotations, Lee), became a 'biting' social commentary on French dietary habits.

 

In fact, this shot is emblematic of a systemic change in French culture, I find.

 

I am so glad you like it; it's popular but not as much as I expected.

 

John