'Goofing'

This boy is waiting a bus along a Transit Street Corridor decorated

by murals, Seattle, Washington, in a warehouse district. Seattle

has revitalized this district with its mundane walls by turning them

over to artists and the results is a rich visual experience, which

passing motorists will never see, since the street is for transit

vehicles only. Your ratings and critiques are very much welcome.

(Please submit a helpful and constructive critique if you rate

harshly or negatively/Please share your superior knowledge to help

advance my skills.) Thanks and Enjoy! John.

Crop from bottom and level the horizon to make this superb. Also crop from left side to the black "border" leaving only the graffiti, and you've got a winner.

I think you may improve this photo by cropping it differently. Subject center is just not visually interesting. If you made it more of a panorama, say a 4x10 and kept the boy a little closer to the right hand side of the shot I think it would look better, none the less it is a neat shot.

I like this. Here is an alternate with the one degree CW tilt corrected, local contrast enhancement applied, and bit of added saturation...

Seldom have I been presented with so many good suggestions. This was just one of many frames, and although the "subject" "is" dead center, which violates even my usual rules, there are so many other "subjects" I felt that he became less of a "subject". I'm going to gather all your wonderful suggestions and try them out for a day or two and maybe try another posting -- or at least feel them out. Anybody else with a suggestion?

I am blown away after viewing your proposed revision to this image. It truly does it more than justice. This is what separates the accomplished from us beginners. The "tilt", contrast enhancement and saturation really do "make" the photograph. I probably will redo it and resubmit it for critique. Who knows? I will try to remember to give you credit, for it then becomes partly your work, and if I somehow forget, don't forget to pop in with a comment to take credit -- for I mean you to. With thanks again and for remembering the collegial spirit of Photo.net. John

BTW, I've got two laptops going and each shows the image differently. My Superlaptop Centrino processor, Compaq Prexario X1000 shows this photo as being pretty contrasty and that's the one I composed the image on, but when uploaded it appears not to have the contrast it shows on my screen, as revealed by my other laptop on download -- go figure. I'd be interested in more on what you 'selectively' emphasized on contrast rather than just guessing, as I have two images to go from (three actually). John.

Ordinarily I don't rate or photograph works of art of other people, including even architecture, etc., and was even mildly amused when Henri Cartier-Bresson who made a point of photographing nuns viewing nudes at a painting exhibition banned photography at his exhibition in SF in the '70s. I view such photographs as being derivative of the artists' works, including the original architect where applicable. However, in some cases, derivative works, in certain views, or in relationship to human subjects or their environment, take on special meaning, and, (in my opinion) become subject to being photographed and can then become part of "new" works of art. John

Viewing ratings so far, I notice about half the raters (4) gave ratings averaging "6" and equally as many gave it a "4" with little middle ranking of "5's" as is the usual case. Love it or pass on this one, I guess. This is just one of those photos you either "get and truly appreciate, flaws and all" or "don't get", it appears. John

with your above comments on derivative art, John. Photos of art works can look like they were shot for catalogues, or they can be transformed by some sort of interaction. It doesn't have to be with a human viewer - even a photo of two art works displayed together in some incongruous fashion can evoke humour! I wish I could think of a specific example, but I am sure you have seen the same thing!

My photo, "Rudeness With Panache?" with the woman giving the "finger" juxtaposed with just about any photo of a starched, uptight figure -- the Queen of England perhaps? Or many, many other juxtapositions. In fact subway advertisers often create such juxtapositions and I have one in my files from the Paris Metro which I won't post -- it's an ad for temporary workers, showing a worn out old (white) guy and the title in French saying "this guy has no future" and behind his freestanding billboard ten meters away, another, of a young black man, with vigor, saying that he's a 'cassueur' or some such -- which I take means that he's a winner or going somewhere -- (don't have that word in my vocabulary and it's probably slang anyway), but I get the idea, and it's used commercially. And a black succeeds in Paris when white doesn't, which is interesting in itself, and especially in view of the racial, ethnic divide the Parisians find themselves in with the flood of North African Muslims and central African immigrants who dominate certain arrondisements-districts-of Paris. (See my photo, in one of my Temp. folders -- 'Culture Clash--Parisian Style, in which two black African Parisian residents are grasping forearms while a white Parisian woman looks on somewhat askance.) John

that's an interesting point. Now I will be scanning billboards and magazine ads to look for evidence of just this sort of thing! Once again, you've made me open my eyes, John!

I visited your parisienne, John, and found her to be very interesting. Definitely a cultural juxtaposition, but her interest in the men makes a connection between them, I think! I wish I could have seen if either of them acknowledged her...

What I was referring to in the above post, of course, is when one of the main subjects is an actual piece of art - like you said, the nuns regarding the nude.... - another famous one (and I am terrible at remembering the names of artists!) - is a shot in a museum of two side-by-side paintings of reclining female figures - the clothed one with a single female viewer and the nude with a whole cluster of admirers!

You may have created a monster, John - I may start bombarding you with links once I see more of these!

This is the image with editing suggested/produced by David Miller. Although it adds saturation and thus alters the more washed out colors of the wall, it is inherently a stronger image than the original, and thus more worthy (if not more true to the original). He did correctly add rotation, and a bottom crop which greatly aided the image. Thanks David for your help and your collegialty. (I promised I'd thank you.) Of the suggested edits, this was truest to the original image, and from my point of view therefore, more desirable, as I believe in composing in the viewfinder whenever possible. John.