black and white: then to now Chatelet

A member suggested I don't take photos like I used to, so I went out

to see if I could. This is from yesterday, posted in my Early B&W

folder, to which I post regularly. Please compare and let me know

what you think about how this measures up to the earliest work from

long ago. (some of which I keep posting as there was not that much

of the BEST work that was not destroyed). (If you rate harshly or

very negatively, please honor me with a comment/Please share your

superior knowledge to help improve my photography.) Thanks!

Enjoy! John

I posted three photos in the last two days, and this was the first.

 

The other two did far better in the ratings, but for my taste, this was one of the best I've produced in quite a while, one of my very best in my opinion. (And I shoot for myself).

 

If I could consistently take photos of this genre and caliber from day to day, I would just stick to such captures, but such moments are few and far between.

 

Any suggestions, however, about cropping (with your own example posted perhaps?)?

 

I might be tempted to show the 'original' and you might then see what an 'art' cropping this original was (one crop to the right, but absolutely essential, as it 'transformed' the photo).

 

John (Crosley)

John: When I first saw it I thought; Chatelet hasn't changed much in 40 some years...As a kid, I loved riding the Metro often unknown to my parents, I would go to the local transit station (St.Cloud), jump over the hot 3rd rail and get a free Metro Ride, or buy a cheap Carnet. Loved the older noisy units which matched these old stations so well.

It was in response to a reader's long ago critical comment that suggested I wasn't photographing to the standard of my earlier work that I took this, which I believe matches or even exceeds the style and standard of my early work -- a challenge that caused me to take and post this, and in that sense it is 'retro'.

 

It is interesting to me that in a sense it is 'retro' to you in that it dredged up old memories -- I was unaware of your Parisian upbringing, and perhaps you still live the life of a Parisian, and I was simply unaware of it because of your Anglo sounding name.

 

This is by far the favorite of my recent black and white captures, and I'm interested that it got such poor ratings, while others of my recently-posted photos are high on the TRP pages though one was completely uninspired and randomly shot, and was posted that day or the next.

 

Go figure.

 

I go with my heart . . . .

 

Those were good enough photos -- and one was a 'gem' but this one is a rarity -- something that comes along rarely, and in my mind is real 'art' as I express it, and matches my early 'style' to a 'T', I think.

 

Perhaps others feel differently, but despite my request for comparison, I haven't heard from them or anybody on the subject.

 

I'm glad this uncovered some memories of those cheap carnets and those noisy wagons from your youth. I vastly prefer the rubber-tired wagons, having spent considerable time in New York City with its cacophony of subway sounds from roar of metal on metal wheels to track, the screech of the brakes (none of which ever seemed to be in good repair when I rode them for eight years steadily over varying years), and the absolute screech of the third rail contact as it pressed hard on the third rail, particularly as the Broadway subway went around the circle to go North again at Battery Station. (How's them for memories?)

 

My legs are almost recovered from walking in Paris, especially trying to go up those elevated steps and the steps in the underground which haphazardly go down and then up to accommodate later-built tracks over the pedestrian pathways . . . (it's gonna a be hell when Paris decides to accommodate the mobility impaired -- read 'physically handicapped' -- wheelchairs and crutches -- which the Metro is not now -- except so-called 'Canadian crutches'.

 

But it's still a wonderful system, and I love it, expecially its advertising.

 

Stay tuned for some of that.

 

Best wishes, John F.

 

John ©

There are my 'theme' 'threes' in this photo, but 'hidden' somewhat. Look carefully at the circumflex over the 'A' in Chatelet and the two arrows at the right side -- they're really mirrors, aren't they?

 

'Threes' strike again in my photos.

 

John

 

;~))