'Heartbreaker': Seeing Eye Dogs Have Their Limits

The message on the woman's top reads 'Heartbreaker' but this blind

man is totally unaware and his 'seeing eye' dog can give him no

clue. Place: Train Platform, Amsterdam, Centraal (train) Station,

Amsterdam, Holland. Note the colors of poster and train. Your

ratings and comments are invited and most welcome. If you rate

harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment/Please share your superior knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Again, that perfect mixture of real public life and invented public life. The two...so... irreconcileable (sp) and so at odds with each other. You are a master! Excellent find, and perfectly composed and executed IMO

I posted this nine days ago and got not one rating or comment. It's the only photo I recall pulling in the last year.

 

It's one of my finest ever photos of this genre, or maybe any. I would want to be known for a photo such as this, yet it is hardly one that draws rates or comments.

 

Go figure.

 

I guess, though, that when culling my images, even I passed it over initially until I took a second look and said 'Wow!

 

Notice the color matching? Couldn't have planned it better.

 

When there are trains/streetcars/trams/buses, passing, I often wait to press the shutter until they're going by, and choose a slow shutter speed for the blur, though I must admit the lower light under the roof there in Amsterdam's Centraal Station (downtown) was mostly why the train, rear, is blurred, not any superior planning on my part. (I now plan after seeing this photo.)

 

But it came out pretty good, though, didn't it?

 

Thanks for the comment; it made my day.

 

John

Great composition. The train gives a sense of velocity, so real in urban lifes. The girl presents the desire that makes everything going. The blind man representing the human limitations and stubbornness. Very happy moment for you! 77

Yes, a very happy moment for me to see the ratings on this photo.

 

But if you read above, you see that it previously was posted and taken down when there was not ONE rate or comment -- not one. And the rates and comments were slow this time also, but now they're very heartening. Sometimes it takes a while to 'get the ball rolling.'

 

Your analysis of the photo is excellent -- first class. I couldn't have explained my own photo better; when I post this in my Presentation, 'Photographers, Watch Your Background' where it ultimately will end up (for sure), I probably will either paraphrase or incorporate your analysis, because it's so succinct and correct.

 

Thank you for such a succinct, accurate and thoughtful analysis.

 

And I overlooked this photo when I first examined my thumbnails -- maybe because I couldn't easily make out the printing on the woman's top 'Heartbreaker' -- such a happy coincidence -- that wording.

 

John (Crosley)

I recall taking five frames, even trying for a vertical (portrait) view, as this man slowly moved along the platform, and this was the first frame.

 

It's amazing to me how so many times the best frame so often either is the first or the last.

 

Here, the train moving in the background with its blue, yellow and white paint style, absolutely matches the blue, yellow and white outfit of the woman on the poster (did you notice that?), for a most happy circumstance and coincidence (sometimes the photo gods do smile).

 

This photo would have been problematic to take at best without a D2X camera with its large viewfinder for starters, but more importantly without a 70~200 E.D. V.R. (vibration reduction) lens.

 

That giant lens allowed me to use an extremely slow shutter speed under the roof canopy of this 'indoor' train station, on a wintery day with limited (sun)light and illumination, hold the 'subjects' firmly in place for maximum sharpness and still use so slow a shutter speed that the train in the background which was not moving very rapidly was caught as a blur - giving the illusion of great speed. (After all, this is the Centraal -- Central -- Station of Amsterdam, and all trains stop, so this train either was stopping or starting from one end or another of its platform behind this blind man and his guide dog -- so it cannot have been going fast at all.

 

After years of taking trains from the Amsterdam C.S., I can seldom if ever remember seeing a train 'roll through' the station at speed, and conclude that this train was stopping or starting on one of the long platforms (the shorter trains stop or start at one or the other end of the long platforms.)

 

The vibration reduction lens has just about revolutionized shooting for a hand-holding guy like me who does not use a monopod or tripod because they're too ungainly and bulky.

 

Although I'm an extremely steady shooter (despite some right hand paralysis/shakiness), and can hold at very low speeds with conventional lenses, I can routinely get some shots at 200 mm at 1/5 second if my hands are steady, and not even braced against anything.

 

This capture was slightly longer, probably at 1/10th to 1/15th second, but no shorter, although I haven't doublechecked my EXIF data.

 

And, with a digital sensor of reduced size, this is the equivalent of a 300 mm crop with a f 2.8 lens. If one were shooting film with the same lens, there'd be one-third more to the frame, and it would have had to be cropped, destroying the 'perfection' of such a ful-frame digital capure.

 

(Errata: this is noted as unmanipulated, but the lens, at full or nearly full aperature -- f2.8 or so, did not place the man and dog in full sharpness, as they were out of the plane of maximum sharpness, so they were 'selected' by me, and 'sharpened' somewhat,using 'smart sharpen in Phtoshop CS2.

 

That means this photo was manipulated and it wrongly is marked 'unmanipulated'.

 

Other than that one manipulation and some adjustment of levels, brightness and contrast overall as would be done by a giant photo printing machine with film, this is what showed on the digital screen at the back of the camera. (I don't like to Photoshop my captures -- I'd prefer to go take a new photo instead.)

 

This explanation is for those who have inquired about 'how do you take such photos?' or 'how do you take 'street photos, I want to but I'm too shy . . . ' -- I get a slow but steady stream of inquiries about such things, and I try to 'explain' such things from time to time -- to share how I do such things, knowing that there's really no 'magic' and further that no member's going to go out and copy what it is I do and suddenly 'steal my thunder'.

 

(for those of you who are NOT interested, thanks for bearing with this somewhat detailed explanation.)

 

John

This photo, simple appearing, successfully incororates several photographic and compositional devices.

 

Old--young.

 

Stylish/Dowdy

 

Independendent/dependant

 

static (man-poster)/dynamic (train)

 

In focus-sharp/blurry

 

hip/not hip

 

'fast'--girl/slow-man

 

aware/unaware

 

thirds/halves compositionally

 

woman in poster attaches to top/man attaches to bottom (platform)

 

Colors--train--poster--exact matches.

 

Who would've thought from a simple photo?

 

 

John

very nice street picture. Perhaps, my unique critique is about this empty space at left side. I think you should to crop it. Nice anyway

Sometimes 'empty space' fills a purpose -- here the 'empty space' fills my purpose -- as a counterbalance to the to 'white space' of the train blur, right. It helps balance the photo.

 

To me, this photo has great 'balance' which shouldn't be disturbed. Once, member Peter Bilitch criticized me (rightly in some cases) for cropping too tightly (yes Peter I did listen).

 

In 'story-telling' scenes, such as this, it is important NOT to crop too tightly -- and exactly to leave 'empty space' or margins around the scene, to help emphasize the subjects, to focus attention on the subjects, and here, to balance the photo.

 

So, I won't be cropping this photo, unless you can work something up, post it in a way that shows it better than I can imagine, and I'll certainly consider it. Otherwise, I won't touch it. I try to shoot 'full frame' for a reason. . . . precisely so I don't have to crop, and the 'full frame' shooting here was to show the 'entire story'. If there were distracting elements, left, I would be more tempted to crop them out, but there are none -- the empty space helps to call attention to the main subject. It acts here, kind of like a 'frame'.

 

Your comment is helpful, in that it helped me focus my ideas; don't be shy to comment again.

 

John

I would be interested in learning, John, why the blur in the dog doesn't concern you. Personally, at first glance I find it to be this photo's only distracting flaw. The dog's face is neither totally blurred or totally in focus... it appears to have reached that awkward in-between stage of blur/sharp that is usually accidental - usually considered a "mistake". Once I get over that particular part of the image, though, I really enjoy it overall... one of the best.

The shutter speed was slow -- very slow -- somewhat around 1/10th of a second or slower, and the dog was turning his head.

 

The movement was not amenable to 'smart sharpen' with 'vectors' because it was a twisting motion rather than one that was in one direction on the compass or another in degrees -- say 45 degrees, 90 degrees, etc., and he's partially 'out-of-focus because of 'Gausssian blur' because he's out of the plane of focus, as was the blind man, but it was simply too complicated to try to 'sharpen' the dog.

 

And, I'm not sure I see it as a 'flaw' since in terms of a 'long exposure' figures move and the 'focus' is on the man' who's been sharpened beause he was slightly out of a very narrow plane of focus (set for the woman of the poster), and the dog seemed to me mostly to be superfluous.

 

If I were superheavy on the Photoshopping and superpicky, I would have made more effort on the dog, but I'm a 'shoot and scoot' kind of guy as Shutterbug's Joe Farace describes himself -- and besides, you have to have something to put in this space to critique ;~ )), don't you?

 

With great respect for you (and my Vibration Reduction lens and 'steady holding' with a massive D2X).

 

John (Crosley)

I can't belive this was missed when first posted? Must have been while I was away for a while...

 

Yes, it's wonderful - what more can I say?

 

Except, even with his limitations, the dog's the only one who can see here (strange that the poster cuts out the eyes) :)

 

All the best, El

You missed it when first posted, and I missed it when I reviewed my thumbnails the first time around (although I can hardly imagine how). It's vastly superior from the subsequent four or so frames without the moving train (which mirror the poster colors of blue, white, and yellow -- such a wonderful concidence).

 

And, beside the white cane, which is a dead giveaway for blindness, the man's head shape clearly demonstrates he's been blind since an early age (sunken eyes).

 

So, you are right, the poster has no eyes; I hadn't thought about that at all. See how wonderful that thoughtful critiques are . . . .

 

And the dog, who has the eyes, was turning his head for a blurry look, and he's outside the plane of maximum sharpness as well, so he's a little fuzzy, and I didn't try to 'sharpen' poor 'Fido' though I did with the blind man, which was essential for presentation of this photo, since it was shot at f 2.8 or so, and the model/poster was 'in focus' with a very shallow plane 'in focus' and the man is close than he looks and slightly 'out of focus' necessitating some sharpening.

 

I'm very proud of this photo; I can't imagine any other photographer who would have caught this scene, as it not only called for a 'read' of the scene for content, but also for split second timing and framing.

 

Kind of like trying to take 'fine art' but on 'speed'. For example, try to imagine taking landscapes at breakneck speed, running, stopping and aiming a camera, framing the landscapes in a second, then rushing off to the next scene. It's an entirely separate art and one that I think viewers can hardly understand, much less appreciate. And I didn't 'wait' for this for a long time; I just saw this and raised my camera, the train started by, and I framed and shot. End of story. I tried other views and frames, but they were definitely inferior; I nailed it on the first frame, and by the time another train rolled by, the blind man had moved out of juxtaposition and down the platform, making this capture once in a lifetime.

 

I'm always glad when you stop by and comment, Ellen. It's like old times to see your name under one of my photographs; you -- the commentator and photographer who never posts a bad photo.

 

Interestingly, I posted this about the same time I posted a photo of my friend/assistant Tanya from Ukraine who barely pulled a 4/4 if that, but that photo of a beautiful woman in a pensive moment got more views in the first night than this photo with almost two rate points higher. Go figure. Beauty wins every time, I guess, especially over 'street'.

 

John (Crosley)

You did say: Please share your superior knowledge to help improve my photography.

 

I cannot do that, just can tell you this is special all the way

 

Els

Your comment is special.

 

I presume you know almost exactly where I was standing when I took this photo, don't you?

 

They're changing this station very much inside, and on the outside, they're doing a major renovation/addition to the famous Centraal Station which may confuse this unfortunate guy's dog -- even to the point where they've got construction equipment filling up major parts of a canal next to the major boulevard leading up to the train station.

 

Your photos have provided me much guidance as I have posted these last two years, so your comment means much to me.

 

John (Crosley)

On reflection . . . this photo is as close to perfection . . . while still conveying a message, that I think I am capable of producing . . . as close to (my) perfect as I can get.

 

John

Of note: The woman, a beauty, has no eyes showing. The 'seeing eye' dog has one eye showing.

 

The 'blind man' has two eyes showing, or at least two eye sockets (I cannot for sure verify he has eyeballs in them).

 

Interesting . . . or maybe just something noteworthy.

 

But I am not a Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorist (after all, everybody related to that assassination, had to die at one time or another and almost all have died by now anyway. However, do we know all the facts?

 

Probably not and probably never will.

 

It always was a 'mob' hallmark when an assassin 'rubbed out' a mob boss -- like, say, Joe Colombo at Columbus Circle in New York City -- that another mobster rubbed out the 'hit man'.

 

Coincidence that mob hitman gunned down and Jack Ruby kills Oswald?

 

We may never know, or maybe somebody, on a deathbed may reveal some truth that will tell us something.

 

Maybe it will happen when Castro finally dies, and, like the Soviets, when and if the Cubans give up the ghost, their secret police archives are opened up, then something interesting may be revealed. Who knows?

 

Maybe this blind man knows something . . . . .

 

;~))

 

John (Crosley)

Oh HE KNOWS, alright.

 

John, this is a great shot - saw everything you pointed out when examining.

This 'little gem' got fairly decent ratings but hardly any 'views' and a ton of comments, like my other recent posts. One posting a day or so ago, has 19 comments, another 28 comments (many are mine or course, in response -- about half, of course).

 

But I'm always interested that such a photo will have such a poor viewership even though it scores well.

 

It's about as good as I can do -- the sun, moon, stars and planets were aligned pretty well when I put camera and lens to eye for this one.

 

But the views lag, then I'll take some zany portrait and get 29,000 or 25,000 views in a week, and such portraits require only one-tenth the skill and are little more than 'snapshots' that anyone there could take, if they were there (I always have my camera).

 

But even with good ratings, and being on the TRP engine, this gets so few views. It's pretty interesting.

 

On the other hand, the huge number of intelligent comments and laudits that I get when I post something pretty good is enormously uplifting; the PN audience lusts for good photography that is not of the landscape, reflecting lake, waterfall, sunset, misty seashore variety and requires some thought (as this).

 

This also has a little bit of humor, I think, as I am just a little puckish -- don't you agree?

 

I have a very wry sense of humor; and this photo honor my hosts of the moment -- the Dutch -- who are some of the most humorous but subtly humorous people on earth.

 

You would be too, if your ancestors developed a culture living next to the longtime bellicose Germans; a view I've tested with many Dutch people and Netherlanders, and although many Dutch have not thought about it at all, this thought gets universal acceptance from the Dutch when they do consider it.

 

This shot is dedicated to the Dutch and their wry, sense of humour; the Dutch possess a humorous subtlety that I find most enjoyable, and I hope this honors them.

 

John

It has gone unmentioned, but the poster model is 'framed' more formally.

 

The blind man is 'framed' by the contrasting train window.

 

2-4-06 ed.: and the 'frame' cuts off the top of the woman's head, whereas the 'window 'frame' that outlines the blind man's head cuts off the bottom of the his head (though the rest is there, 'unframed').

 

So much in a split-second street capture.

 

John (Crosley)

In retrospect: I think this capture is one of my very finest 'street captures' bar none. Especially for a color capture, with the twin use of yellow, blue and whites in the woman and background train -- which was 'accidental' but most propitious. If Henri Cartier-Bresson could have mastered this part of color, he wouldn't have been trying to destroy his color work and yelling at one Parisian photo editor that he was a traitor in a Parisian restaurant because he showed C-B some C-B color photos and wouldn't destroy them.

 

I will stand by this as 'worthy' and among my finest. Maybe I'd re-edit it to enhance the word 'Heart-Breaker' on the woman's 'top' so it shows better, but that's all.

 

I think I'm going to blow it up VERY BIG and post in on my walls.

 

John (Crosley)

Unnoticed until just now is the further repetition of the blue, yellow white theme that runs throughout this photo.

 

The blind man has blue pants, his dog is a 'yellow lab' though more 'beige color' and he has a shock of white hair, all in keeping with the color scheme of the train and the color poster both left and right of him (both looking at him and as he looks at us).

 

Sometimes the Photo Gods just smile. (Or maybe I just look at my captures too hard).

 

John (Crosley)

It has been a very, very long time John since I last logged into Photo.net and I tell you there is no greater pleasure than exploring your incredible, vast portfolio of images, which time and time again never fail to inspire. In browsing through the first 1/3 of your images, this one draws me in for a closer look. And interestingly enough I find it has drawn my attention before! Since then my views have changed - there is something dearly human about this image, indeed your entire portfolio, and I wouldn't change it for the world!

 

There is nothing to say but wow. Your portfolio is very unique, like I've said before; as a whole, there is really nothing quite like it. Those of us who respond to your work with 'wow'... do so when we realize how perfectly normal AND bizzare each photograph really is. Here is the everyday life that most of us are either too insecure or too arrogant to capture, but you continually chronicle this part of human life beautifully. The individuality of your style pairs perfectly with the oddity of our very existence. Your folio showcases the perfect relationship between photographic technique and photographic content.

 

I'm living in the city again (previously lived on an island in the north of Ontario, Canada) and I am finding increasingly less 'Landscape' and lots more 'Street', naturally. The sights and sounds of city life surround me in every direction, and after a few months of 'settling in' I think I'm finally ready to whip out the camera and tackle this new environment. Thank you for sharing your photos as they have played a major role in helping me reach this point where I can now go out and explore with renewed sense of wonder and passion.

 

Let me know when your book is available ;-)

 

Best regards & happy new year... -MV.

What a great endorsement.

 

I could cheapen it by saying 'I'll send the check in the morning' but no such cheap shots for you.

 

And you've picked one of my most proud AND most propitious shots to place your wonderful comment on. I often wonder how I was able to capture this, or if it was just the law of probabilities that meant that some day I would capture something with such subtle perfection. Aside from anything mentioned in critiques above, one of which is perfectly correct, but a nit, this is one of my most edifying photographs.

 

Your photography long has served as an inspiration to me; a reminder that yours is an eye that I don't have -- you have a sense of perfection that I never could approach, no matter how hard I tried. Some of us have one thing; others, another. I keep trying for that 'one thing' you have, and that keeps my portfolio diverse, but increasingly I see that I have a knack for capturing life's daily inanities. How else to describe a man who's movie star beautiful live says she loves and misses him but cannot live with him because he 'caused' her brain cancer. Life is inane and a little insane, but altogether, it's better than the alternative.

 

And if one can go out and periodically take such a wonderful photo as this, or others awaiting upload or uploaded here or elsewhere (hint), then all's right with the world, for inanity or not, there is a wry humor here.

 

I commend to you the book 'Personal Best' by Elliott Erwitt, which I was able to purchase with a corporate discount -- 20% off cover price of $125 then another 10% or 15% off that for slight damage to its cardboard silver book slip, which will be thrown away.

 

It's simply wonderful stuff, full of humor -- but dark humor and so funny it had me laughing out loud. I think Erwitt and maybe Cartier-Bresson would have understood, but possibly few others, as Erwitt's humour is dry as the bones he probably fed dogs (he did five monographs on dogs alone in his career.) He still lives, too, although these photographs are largely from the '50s. The book's huge and no expense was wasted in preparing it; heavy paper, almost suitable for framing, except it's bound and often printed across the gutter.

 

My very best to you as you adjust to city life. I hope it treats you well, and that as you adjust to city life you learn that the city has a heartbeat of its own and that it does not drive you almost crazy as NYC once nearly did to me. City life treats the financially secure and the well-off quite much better than the poor, that's for sure, so be sure that you are well-heeled if you want to be a city dweller.

 

Thanks for the words of praise; the last time you wrote about my work, I quoted it again and again, as I sensed you wanted to say something nice about my work but were left almost speechless (wordless) since my work defied traditional elements of description, but in the end you succeeded, and grandly, and from time to time I paraphrase or quote from that prior comment. (I hope you don't mind.)

 

So, you're a city dweller now, as you pass on your way to the stars.

 

Does that mean you have little cups on your hands and very elastic, long arms, Spidey?

 

I mean, you do miracles with hawks and other subjects with a camera, who knows what other miracles you might also be doing now that you're a city dweller.

 

Please send me your e-mail address; the one on file with PN rejects my e-mail. Thanks. Have 8 new photos to send you.

;`))

 

John (Crosley)