'Mel'

This is 'Mo' or 'Momma Mo' as I believe she's called by fellow

street residents of Santa Cruz, California. She is disabled and

homeless, but refuses to live in a shelter because she keeps a pet

and pets are not allowed in local shelters. She parks her

wheelchair prominently on Santa Cruz's main street. Your comments

and critiques 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

Very nice shot. Congrats !

John, I love the color, the focus is great, and the subject is very interesting. All of this combined makes for another excellent photo. Cheers. Ron

Personality plus. Great portrait and composition. Cheers.

She looks like a strong woman, Very nice photo of this lady!

I you could only see the poor conditions under which this photo was taken, with after-dark light and a huge opening on my lens, stopped down a little for some depth of field. There were a lot of discards, but luckily this one was a 'keeper'.

 

Thanks for the nice comment.

 

John

It's a wonder that a woman 'of the streets' in the kinder sense can keep things color coordinated, and the after-dark blueness of the afterglow can keep with the color-coordination of a scene, but sometimes the photo Gods just smile a little, (and of course I try to help them out, against all odds.)

 

;`)

 

ADDENDUM -- CORRECTION: MARCH 28, 2006. I bought some cookies and took them to this 'street' woman, and she tells me her name is 'MEL, not Mo as indicated above. My mistake, for which I take responsibility. I apologize for the error. She liked the cookies, White Chocolate Macadamia, delivered in near freezing weather, while she was in her motororized wheelchair on the street surrounded with a crowd or 'street people', mostly younger men -- some of whom wanted to know 'how much does your lens cost?' which seemed to me a prelude to learning how much they could fence it for . . . since one seldome goes around asking 'how much did your shirt or shoes cost? or how much is that Rolex? of a stranger, unless one has 'plans', and if not now, perhaps someday when a stranger is found drunk and in the gutter, ripe for the picking. But Mel's not that kind of person -- she just lives on the street because she has a cat and no shelter will take a cat, and her cat is more important to her than heat at night.

 

Of course you might make a different choice, but then you don't have an otherwise good mind and body ruined and a life ruined by a debilitating disease that destroys your joints and causes excruiciating pain. (rheumatoid arthritis)

 

John

Yes, this disabled woman has 'strong personality plus' -- she reports that all the 'street' denizens seem to gravitate to her, as she is some sort of 'street' leader by way of perseverance, parking her wheelchair right in front of Santa Cruz's main theater every day, watching (and being watched) by thousands who pass by, taking it all in (and being taken in) and missing nothing.

 

Yes, she has personality plus -- too bad she's disabled by rheumatoid arthritis, and of course any total disability brings with it some mental/emotional disability too when there is dire poverty.

 

John

Yes, despite her constant pain in all of her joints, (or maybe because of it) this woman has to be a strong woman. She also has a veeeeery large mouth which invites a large range of expressions so I had a variety to choose from, although many shots were blurred because she kept talking as I shot -- I don't ask my subjects to 'pose' for me, I just engage them (or not) and shoot away, often times while they talk to me, others and sometimes engage in telling me their life's story (or someone else).

 

This is just one result -- there were many others and many others were blurred (some deleted, as I'm deleting many blurred photos these days as I shoot under such horrible conditions especially with longer lenses as this, even at high ISO, that I'm just keeping the 'keepers' -- is that a tautology?)

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

John

I'm learning now how to take 'street portraits' as you can see by viewing this folder, and in part simply by choosing a 'long lens' often in low light and by standing off some distance to give the subject his/her feeling of 'space' so (s)he is not 'crowded' and can 'come out' and be (him/her)self.

 

One trick is to give the subject the ability to be him/herself and to allow them to be whomever he/she wants to be and just keep clicking away as they talk about their life with you the photographer or with someone else, never passing judgment, and just taking it all in.

 

Some have written that I'm a great 'lover of humanity' or some such poppycock -- I'm just a great observer of humanity. Do it love it? Maybe. I DO choose to participate in humanity, even when it means the possibility of getting hurt by exposing one's self to being close to people who are not 'safe' including both the fortunates and unfortunates of life in equal measure, while sometimes the unfortunates of life make better photos because their personalities more quickly come to their faces -- their masks wear thin more quickly.

 

John

John,

 

Great character is this shot. The crop is just right. The coat, scarf and hat really add to the woman's "warm" presentation.

It's interesting how to (1) shoot on the street and try to 'frame correctly' and (2) to edit and choose the best shot with the best framing.

 

I may actually be just as good or better at the second that the first, and find all sorts of uncanny things in the photographs I take, especially when I turn on the 'crop' tool and find the 'center' of the photograph, say, right at the edge of a smile or somesuch.

 

(try it with your own photos and find out where the centerpoint comes out on your own photos and you'll see what I mean.

 

Color, in this instance, is a result of choosing a more 'vivid' setting on the camera and happenstance for this afterdark shot together witht the auto color balance algorighms that Nikon has put together in its library of algorithms for 35,000 reference shots (or whatever number).

 

Here the 'blue' of her surrounding scarves may have actually caused the camera to redden her face to 'compensate' in a mysterious process (I don't shoot 'raw' as I'm not shooting advertising posters, magazine ad layouts or anything where I need such precise control, and I like the surprises that result from such lack of control.) One can learn from lack of control as well as complete control.

 

Basically, what really makes this photo is her long mouth and slightly crooked smile, I think -- it's memorable. But the rest is necessary to make it work.

 

John

what else can be said about her face? wonderful capture of what is effectivly a story-book face.

 

BTW, more threes? Blue background, blue scarf, and blue eyes :)

 

All the best, Ellen

Yes, more threes, in a way I hadn't realized. Yet another valuable contribution from someone with watchful eyes. I must say, I'm impressed.

 

Thank you ever so much.

 

John (Crosley)

oh, dear dear John :(:( so many homeless people around us! Life is just too hard and unfair!!!!!!!!!

 

Oh, now I am so sad and so ashamed of myself having some stupid problems and she is still smiling despite her Hard life on the street!

 

We have all to be more gratefull for the easy life we have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This is horrible...

 

uf.. uf...

 

Biliana

Or at least she has chosen to live outside a 'shelter' from the harsher (in Coastal California that's a -relative- term as it's pretty balmy generally with never any snow and seldom freezes more than a few hours at most).

 

She keeps a pet and in order to keep her pet out of the shelter, because the shelter forbids pets, she sleeps on the 'street' or somewhere she didn't confide to me; a true 'homeless' person, but with a motorized wheelchair and quite a luxurious one that would be looked on with envy by people of less developed Eastern countries who are confined to their apartments/flats because they cannot negotaite stairs/steps without lifts/elevators.

 

She has her 'freedom' and for that, she has made a choice. She is friends with this community's slightly larger group of 'homeless' people--wanderers and bums who have chosen an alternate lifestyle of who cannot cope with the rigors of living a structured livestyle such as planning not to spend their few dollars on anything but booze or drugs (or cigarettes) so they'll have more tomorrow, and so they panhandle (beg).

 

She doesn't use drugs or booze from what I can see and is fairly intelligent, and I think it shows in her face; she is disabled from joint disease; rheumatoid arthritis, an auto-immune disorder.

 

She's making the best of a bad deal, which many of us can't claim we're doing.

 

It also may be she's getting US government assistance and state government assistance -- she probably is, in an amount that would be the envy of a citizen of Russia or Ukraine, though not enough to live much of a life in America -- barely enough for food, and if there's no kitchen to prepare it in . . . well . . .

 

(I don't know what uf . . uf . . means.)

 

John (Crosley)

EXCELLENT portrait!

Thanks for the compliment.

 

'Mel' was and has been a 'street person', and this portrait captured her best side. Last I saw her, in Santa Cruz, CA, she looked worse. She had told me, I think I recall, she could have housing, but I think she had a cat or kitten and they would not let her keep a kitten -- her excuse anyway. She was missing teeth, etc., but in a homeless friendly town where neighbors bring food for the homeless. (before Bernard Madoff, before the housing crisis and for a long time the nearby Redwood Forest has had a large number of homeless inhabitants. Mel as I recall was wheelchair bound and thus probably eligible for services but avoided them -- giving society 'the finger' despite her disability.

 

As I said, this portrait captures her 'best side'.

 

I sometimes do that, and why not? (not every 'bum' is without his/her/their human side -- and often are very fun and interesting people to talk to -- some are very intelligent with interesting stories about how they became homeless - (pre housing crisis days.)

 

John (Crosley)