Flower Seller On Cold Ukrainian Night**

This is a flower seller on a cold night in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine's

downtown area recently during a snowy period and period of unusual

cold and a lively political campaign. Notice framing by building,

background. Your ratings and critiques are invited and are 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

(would you rather see this as B&W?--available)

I really like this shot. The warm tones of her face against the cold gray background. The centered shot works well here. I can't figure out the ratings on this shot but that is PNet. It is always a surprise. She is biting her lips because it is so cold. Nice capture.

It was a tossup between this shot, which centered her using the building blocks as reference and made it more 'geometric' and another, which was a little less geometric and had her turning one-third toward the camera and had a pained but very interesting expression on her face.

 

In retrospect, I think the expression would have won over geometry, although there was considerable geometry in that shot too, as geometry guided me in all my shooting of this woman.

 

I hid out behind a phone/utility pole and behind and beside a glass-enclosed bus stop enclosure, staying at the periphery of the sidewalk with my 70~200 mm E.D. Nikkor V.R. (vibration reduction) telephoto to make this capture and all the others, waiting until she had more 'magical placement' against the building blocks and mortar to release the shutter, with many misses, and looking for, as here, a profile, centered. I wanted a completely geometric shot, and looking at it now, I could have cropped it a little, for even closer geometry (and may yet).

 

She never realized she was being photographed; same as many of my subjects for these 'street' portraits, especially in Ukraine.

 

I don't think the graffiti on the wall or the adhesive from a torn poster above helps, but I could have cloned it out and no one would have been the wiser but me, but I don't do that. This is a 'street' capture and I keep them original -- I'm not quite a 'purist' but nearly so.

 

And so what about low rates -- I'll live with them. It just means less visibility, but I'm going towards 10 million views in 2 years and 1+ months, so I have a little equanimity about ratings.

 

My rule now: if it pleases me, I'll post it, and the ratings will fall where they may. I'm delighted when high ratings comne in: who doesn't want to be popular (except outlaw bikers and trenchcoat mafia who carry guns to high schools to blow students apart?)

 

Aside from certain exceptions, I like my photos to get viewed, but if they're stinkers -- at least if the viewers think they're stinkers, I don't want them to get so much exposure, no matter how good I feel about them.

 

Elsewhere, I lamented about a photo of a young girl -- 'Little Celeste' who didn't get 10 rates and they were mid '4s before the ratings drop but her photo now has almost 33,000 views -- go figure.

 

It was very successful and it wasn't leading a highly-viewed folder where all photos get high views. It was buried deep inside a folder with behind subsequent posts.

 

Let that be a lesson -- for so much as they view it -- for the ratings moaners.

 

This semi-skilled shot, into which went a lot of skill and dedication with much execution and aforethought, probably has scored lower than many 'housecat' photos of tabby scampering after a ball of yarn on the first chip on someone's new digicam.

 

Go figure.

 

If one's life is so devoid of pleasure that it's all wrapped up in rates, then it's a poor life.

 

Me, I'm making plans to go out and shoot some more, I hope interesting photos, in a new genre and test some new ways of shooting, in different places in America, then abroad.

 

At least I'll please myself.

 

Thanks for your commmiseration. Sometimes the 'views' will out. (apologies to W. Shakespeare).

 

By the way, this looked pretty good in Black and White, also -- maybe more 'pure' although it's missing the warm/cold contrast you remarked on.

 

Thanks for noticing the bit lip, whether from cold, boredom or frustration; it's a nice touch I missed seeing entirely.

 

John (Crosley)

I met this woman recently; and remembered her by her unique hat (then remembered her face, as did my assistant who called attention to it some time after though my assistant had only seen this photo and was not present when this photo was taken -- smart assistant).

 

Her name is Ludmilla. She no longer sells flowers and now sells something else on another street, no longer in the center of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

 

She might answer to Luda or to Mila, but prefers to call herself Ludmilla -- the full name. No informality with her. She's a genial and very gracious woman, whose presence on the street undoubtedly helps fill a cash need for lack of a significant enough pension and also a social need, since it places her in company with a sizable number of other, quite sociable vendors, as well as customers.

 

John (Crosley)