'First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes Baby With . . . ' Old Song **+ *

The Caption pretty much says it all for this 'street' photo taken

recently in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine one Spring Day. Your ratings

and comments are requested and most welcome. If you rate harshly or

very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment/Please share your superior photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John (full frame,

unmanipulated)

In my opinion, this is the best street photo I've taken in a long time/ for the rater who started rating within one minute with a 3/3 rating, please reciprocate by linking your portfolio here >>>>>___________<<<<<

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

I like this. It has human interest, humor, great focus and color. I think it might be a little better if the frame around the boy was perfectly vertical, not tilted. Very nice moment in time.

I anticipated your comment; even before posting and post-processing, then remembered the work of the great Robert Doisneau who took absolutely stunning photography, including works which included 'human interest' and other shots of Paris which included the city's stunning architecture and remember that he hardly ever got a 'vertical' vertical.

 

In other words, he had a very poor sense of aligning a camera and did not crop his negatives to align them to the horizon.

 

Now I could have done this by less than a 1 degree clockwise rotation, but then the guy, right would have bended up getting trimmed, which would have been unconscionable within the context of this photo -- and I LIKE full frame photos -- there's something about composing in camera -- especially with a superlarge, superlong and heavy lens for 'street' work that suggests somebody is 'doing their work' and not merely relying on darkroom techs or the digital darkroom.

 

So, I may, from time to time engage in 'arbitrary rotation' to 'save' a shot in which rotational factors are very distracting, but I won't (for the time being) do it with this shot) for those reasons. I like it as it is. If I ever exhibit in a gallery and they insist; that's another story/ same for publication or sale.

 

I caught a moment and that and the background including the guy, right, are the story (and I'm sticking to it).

 

;-))

 

I think your comment was well taken, though I had anticipated it. It does not necessarily mean poor workmanship on my part/it's an 'editorial' decision made consciously.

 

John (Crosley)

Which vertical do you align to, the vertical to the right, or the vertical to the top of the woman's face - they're converging verticals, and would call for different 'rotation' -- an issue I didn't address above.

 

John (Crosley)

This woman's stomach and long, thing legs are the 'norm' for a woman her age in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. She could just put on a bikini of any sort and walk out of any swimsuit store without any regard to fit, size, or cellulite, and that's the norm in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where YOUNG, thin women are practically the norm (older far women, however, are practically the norm and she probably will become one of them, also beginning in her early to middle '30s if trends hold true).

 

This city of 1 to 2 million, has one of the world's largest agglomeration of thin, beautiful female bodies and legs of any place I've ever seen, including Russia and Hungary (though I haven't been in Hungary for a while.) Women wear high heels with their jeans, shorts, and short, short skirts just for a Sunday outing or stroll in the city square -- being no fools about their attributes and trolling for husbands (they are expected to get married by the time they're 20-23 and have babies shortly thereafter to be accepted in society as 'normal'.

 

So, rather than look for six-pak abs on the men, the women, slight and thin, in this city have them, and there's a huge disconnect between the rather large, tall and heavily muscled men raised on a huge diet and the women who seek them, which makes one wonder how such a society produced all the thin, pretty young women at all . . . .

 

John (Crosley)

I see your point and defer to your artistic license. And maybe their leaning that way tilted the photo! :) It's a very good photo.

I appreciate the graciousness of your deferrral.

 

John (Crosley)

I have come across this picture only now. I like it really very much: the couple, the kid and the passer-by.

It conveys a lot of emotional messages. The strongest from the passionate couple in the foreground.

Then the blurred picture, but still cute, in the background. And the passer-by moving out of the scheme is concentrated on something, maybe a cellular phone. He is dressed with dark clothes, opposed to the colourful scene we are seeing and he walks out, as if he were not interested. Actually he has not noticed the couple, the picture and you.

 

Best,

 

Luca

This is one of my 'unheralded' better photos that no one saw the potential in (or at least very few'

 

It is in three different planes, with the dark buy, in mid stride occupying a middle plane -- a highly overlooked photo just for that, as photos on several planes usually score pretty highly, and I am teaching myself to isolate planes a little less and to add a multiplicity of planes so people can 'see' through a photo and get 'drawn in' to the photo a little more.

 

And of course, there's a story.

 

Which is aptly captured in the title -- 'First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby with the baby carriage', or so goes the song that accompanies rope jumpers -- every young American girl is familiar with this chanted song as she jumps rope -- or Girl Scout or Brownie.

 

Few seem to have noticed this one; I'm glad you did, and you seem to be scouring my portfolio -- good for you, I hope you are enjoying yourself -- if not, there was little reason to take and post these photos.

 

John (Crosley)

And I think there is a lot to learn from you and your portfolio.

I have, or must have a different approach to taking pictures: I don't have much time and my spare time is mainly devoted to my wife. She always complains that I carry my camera bag with me.

But that does not mean that I can take too much time to photograph. I stick with film, partly because I'm used to it, partly because of my equipment, partly because the low speed of film suits me.

I am not a fast photographer. I walk around looking at scenes that impress me, and, if I can, I get back to take pictures. And I think before "pressing the button", trying to imagine what I am capturing.

But I am trying to learn from your approach, how you photograph people.

And will get back to you with reflections on aesthetic canons in photography, as promised.

 

As I said in one of my previous posts, your pictures stir emotions. I will find those which "stir more emotions" in me.

 

Luca

Wife or camera (or become a landscaper or studio photographer, or some such), but perhaps not a 'street photographer'.

 

A 'street photographer either requires you be alone a lot of the time or have a happy, willing cohort and companion who is willing to act as a 'screen' for you, to stand next to subjects so they think you're taking a photo of her, when you're really taking a photo of them . . . .

 

Many women are embarrassed or upset by such behavior. If a woman wants to be with me now, since my choices now are made, after a first marriage in which I chose the woman and thus gave up the photography (she got angry any time I took a photo of a pretty woman for instance -- very insecure about such things), so I just gave up photography, for the length of that marriage (17 years) and for another 10 or so years after that, then plus some, until I recently just decided either to sell my cameras, as collector's items or 'USE THEM' which I belatedly did, and the rest is history.

 

So, when I met a photomodel recently and she was asking my assistant questions about me (without my knowledge), and then wanted to get to 'know' me, we had gone to dinner once or twice and she observed that always I had my cameras, and often I would just take off and use them -- coming back with interesting shots, often taken in a matter of seconds of minutes, and sometimes just stopping the pair (my assistant and the model--would-be cohort), dead as we walked, for some time so I could get a capture.

 

Now, I am 'more than friends' with that model, and it is she who pointed out the drunk man lying down on the Metro steps (recent post), his beggar's cup still upright, as he appeared to sleep or be passed out.

 

It was a great photo that I would never have seen; she's happy to rub up against someone who has some small portion of fame, but other women don't want any part of that.

 

If your wife married a salesperson, a manager or a mechanical engineer (or whatever your profession is), that may be all she's willing to accept, and if you want to rub elbows with the world's gritty people, that may get in the way of her fancy high heeled pumps and pretty party dresses, and may not go well in cocktail party chatter -- unless you get REAL famous with lots of books bearing your name and lots of royalty checks coming in or great assignments to exotic locations where you bring her along.

 

Lots of women just will not stand for being with a 'street' photographer, and it's a job that requires constant attention; you cannot just go out on Sunday for three hours and say 'I'm going to go to town and take photos for two hours -- street photos' as it doesn't work that way, at least I can't see it working that way very successfully or becoming a very good street photographer that way.

 

It requires great dedication or at least attentiveness and many women are jealous of the attention a 'street' photographer gives to his/her camera and images (but if you treat them extra special at night, sometimes it goes far away . . . . )

 

Which is why that model - friend cohort stuck around and wants to stick around some more, though she could nearly be my granddaughter.

 

For her, it's exciting, but some women don't want to be near 'gritty' people that sometimes fill the 'street photographer's existence, and to leave them home alone makes them angry.

 

These are just general observances. I gave up photography in part to please my first wife, and that marriage eventually came a cropper because I gave up many things that were part of my essence . . . because I loved her so much and also respected her and her wishes. But there comes a point when one has also to stand up for one's needs. It turned out that some things were needs her presence couldn't fulfill, and photography is one.

 

I don't suggest you show this to your wife, unless you're prepared for the 'ultimate discussion' or she's the adventurous type like my model friend, or some of the women I meet who are thrilled to be with a 'street photographer; -- they're different from the women I used to know, and a whole lot more fun. But a lot less strait-laced.

 

Dealer's choice.

 

It's your life at stake, maybe, if you're serious about this thing and you encounter any sort of resistance from a spouse.

 

John (Crosley)