Through The Looking Glass**+

Compare the young girl's right angles (arms, legs) with those of the

football (soccer) players, the mass of the fallen players (her dog)

and the partly obscured player (newly-appearing bystander) please to

understand this 'street' photo, taken in a far-off city. 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

I frankly don't think I can 'street shoot' better than this.

John (Crosley)

I could actually 'feel' this one building. I took one of her, but her dog was not separated enough from her feet for quite enough of an aesthetic feeling, and quickly took another as the dog moved away.

Shortly thereafter, she moved against the building, and I took another, just for the moment, to show, I guess, how a moment can deconstruct, just as quickly as it constructs.

Henri Cartier-Bresson called what he did (capturing such moments -- or the formation of such moments) 'plastic art' because they formed and deformed -- or, better, unformed -- all the time, and his task was to 'capture' them in their evanescence before they disappeared, the former big game hunter that he was.

I am not he, as any quick glance through my portfolio will show, but I subscribe to many of his theories and practices when it comes to 'serious' street shooting, such as this.

This is what a 'serious' street shooter 'lives for'. There are only a couple of comparable shots in my portfolio, I think, one in Bangkok from last year -- a guy and a Coke poster.

John (Crosley)

You have to 'see' it and 'press the shutter' at exactly the right moment, all the while as the scene is 'constructing and deconstructing' -- my hat's off to Cartier-Bresson --- the cantankerous guy was simply remarkable for his ability to 'sense' such things, and I think he might have taken a similar photo as this -- one of the few in my portfolio where I think we might have approached the subject in a similar fashion.

I'm not a Cartier-Bresson imitator. His museum full of photos drove me out of the photography business, me not knowing he was quitting and selling prints to finance his retirement (stupid me), so I put down my cameras and took up writing, then law. I'm back at it, at least for what it is that I can contribute, compared to his enormous life's work.

My various styles are much more far-ranging than his; I use different equipment, including zoom telephotos to 'stand off' from my subjects (this was a combination 'wide angle' -- zoom telephoto that is widely sought and in rare supply which I got at a 'second hand price' though it was new, through the courtesy of my local (and famous) camera store, God bless them (in Palo Alto, CA, and everybody in CA will know whom I'm talking about).

It was 'returned', repaired, and they wanted to move it quickly and they knew I wanted one, while they had a mile-long list for the new ones. What a boon, for which I am very thankful.

John (Crosley)

I'm neither a pro photographer nor a pro photo-critique but regarding the ratings you received, I think some could make the effort to look more in details such a photo, and more generally any submitted in street category photo. I still believe street photography is one of, if not THE one, the most difficult way of photography (nude photography is another). Of course, PN ratings don't valid or judge your skills, that's only a *local* system. So, let's talk about something else: this very interesting photo!

The composition of the photo isn't perfect as I'd like the woman in the background not cut off. The diagonal is very good, she balances well this side and works in the depth. I even wished in a first time she wasn't there but looking at the composition in detail, she adds a *spontaneous* - so a true *street-shot-side* - to this photo.

I'm more annoyed by the contrast. I know your will to not use (and *abuse*) post treatment but I think contrast/levels could be slightly worked. Corners and particulary the left side are more flat and even grey, looks like the vignetting is a bit strong. That's not heavily disturbing but I think that could be less annoying on a B&W.

Looking at the similarities between the two groups (girl+dog vs football players), for sure, that's a great photo! What is very interesting is the differences it's possible to see whereas the poses are almost the same.
The girl movement is quite static and the dog is moving slowly. On the other hand, football players are fast runners and even if their movement is stopped, everybody imagines easily a fast action.
The girl is living in the real world, in an homogenic light, into a rather large colour and tonal range. The football photo is an advertising one, and the ambiance is totally different. The light and limited colour range increase the focus on a specific point.

To conclude, I really think that you've got a faster mind than the shutter of your camera! : )) That's not praise of course.
Thank you for sharing your great point of view of this - complex/rich - world we live in.

I'd rate you 5+/7 or 6-/7 if I could, then let's go for 6/7, your eye is worth the half point ; ))

First point: This is converted already into Black and White and will be posted reardless of rating outcome. I regard it as one of my richest photos 'ever' -- one of my most satisfying, and I knew it from the moment I took it -- even before.

However, instead of 'vignetting', I think it properly should be called 'light fall-off' as Phil Askey (DP Review) does, and that may be partly a dictate of the circumstances rather than the lens, but it also may be the lens -- I'll await his DP review bench test if he hasn't done one yet. I am not sure how to compensate for it, as I don't know 'gradients' and can't burn and dodge worth a goldarn over such an area. I post 'em how I get 'em, warts and all, usually.

I also had wished the woman, rear, had been fully involved or not, but also in the 'football' photo, there is a referee or player who also is cutoff, this time from top to bottom! There IS her analogue in the wall poster/photo!

I'm not so sure I'd have the girl glaring at me, but what the hey, you can't have everything. In some they smile, in some they frown and in some they glare. I'm a big guy and I was moving toward her rapidly to catch the moment and couldn't escape her attention, hence I was also part of the moment.

Your analysis is even deeper than mine which was confined to analysis of the compositional elements, rather than those of the 'worlds' in which each lives, though that pane of glass separates two entirely different worlds - the girl is probably quite poor and owes her skinniness to eating potatos three meals a day plus truck garden vegetables and some milk (though well groomed and well dressed), but the wealth of the scene before her is quite something different.

And she's in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, which might be as remote in the world as Perth, Australia for all the world knows about it, although it has about 1.5 million people. There are enormous barriers to her entering a world such as that of the football players (disregarding her sex, an obvious barrier).

Your honorific to my eye is something I will hold to my heart -- this time I feel I have earned it; other photos just are photos anyone could have taken (maybe even this one), but in my eye this is a standout.

Your analysis of this photo also is a standout, worthy of reproduction; something that a skilled photo professor (or professor of another social studies/art subject) could teach to his students as a way of 'seeing' or 'visualizing'. I never did learn your occupation, but indeed you are amazingly perceptive.

I am sometimes amazed at the depth of analysis that perceptive critics post for my photos, and yours is among the very, very best.

John (Crosley

Sorry to be late to reply John.

I did notice you wrote "color version" and that's why I was wondering if a B&W wouldn't get the best of this *vignetting/light fall-off*. BTW, I don't know what made this difference of contrast. I'm not skilled enough... DPReview is a rich website I visit often too.

To compensate it, the only way I know (and I never used myself) is DXO optics software. It recognizes and corrects all optics *defaults*. But it's not so bad to post unmanipulated shot, that's sign of will and adds fun to the shooting.

You're right about the similarity between the cut off rear woman and player. One more similarity in this shot! Outstanding!

You said you were also part of the moment. That's something interesting to read for me: that means that results of the photo can be different if you're *invisible* or at least very discrete or not. Did you play with your presence sometimes to *create* a specific reaction or result? Do you miss sometimes photos cause you're too much present around the scene?

I don't know at all if my analysis is deeper than yours : ) Maybe it's *easier* for me to write a different analyse quietly sit front of my screen. I have the time to build a text while you really had less time to build your photo.

I don't work at all in artistic field. I'm the team leader of the production unit of a small industrial company. But that's true that I always dreamt to be journalist. I liked to write (to draw too but I have less time now to enjoy this) but I was pushed towards electronics studies. That was more *in the move* at this time. After, just gratuate, an economic crisis in this field made me looking for a different job. I joined the small company (thanks to random) I'm still working in, began by the lowest position and finally went up the social scale. I'm often thinking about journalism and more artistic activity but well... just thinking about : )

Strangly, I'm rather shy and so I don't write a lot on PN (moreover English isn't my native language) but your photos are attractive and interesting for me, maybe cause of these journalistic dreams : )) I really feel honoured to look perceptive.

My two next wishes are 1)to buy DSLR system and improve my photography (maybe make it more known around me as well) 2)write more on PN, words are important and I still believe that even if photography can speaks itself.

I keep a look on your work John, and I'll comment on yours as often as I could.

Cheers, from France, Yann.

I wrote a long comment but my dial-up disconnected and the comment got lost in the ether, so I'll write another later.

Did you notice, however, Yann, how the stripe/line of the football field/pitch is continued through the frame of the photo and extended by the girl's bent bottom leg? It's uncanny! Do you see it? I'll write more, probably after 24 hours, as it's 4:00 a.m. now and I have (stunning) photomodels to shoot today at 10:00 and later and no sleep yet.

John (Crosley)

This is going into my 'Threes' Presentation, unless someone can talk me out of it otherwise, because of three occurrences of 'three'.

1. the subjects as one in the window photograph, then the girl and the dog = 3.

2. the three windows, receding in the distance.

3. the three separators between windows/walls also receding into the distance

This photo is rich in 'devices' which have been written about in my Presentation/Portfolio and in the many commentaries about the photos put up for critique. (Maybe it's stretching it a little, but so what?)

John (Crosley)

Hi Yann,

About your first major point: the presence of the photographer. With giant equipment, especially with a large Nikon camera, say a D200 with battery pack (or two as I'm carrying now) and/or a D2X or two, as I sometimes carry, even now), with formidable lenses, such as my 17~55 DX E.D., a large zoom f 2.8 with a huge circumference and a 70~200 with a tele-converter, either a 2x or a 1.4 x (even my 1.7 x) there's no hiding the fact I'm a 'photographier' as I'm called here in Ukraine. People approach me all the time, literally they can spot me and I watch all eyes on me as I move around town and through crowds, as such equipment is pretty unthinkable in these here parts, but it gets wonderful captures.

[And like many other cities in the world, people here think I live here, and many know and call me by first name (same in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Odessa and other places I've stayed for prolonged periods or returned to for some times) and if there's trouble, somebody will 'bump' me and say 'Go!!!!' and I know somebody is about to make trouble for me and I 'go' pursuant to the direction of the people who are warning me. (usually it's some drunk who is mouthing off about the Amerikanski with cameras, and what he's going to do, and his friends will constrain him, literally physically tackling him for my safety (and his, as the police -- who do not have the best reputation -- seem to watch over me.

[Luckily there's been no appearance of knives or pistols, and I feel pretty safe here in Ukraine, even at late hours along some pretty unsafe looking places; in fact every place looks and feels unsafe to an American as most places are pretty disreputable looking by American standards except the city center -- especially apartment entrances and drives. In daytime even they look unsafe, but they're really people's front yards, even businesses/you can't judge books by covers in this part of the world.

[Communist architects and planners should have been jailed for what they did to some pretty nice countryside and for the awful things they did with their architecture and planning. Little things like putting rest room light switches outside so someone can walk by and turn off the lights while you're inside doing 'your business'. Or long hallways and part way down, a single step or three, or several steps down those hallways, making wheelchair travel impossible; the former Soviet Union is a hell or a place for the wheelchair-bound/they're usually confined to their flats and often cannot get out at all, as elevators often don't work, or they can't get into a building with an elevator (or the elevator is way too small for even a small wheelchair -- at least the one elevator of two or three that does work, when even one works). Such is life even now, and the same in Russia if truth be told, as well as graffiti over everything in my recent trip in Russia, though security systems were beginning to pop up in some buildings in remote capital Ryazan.

[People would know someone was to clean up the graffiti, but that person wouldn't do it, and they'd just shrug, 'that's the way it is' and not complain because under the former system, to complain was sometimes a death sentence and it's had a holdover effect.

[Russia, with oil wealth, has a chance at changing all of that; Ukraine has little oil and is largely agricultural and mining and it has its people who can be highly educated and value that, and they're big-hearted loving people with some pretty good values, but they've not made so much progress as one would hope and the political progress is stalemated with competing parties -- one backed by Putin of Russia competing with one that seeks backing (and is getting it) from the West. A sort of East-West proxy push here on Russia's southern border is stalemating their 'forward progress' -- Ukraine is a kind of 'line of scrimmage' frozen in time for all of that, but one can find (if one looks carefully enough) the highest of fashions, and the women are stunning and flaunt it whether they're dressed in homemade clothes, hand-me-downs or the highest of haute couture (to the delight of red-blooded Ukrainian men who are most appreciative (me too).

[strappy high heel sandals, long, thin legs, and very short, short skirts (maybe 9-10 inches) seem to be de rigueur Sunday strolling wear for Dnepropetrovsk's finest, and the men are able oglers, which is their lot in life -- to be oglers -- and the women far from taking umbrage encourage that and are pleased by the ogling. They enjoy the power their great beauty gives them over the mostly huge strapping young (and usually handsome) men. And most of it's derived from Russian beauty, as Catherine the Great colonized for Russia, Ukraine during her reign in an attempt to protect Russia's southern flank and it's more evident in the south, east and north than the West in the Carpathian mountain regoins, where Ukrainian is sometimes commonly spoken (instead of the usual Russian).] [end of aside]

Now, with my large bulk and heavy cameras, bearing down on this girl, she can't have missed me, camera to my eye and is glaring at me pointing a camera at her for the four shots I took, so that's part of the photo -- forever enshrined.

Yes, I do have an effect, although I try to minimize it.

I do such things as walk down a street, spy a scene, turn completely the other way and pretend to photograph street scenes across the street, or nearby, then at the last minute turn (with one eye open surveying the spied scene) and capture the wanted scene -- much to the surprise, sometimes, often with a smile on my subjects, sometimes a frown. (If a girl a guy often gives me a 'thumbs up'. Pretty girls are common here, extraordinarily beautiful, and flaunt it, and the guys here live in girl heaven, know it, and revel in it, and the girls make sure they know it.)

I'll walk up to someone with my superwide angle and point it upward to tall buildings, then as the scene unfolds in front of me, suddenly lower my lens and release the shutter, capturing the scene. Or I'll sit pretending to fiddle with settings, then as the scene unfolds, take that photo, and then pretend to fiddle with my camera some more so no one's the wiser. (People will discuss 'did he take our picture?' to which I offer them no guidance.)

Other times, photographing babies with parents, I'm much more straightforward, offering 'views' on my screen for the proud parents, etc. Often if I get a good one, I'll share it with my subject if it's flattering or very good and interesting.

Often I'll get a thumbs up and the word 'Klass' in return -- a very high compliment from Ukrainians (in Russian language)

People on the street here know GOOD photography when they see it, generally and many take good digicam photos.

I constantly get asked to take photos, sometimes decline and sometimes agree, although sometimes I'll just press the noisy depth of field preview button to satisfy my requesters into believing their photo has been taken. People push e-mail addresses and even offer what they think is 'large money' -- $5.00 -- for a photo, which I always defer.

At 'crowd' events, people will 'act' for the camera and the way around that is to turn your back on them or give them a 'thumbs up' to indicate they've been captured and they quiet down (then go about getting the 'real' captures instead of them hooting and hollering.

In other matters, I'm aware of DXO optics and their lens correction softwar, but I'm not that advanced and they've generally morphed (changed) into a RAW conversion software company because of demand according to Digital Photography Review's latest edition, though their software in that regard allegedly needs 'work'. I've begun shooting NEF (raw) but it takes HUGE space and I already have maybe 25 hard drives full of captures and albums and albums of DVDs (duplicated).

This is a 'raw' shot almost entirely unmanipulated -- not even 'sharpened' I think, though converted by Photoshop into a .PSD file.

(Did you see my post above about her leg continuing the 'field stripe?'

As to journalism, it's a dying field. Henri Cartier-Bresson killed my hopes as a photographer because my work tended to resemble his as a youth when his giant exhibition filled a San Francisco Museum in 1969 as I was hired as a photographer at Associated Press (and changed into a writer by them).

I couldn't figure out how I could produce so many 'great' photos in a lifetime, and simply gave up my dreams, knowing he had 'already done it'. Now I'm back, and what the heck, I'll put in my two cents worth.

What I didn't know what was that Cartier-Bresson's work had dried up. He could no longer sell as usual and was selling prints at museums to finance his retirement. (Had I only known.)

But newspaper photography is a dying breed; television/film is not. Keep your

'day job' no matter what, as photographers starve unless they're the fashion photographers (the top 10% make 90% of the money like in many professions, and in news, it is important to belong to a union, but even they cannot fight when a newspaper says it's going bankrupt or closing an edition in a certain city and making 'redundant' its photographic staff.

I think photo blogging may be a way to go. I have some ideas about approaching some big search engines which may need 'content' and I live nearby them so, since I travel the world and write and get interesting images, that is one avenue worth exploring now that I have a track record.

Also, yesterday I shot fashion models in a studio (stunning women from an agency) and all freeform -- no products to sell. They were most nice and it adds to my repertoire.

I want to be able to say 'I can take everything' (including nudes).

If you're shy, you may need to take personal inventory before you venture into photo (or other) journalism as it's a pretty bawdy bu

You're definitively THE most prolific writer I've ever read on PN. I've read your response before its edition (several times) and I read again it now (several times again : )) - I have to say, I wish my English to be more natural).
You're quite an interesting guy John! and looks like your life isn't a boring one at all.

Yes, I saw your point about her leg continuing the field stripe... one more point in this very rich composition! This photo is exceptionally complete.

Concerning my dreams about journalism, I like to think that will remain a dream, something I'll never reach. If one day my photography allows me to earn some more money, that will be great - of course - if not, not a problem, I don't have in mind to be live thanks to photography. BTW I don't feel able and, as an utopian, my life must include some out of reach dreams : ))
That's nevertheless possible that I make some websites soon to present some of my work in a more personnal way: one for my photography and another about the wonderful countryside I have the chance to live in. I'm thinking about this since a while but not had the good impulse yet.

What really made excited some weeks ago is that I've been got in touch with a local association in order to cover their next festival (next year). They saw what I took on their previous event (see my Aicontis folder) and they liked my way (and post prod work I made). I feel honoured, photography is just a hobby for me and I was using only a compact full-auto camera - out of order now... - so I'll be for them - and first time for me - a "photo-journalist". Wow! what an upgrade! LOL
Of course, I'm planning to get a complete DLSR system to replace my poor camera and this first experience will be a great one for me to improve my skills and to try to answer to a specific order. I wish this DSLR will let me more freedom to limit post prod work (mainly on DOF). I also prefer unmanipulated shot but my previous camera wasn't good enough to adjust white balance and to get colours nicely (no speaking about the huge vignetting and the poor quality using longest focal length...)

Regarding shyness, the fact is that I did not like to "show" my work or to explain it. That's a bit easier for me actually since I use PN : ))

About a week or two later, looking back, it's amazing to me how this scene, which unfolded 'around the corner' from me as I walked down nearby Karla Marksa (Karl Marks) Prospekt (Avenue), saw this young miss and her dog, then saw her brace herself against the wall next to the photo, raised my camera and documented the whole processs, from beginning to ened with four photos (correcting my first -- good -- photo with a second -- better -- one).

Cartier-Bresson wanted to call himself a 'surreal photographer' because he believed he captured a 'surreal' world; the 'surrealness' in my opinion, and in retrospect, may actually belong to the reactions which enable such a capture.

Yann, thanks for the accolade about my quickness of mind/ it's an instinct for which I have little consciousness -- my mind takes over control. The extra half point was the ultimate compliment.

When I practiced law, sometimes I couldn't pinpoint what was 'wrong' with a case that was keeping me from pushing it forward, but somewhere, deep in my intestines I got 'funny feelings' about this case or that, and sometimes only years later would I have sudden insight into a 'fatal weakness' that often could be remedied, and since when I had that feeling I put my cases on ice, then, when I solved the source of that 'funny feeling' I was able to present them successfully for substantial monetary rewards and satisfaction all around.

I called that 'intestional upset' 'gut instinct' -- the ability of my whole being to analyze something so entirely complex as to defy conventional analysis, but something told me that I would not then like the outcome as such cases then were pointed. By waiting, often for inspiration, I often was able to pinpoint a weakness, and move forward and resolve the case favorably for my client.

What you probably are looking at in this photo is the consummation of that 'gut instinct' and its transfer successfully into the world of photography.

Law is viewed somewhat as a science by most practitioners but I viewed it as an art, as I often did not follow conventional formulae; relying on building new edifices from mastery of basics, and often arrived at favorable ends in ways that no one else ever did. I was proud of that, but few understood it,, and my fellow attorneys often scratched their heads, wondering 'why did you do 'thus and so' or fail to move forward, when it was clear to me that I needed to move differently from mainstream practitioners.

In a way, I march to a different drummer; in law I could always point to results and ask 'any argument' with successs? (except in those few cases where success was elusive, often because facts were elusively against us or laws changed).

In photography, I don't think anyone else's photos here or elsewhere look like mine; I'll never have any imitator or be an imitator much as I'd like to shoot like Cartier-Bresson (except during his Moscow years when he obviously was bored to tears, probably followed by 'minders' from the KGB and taking stale, boring photos of apartment blocks, snow, broken earth and starkness everywhere -- none of which is famous because they were undeserving -- people were noticeably absent -- credit the presence of the KGB -- state's very repressive and feared police which could cause death if offended).

This photo is the culmination, to date, of the 'gut' level of my intelligence applied to 'street shooting', I think, together with propitious circumstances.

But what really is 'surreal' about this photograph is not the 'subject' but the ease and earnestness with which I quickly moved in and captured this elusive 'big game' of a photo before quickly moving on (smile on my face) looking forward to the next capture.

And more perplexing is that this does not show immediately as a 'great capture' to the great unwashed -- it defies easy analysis and is not obviously 'great' except to the experienced 'street shooter' or photo critic, I think. (maybe not all of them, either -- and it's not a 'strong photo' -- relying primarily on its intellectual content.

A United Airlines pilot before a flight from Munich (a 777 with 13 -- yes 13 -- passengers in the middle of a summer with FIFA matches going on and planes in short supply -- a 'ferry flight' -- repositioning the aircraft -- spent time preflight viewing my photos from Ukraine recently.

His comment: 'It seems that you have to have your intellect engaged to really understand your [my] photos'. I took it as a very high compliment from a man who I had perceived had enormous intellect (before he viewed my portfolio of Ukraine photos).

So, this photo may be an anomaly -- a 'great' photo only in an intellectual sense or in my own mind, perhaps, that may have others scratching their heads, saying quietly to themselves' what's wrong with this guy? That's his 'best work'? What the heck is that anyway, and where's the subject?'

Maybe it'll just be my (and Yann's and Cristina's) little secret.

That's O.K.

John (Crosley)

I forgot to mention that the photographic device on which this photo depends is something I call 'mirroring', never having seen it named in a composition text -- I can't imagine any other name for the device, however, and presume that it has that name 'formally'.

John (Crosley)

I did not have a good caption when I posted this and wanted to call attention to the mirroring effect of the young girl's leg to the field stripe, her crossed leg to the athlete's crossed leg and the dog to the fallen player(s).

In effect now this photo has reminded me of Lewis Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass' -- 'Alice in Wonderland'

Here the effect is not that she actually goes 'through the looking glass, exactly, but that that is no real boundary, despite the obvious window and heavy wall that separates her and the photo characters.

In effect, this photo shows the transcendence by the characters of the heavy wall and window of the building -- literally, although the building 'supports the young girl' it is disregarded in the photo's composition.

It's sort of a schizophrenic photo; the building is physical, real and solid and represents a real barrier, but in the photo sense the building serves as a support for her, but otherwise seems evanescent -- she and her dog merge into the composition of the window photo, though she in color and the window photo in black and white.

Food for thought?

'Through the Looking Glass'

John (Crosley)

Thanks,

You are one of the finest writers on Photo.net; perhaps THE finest critique writer, and favor from you is something I treasure.

John (Crosley)

I did not just walk past this young girl and raise my camera to take a photo. It's more complicated than that.

I was walking somewhere nearby, at a sidewalk intersection with this street, when I spied this girl put her arm against the wall down this sidewalk at right angles to the direction I was walking. I turned left.

Something in me saw 'photo potential' in a way I am not sure I could then have articulated to myself, but whatever it was, it was pleasing to me. It said 'photo potential'.

I approached, she looked up, I took a photo, the first photo was not the best because there was not enough separation between her dog and her leg(s), then the dog moved rightward, so I took this second photo, and later took one or two other photos and at the end, took a final photograph to document the scene's sudden deconstruction -- it fell apart as fast as it 'constructed'.

How did I recognize its potential?

(If you're asking yourself, 'What is so interesting about this photo?' or 'What the hell is he writing about?', just pass on this discussion)

I don't know precisely, but I've reviewed the life's work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, and other famous photojournalists and magazine photographers of his day plus countless other photographers in various genres, reviewed to death all the photos I've ever taken, especially those posted here (in self-critique, not self-admiration), and over time as I photograph, I sometimes enter 'THE ZONE' where I become one with THE CAMERA and THE PHOTOGRAPH and at the moment I saw this girl, the display photo/window, and her dog, I was in THE ZONE.

I guess that's enough explanation.

Any athlete who's ever been in THE ZONE or other professional who also enters a 'ZONE' will understand what I'm writing about.

If you've never been in a 'ZONE' you'll just have to hope someday it happens to you. The world transforms before you and your camera, and suddenly photo opportunities arise almost everywhere, almost as if by magic.

John (Crosley)