OOOO KRAIY UHHH EEEEN UHHH!!!!! ( Repeat Three Times) (Ukraine - chant)

The word above is the name of the country (Ukraine) as drawn out

into a sports chant -- here the FIFA cup before a FIFA game with

Ukraine playing Spain, which was televised on a giant outdoor

television screen in Dnepropetrovsk (pop. about 1.5 mill.) Your

rating and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate

harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive

critique/Please share your superior photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

These guys generally would be depicted (as all football/soccer fans) with a bottle of 'piver' (beer), the Ukrainian national drink, (along with vodka) available to anyone with enough money to pay for it.

 

Even an eight-year-old can buy a bottle of beer, it seems.. I've had dinner with a 17-year-old, many times (Dasha), and each time she had a martini, no questions asked. It's normal and she didn't drink to excess or even become intoxicated.

 

However, young men with sporting events, generally drink to 'get drunk' and experience being 'out of control' although police are everywhere, quick to place anyone a litle 'out of control' 'back in control' and the thought of a Ukrainian jail leaves the most drunk, sober once again -- and law-abiding, and if that person is too drunk, his friends will drag him away from trouble and possible incarceration.

 

I've only seen two or three fights in many months and many trips; their women keep them calm -- one advantage of beautiful young women who want to get married early and have kids by 23. They also fear the police who are restrained, but if anyone were to lash out at police, I would fear the results.

 

John (Crosley)

Football and beer seem to go together well most anywhere. I really like the picture, the bright colors, the fans looking right into your lens. Although I too am a "yank" I have enjoyed a pint (or two or three) in several small English pubs while watching the locals watching football. That "people watching" was one of my favorite things to do on a trip to Europe. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Ron

I regret Ron that this isn't more stunning closeup than from a distance, as they didn't do a good job with their face paint -- it detracts.

 

And the guy left, looks almost like a girl, but other views seem to show him as a guy, just young.

 

Anyway, they were fun to shoot, and only for a few seconds as they walked through this particular city's town center/square.

 

Most people beg me to photograph them there; some get downright upet if I won't.

 

Go figure and compare to the blase Americans.

 

International travel is very helpful for one's personal horizons.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

John (Crosley)

The photographic device used here, is 'mirroring' or repetition, if one uses a more frequently-used term, just in case a reader needs to be 'knocked over the head'.

 

It's important for this photo that the two are NOT lined up side by side, but instead recede into the background alone a sort of line to the left vanishing point and they're are the head of the vanishing point, but to the side, for emphasis. The 'unknowing' or inchoate use of compositional devices is something, that once it becomes 'unknowing' allows one to work quickly, and promptly to visualize 'that shot'.

 

The disadvantage of not being able to articulate the device being used is that it can often be overlooked, and the photo itself can escape being taken except if one happens to have built-in reflexes to call forth that particular photographic device in response to the circumstances.

 

What do you think?

 

John (Crosley)